Even Higher Bid For LTHS Land In Willow Springs

LA GRANGE, IL – Lyons Township High School received an even higher bid for its Willow Springs land than was publicly known.

On Monday, the school board released a letter from San Francisco-based Prologis, an industrial developer. The company offered $60.5 million.

The letter was dated Feb. 17. That was about a month after the school opened two sealed bids. One of those earlier bids was from Bridge Industrial for the minimum price of $55 million, while the other was from Prologis itself for $46.5 million.

Because the new offer exceeded the minimum price, the school board said in a statement, its lawyer opened a dialogue with Prologis.

Ultimately, the terms and conditions in Prologis' offer did not align with the school's, so officials ended the dialogue, according to the statement.

The board said it remains committed to leveraging its 71 acres in Willow Springs as a way to pay for improvements to its two campuses.

According to the statement, the school is no longer considering any bids at the minimum price or under the previous terms and conditions approved last December.

To sell the property, the board said, it would need to set a new minimum price, approve new terms and conditions, and conduct a sealed bid process.

None of that is likely to occur before the April 4 election, in which the controversy over the land sale has become a big issue.

Coming just hours before the board's regular meeting, the latest statement is part of a pattern. For two months, board members have stayed silent about the issue, instead issuing formal messages to the community.

Meanwhile, most of the candidates in the election have expressed opposition to the board's handling of the land sale. So a new board may not be unanimous in its silence.

Five towns, a school district and a park district have come out in opposition to the school's effort to sell the land to an industrial developer. Local zoning bars such a use.

In February, Patch reported that Superintendent Brian Waterman communicated with Bridge Industrial for eight months before the school announced its interest in selling.

Citing the reporting, Willow Springs' village president called for Waterman's firing.

Recently, the school admitted it broke the state's open meetings law repeatedly when the board met behind closed doors to discuss the land sale last year. The acknowledgment was in response to a complaint filed with the attorney general.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the school bought the Willow Springs land in two phases with the plan of building a third campus. That was during a time of expanding population, but enrollment has stabilized over the last four decades.