LTHS To Reap Windfall With Land Sale

LA GRANGE, IL – Last year, Bridge Industrial offered to pay $55 million for Lyons Township High School's 70 acres in Willow Springs. That was money the school hoped to use to upgrade its two campuses.

But after residents' opposition, the school board abandoned the idea of selling to such a buyer. Industrial uses are not allowed under Willow Springs' zoning.

The village made clear that it would require a new property owner to follow the zoning code, which allows residential and small retailing uses.

However, that could mean far less income for the school.

In January, Atlanta-based Pulte Homes submitted an unsolicited offer of $18.8 million for the wooded land. The firm said it wanted to build 97 ranch homes and 96 townhomes there.

Whatever the use, the school is set to gain a lot from its original purchase of the land. In 1955 and 1962, the school bought the land in two phases, for a total of $355,000.

If the land's value increased with inflation since 1962, it would now be worth $3.6 million. That's according to the federal inflation calculator.

Even at $18.8 million, the school will have gained more than five times the original investment.

However, investors may argue that the $355,000 would have been better invested elsewhere since 1960.

If the school had invested $355,000 in the S&P 500 in 1962, it would have grown to $158 million, with all dividends reinvested, according to the calculator on the Dollars and Data website. Adjusted for inflation, the amount would have grown to $15 million.

The reason that land values rose so much in the Chicago area over the last six decades is population growth.

While Chicago's population fell by nearly a quarter since 1960, Cook County as a whole grew 4 percent. The populations of suburban DuPage and Will counties tripled.

Willow Springs, meanwhile, more than doubled.