No Quiet Bid Opening For Willow Springs Land This Time

LA GRANGE, IL – Lyons Township High School officials get it: They realize the public wants to know about the bids for its 70 acres in Willow Springs.

On Tuesday, the school announced it would livestream the bid opening, which is taking place at 6 p.m. next Monday in the school board's meeting room.

The last bid opening for the land was Jan. 11, 2023. It was held during the day. This time, officials asked for an evening event so residents can attend.

Back then, Bridge Industrial, now Kurv Industrial, bid $55 million for the wooded land. Another bidder, Prologis, followed at $46.5 million.

For much of 2022, the school secretly courted industrial developers, though Willow Springs zoning bars such uses on the property. The land is next to houses and an elementary school

In closed meetings, school board members said they wanted to keep their industrial plan as secret for as long as possible. They expected neighbors' wrath.

After the bid opening, an uproar ensued. The board abandoned the process weeks before the April 2023 school board election.

The attorney general later found the board repeatedly violated the open meetings law, prompting the release of closed-session recordings. The board blamed its law firm for the lack of openness.