Thomas Place Developer Pulls Out, Village Re-Zones Land

The developer of the controversial Thomas Place Senior Housing project that spurred a lawsuit has pulled out of the project and the village is re-zoning the property for single-family homes, Tinley Park Mayor Ed Zabrocki said Tuesday.

But in a letter to the village, the developer said finances, not the lawsuit, made it pull out of the 100-unit senior apartment complex planned for Harlem Avenue and 179th Street.

The lawsuit was filed by a group of nearby residents calling themselves the Settler's Pond Neighbors and is currently in U.S. District Court. Attorney Stephen Eberhardt could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

At Tuesday night's village board meeting, Zabrocki read from a letter to the village from developer Ryan Companies US Vice President of Development Dan Walsh. The letter was dated Oct. 1.

"Please be advised that Ryan Companies US, Inc. is withdrawing its plans for Tinley Park Senior Apartments, our proposed 100-unit affordable apartment community for independent seniors," the letter read in part. "Our decision not to pursue the project is based on a lack of appropriate financing and evolving (Illinois Housing Development Authority) priorities."

After conventional funding tanked with the economy, the developer went to IHDA for funding, just to find the housing funding agency would be prioritizing lower-income projects and projects in rural areas rather than senior housing projects, said Greg Hannon, chairman of the planning and zoning committee.

In response, the village is reverting the zoning from R7 (high-density residential) to R1 (the single-family residential category with the largest lot size). Hannon said this was so another high-density complex could not take advantage of zoning changes made specifically for Tinley Park Senior Apartments.

"If we did not rescind the current zoning ... we could be open to projects we do not want to see in Tinley Park," Trustee Hannon said.

Hannon said other projects that have stalled due to a lack of financing, like the downtown North Street and South Street developments have not seen such actions taken because the developers haven't fully pulled out, just postponed their projects until the economy improves.

"We keep saying (the projects) are dead, but (the developers) are not out of here," Hannon said.

Zabrocki said several of the variances the Thomas Place developer requested — most importantly a request to use gypsum instead of concrete in the firewalls — were under consideration, but not passed. The firewalls were one of the main issues that spurred the lawsuit, according to Settler's Pond Neighbors.

Zabrocki said several off the variance requests "were giving some of us heartburn," but that the village would be "remiss" if it didn't consider them.

Then the developer was unable to get funding, Zabrocki said.

"Our opinion was why even consider these variances when financing isn't in place," he said.

Hannon said he wasn't surprised there was resistance to the development, but was surprised by how it materialized.

"I am surprised of the amount of people and the tenacity of how they went after it," Hannon said.