A 127-acre parcel of land in the north suburb of Northbrook was purchased by the DuPage County Water Commission to the tune of $80 million, in order to construct a water pipeline between Lake Michigan and the county.
The land, part of the now-closed Green Acres Country Club, has gone undeveloped for nearly a decade. After closing the 2016 and two failed purchase attempts to buy the club and surrounding land in 2017, it was bought by two Chicago area developers.
David Kahnweiler and Scott Goodman closed the deal on the former golf course in April 2018, unsure what to do with the more than 500,000 square meters of land they’d just acquired.
For six years ideas were tossed around from open park space to a senior living home, before finally being bought out by DuPage County.
The land grab came three months after the county extended its agreement with the City of Chicago to access water from Lake Michigan for another 17 years, a deal that nets the city $4.54 per 1,000 gallons of water.
Chicago has a similar agreement with many of the surrounding municipalities including Joliet which, according to the DuPage Water Commission, pays $2.50-$3 per gallon.
“The shorter contract reflects our intention to explore all options for providing water services to our nearly 1 million residents in the most effective manner possible,” James Zay, Chairman of the DuPage Water Commission said in a February news release.
Large unused plots like these have become rarer as a result of data and distribution centers encroaching, putting greater value on the land itself, Zay said in a news release Wednesday.
“The economics now present an opportunity for a new regional system to be constructed which will position suburban communities in northeastern Illinois to manage water resources in a way which provides improved governance and ensures rate stability for future generations of Lake Michigan water consumers,” General Manager of the DuPage Water Commission said in a news release.
Preliminary plans for a pipeline haven’t been drafted and a project of this scale will take years and billions of dollars to get off the ground, according to officials familiar with the plans.
Due to the scale of the plans, the water commission is looking for outside help including partnerships with regional water wholesalers and suburban municipalities.
Northbrook officials, who a spokesman said were surprised by news of the transaction, will likely discuss the purchase at the Village Board meeting on Tuesday.
Karie Angell Luc, a freelancer, contributed to this story.
