During the planning stages for ASC, the Glen Ellyn Park District Board added several features to the building that have increased construction costs (see this memo for details). One of these was an additional $678,561 to increase the width of the building by 47' to accommodate batting cages to be run by the White Sox Training Academy.
The Glen Ellyn Park District plans to rent space to the White Sox Training Academy for $20,000 a year for exclusive use of this space. The proposed budget for the ASC (on page 42) shows this anticipated revenue. The Glen Ellyn Park District will receive no other revenue from the Sox for this space. A final contract has not yet been approved.
The batting cages area is approximately 47' x 138', totaling about 6,486 sq. ft. The entire ASC is 88,248 sq.ft. Since the Sox area is such a large part of the building, I became concerned about the operating costs associated with such a large space.
Looking at the proposed budget for ASC I estimated costs for the Sox area by assuming costs are proportional to square footage. Cleaning will be handled by the Sox, but other building-wide costs (such as utilities, pest control, management, and repairs) total over $20,000 a year.
If the Glen Ellyn Park District goes through with this contract as proposed, the park district will end up subsidizing a for-profit company. We, the taxpayers, will never recover our initial capital expense of $678,561.
I would like to see a solution for this space that covers operating expenses and gives us a reasonable time frame for covering our capital investment.
Discussion on this topic will resume at the August 18 Board Meeting.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
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I don't see how the Park District is acting in the best interest of the community here. The complex, which has grown and grown, was not even a project supported by the residents in the last PD survey. I believe that this new scheme should be reconsidered.
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