August/September Business View Magazine

182 183 and want to develop it. But,when they found out that they had to foot the bill for the water line ex- tension, they chose not to do anything. So, the land is still sitting there unutilized.We believe that this will open up the land for development.” An added boon of more development is that it creates more customers for the Village’s water supply.“We’re a little unique in the south suburbs, in that we have our own water treatment plant,” says Kingma.“We treat and distribute water, ourselves. Many communities in the south suburbs buy water through the city of Chicago and get Lake Michigan water.We actually use water fromwells and treat and distribute it ourselves. So, it’s also our benefit to sell more water.” Zoellner talks about another recent project in their department’s portfolio–the sale and rehabil- itation of a city-owned building: “In 2017, ForeBio Properties LLC acquired 80 North Street,which is a 108,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and a 16,000-square-foot, ten-story office on seven acres.They acquired the property and they’re in the process of completing their mechanical and engi- neering and the first tenant is ForeBio Nutrition, Inc. PARK FOREST, ILLINOIS Theymanufacture a nutriceutical product intended for the domestic and international market.” “We were able to work with our local legislators and the state legislature to get the keystone prop- erty tax bill passed,” she continues.“That bill sets the taxes at that property at land value, only, for the next 12 years.The building had been so deteriorat- ed that it required so much renovation and demoli- tion to bring it back up to code that it was actually more expensive to rehab the property than to build new.But,because it was the largest industrial property in theVillage on one of our busiest streets,it made sense for us to try to preserve the propertyand induce someone to rehabilitate it.It was a 1960’s era,mid-cen- turybuilding,andwewanted to be able to preserve that image once it is rehabilitated.” Kingma talks about yet another instance where the Village decided to assist one of its local busi- nesses,while concurrentlymoving its sustainability agenda, forward.“We have one of the south suburb’s largest waste management companies, Star Dispos- al,” she begins.“It has a waste transfer station and maintenance facility in Park Forest.They decided, a couple of years ago, that they were going to step their toes into converting a portion of their fleet to compressed natural gas (CNG). So, they installed five or six fueling stations and purchased a small number of new trucks that would run on CNG.When they found how this helped them in terms of cost savings, as well as what it did for the environment– the communities that they serve liked it too, be- cause the trucks are much quieter–they wanted to expand even more. “So, the Village sponsored a grant application for a ‘Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality’ grant–the federal grant that comes through our local council of government. I believe they got $4 million dol- lars.We were actually the grantee, but it went to Star Disposal to allow them to expand their fueling stations, both in Park Forest and in Homewood, Illinois,where their headquarters is. So, now, pretty much all of their fleet in the south suburbs is on Serving Chicago’s South Suburbs for over 35 years! www.mjunderground.com // 708-534-6434 26603 Governors Highway Suite #1, Monee, IL 60449 Email: jan@mjunderground.com Estimates: Barry@mjunderground.com, Josh@mjunderground.com We provide the Southern Suburbs of Chicago with a complete range of utility services. Our highly trained professionals are among the best in the industry and are trained to provide you with the solutions you need and the quality you deserve. n Hydro-excavation n Licensed Septic Installation and Repair n Licensed Septic Pumping n Power Rodding n Sanitary Sewer Installation and Repair n Sewer Cleaning and Jetting n Small Paving Jobs n Storm Sewer Installation and Repair n Water Main Installation and Repair n Waterline Installation and Repair Here are just a few of our specialties: For more information on our services, please feel free to contact us: