The deal involves a 20-year ground lease with two 20-year options between the city and Washington Street Aviation, LLC, an entity owned by ATA. Besides building a 200,000-sf training facility for $30 million, the airline also will eventually sublease land to other developers who will add a hotel, restaurant and retail space along Cicero Avenue.
Most of the proceeds from a $22-million revenue bond will be used to buy the site and prepare it for development. About 87% of the interest will be paid by the ground lease, under terms of the deal.
Other details of the deal include the airline sponsoring a local Little League team with a $1,000 donation as well as providing 200 airline tickets, worth an estimated $232,000, to the Starlight Foundation. The group provides gifts to terminally ill children.
Meanwhile, local taxing bodies will see property tax revenue increase from $320,000 a year to $2.3 million annually by 2004, according to department of planning and development estimates.
"It's a statement not only for the Southwest Side, but the whole city," says James Capraro, executive director of the Greater Southwest Development Corp. "This is an area that has been in a deep, deep decline. What you're seeing is the transformation of a piece of land that found its highest and best use in the 1940s…and has been deteriorating ever since."
ATA has hired Mesirow Stein to oversee development of the facility that will allow it to consolidate the training of pilots – now done in nine locations – and flight attendants – now done in three venues – under one roof.
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