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LEGOLAND interested in development seeking tax breaks at Glen Carbon, Ill.
POST-DISPATCH SPRINGFIELD BUREAU
By Kevin McDermott
10/23/2009
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A European company is quietly talking with Illinois
officials about tax incentives to build a $200 million LEGOLAND amusement park
in the Glen Carbon area, the Post-Dispatch has learned.
The Legislature could decide next week on the fate of a controversial tax
incentive bill that could make or break the deal.
The amusement park would be part of the already proposed University Town Center,
envisioned as a 900-acre mall.
Glen Carbon Mayor Robert Jackstadt confirmed Thursday “that I have had meetings
with representatives of LEGOLAND regarding the UTC project.” He declined to
elaborate.
Kelly Kraft, a spokeswoman for Gov. Pat Quinn, confirmed that when the governor
was in Copenhagen this month with the U.S. delegation to the Olympic committee,
“He ran into these people from LEGOLAND, and they told him what they wanted to
do.”
LEGOLAND owners previously talked with officials in Columbia, Ill., about a
site there, but it fell through in 2007 because of controversy over proposed tax
incentives.
A source close to the Glen Carbon talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity
because of the ongoing negotiations, said the facility would be built by the
owners of LEGOLAND amusement parks in Carlsbad, Calif., and three European
locations.
It would be a $200 million project that could draw 1 million people a year and
create 150 full-time and 800 seasonal jobs, said the source, who noted, “They
want a Midwest location.”
The UTC project, spearheaded by Bruce Holland, of Holland Construction, has
stirred controversy in the Metro East and Springfield. The investors — who
include John Costello, the son of U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Ill. — want the
state to essentially forgive all sales taxes there so the revenue could pay off
bonds to build it.
A bill creating that unprecedented “STAR” (sales tax revenue) bond arrangement
passed the Legislature earlier this year, but Quinn, citing an estimated $15
million annual loss in revenue to the state, issued an amendatory veto to cut
the tax break in half.
Holland has said the change could kill the plan. Lawmakers will decide next week
whether to override the veto, or possibly reach some compromise.
A STAR bonds opponent, state Sen. Kyle McCarter, R-Highland, said the LEGOLAND
angle doesn’t sway his view. “I have a real hard time making corporate welfare a
priority right now,” he said.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/illinoisnews/story/4FEA78A26BF573698625765800047E7A?OpenDocument
-end of report-
This is just the news media reporting. There is no truth there will be a
LEGOLAND park in the state of Illinois. In the past years there have been
reports of LEGOLAND park to be built in Virginia, Kansas, and Florida.
Currently there are two LEGOLAND parks in development outside of the United
States. They are LEGOLAND Malaysia and LEGOLAND Dubailand. However, LEGOLAND
Dubailand has been push back or delayed until the economy gets better.
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