Village of Tinley Park issued the following announcement on Jan. 4.

The Tinley Park Village Board on Thursday approved an Exclusive Negotiation Rights Agreement (ENRA) with Melody Square, LLC in relation to developing the 280-acre Tinley Park Mental Health Center (TPMHC) property at 183rd Street and Harlem Avenue.

Melody Square was one of three qualified development partners identified through a request for proposals (RFP) issued in November 2017. To advance the development and potential acquisition process for the TPMHC property, the Village’s retained consultant, SB Friedman, recommended to enter into the ENRA with Melody Square.

The agreement will allow the Village and developer to continue to explore acquisition options for the property for a period of six months. Also during this time period, the Village and Melody Square, LLC will continue to negotiate and discuss land use and incentive proposals. Any final agreements and/or zoning entitlements will eventually be reviewed by the Plan Commission and the Village Board.

The purpose of the ENRA is to allow both parties to negotiate; it doesn’t commit the Village to the plans, product mix or incentive requests presented in Melody Square’s RFP.

The Village also cited several reasons why Melody Square was chosen, including being only one of two developers that provided detailed plans and the fact they included input they received from the public input process in their plan. The group also has already been working on the project for a number of years, having put together a full team of nationally recognized home builders, several of which have experience locally. In addition, Melody Square focused primary on senior housing and, in general, presented less housing units than the other detailed proposal.

Before development can begin, however, the land needs to be obtained from the State of Illinois, which currently owns it.

“The Village is working closely with the State on how we can best acquire the land for development,” Village Manager Dave Niemeyer said. “We’ll be updating the public on this process as it develops.”

For more information, please visit www.TinleyPark.org/CurrentProjects.

Original source can be found here.