"(It's) a unicorn event," village attorney James Vasselli told the Daily Herald in April. Allstate had gone to court to take its former headquarters land out of South Barrington. A little more than a year after that, it petitioned to be annexed back in. Vasselli said he had never heard of a property owner doing that.
The land is a roughly 67-acre triangle at the southeast corner of Higgins and Bartlett roads, just north of the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway. It sits across the intersection from The Arboretum of South Barrington, with the South Barrington Office Center to its east. For anyone looking at homes near Higgins, Route 59 or Bartlett, its back-and-forth shows how this corridor works. In 2026, South Barrington competed with Hoffman Estates for the land because the village that annexes it gets a direct role in guiding what's built, and along this stretch the land has already moved between jurisdictions once.
Why an owner would leave a village
The site has been empty a long time. Allstate razed its buildings after it consolidated its corporate operations in Northbrook in 2012, and it still owns the land.
In 2022, Texas-based Hillwood proposed a complex called Gateway 90 for the site. The Daily Herald reported five buildings totaling 647,790 square feet, and officials said it would be the largest industrial complex in the village. The plan needed rezoning and special-use approval for office, warehouse, distribution, product-processing and data-center uses. Before the April 2022 hearing, the mayor said the developer still had work to do to convince officials the complex would benefit South Barrington.
Allstate filed to disconnect the land from the village in 2023, and a Cook County judge granted it in February 2025. That put the property in unincorporated Cook County, where it remains today. Then Hillwood's plan fell apart. The Daily Herald put it this way: the land left the village "ahead of a redevelopment plan that later evaporated."
So the owner had gone to considerable effort to get out from under the village's review, and the project it got out for never arrived.
Why it came back: Hoffman Estates had a head start
After the disconnection, the land sat in unincorporated Cook County with two villages bordering it. When Opus, the next developer, took up the site, it started by talking with Hoffman Estates. The mayor's June 12 message describes Hoffman Estates as the project's "original destination" for months.
At the June 24 Plan Commission hearing, according to the hearing transcript, Opus told commissioners it had spent two months with Hoffman Estates, which "had a head start." Then South Barrington's mayor and village attorney called and asked Opus to annex into South Barrington. The Opus representative said the company would "go with the clearest path." In his words, the village "won us over." In her June 12 message to residents, Mayor Paula McCombie said plainly what the village was competing for:
"Re-annexing this property into South Barrington rather than Hoffman Estates means our community will have a direct role in guiding its future and we will have a seat at the table."
That's from the June 12 mayor's message, which also cited possible property tax revenue and water and sanitary sewer improvements for the area. Allstate formally petitioned for annexation on April 7.
Re-annexation also changes the zoning conversation. At the June hearing, Vasselli said the industrial, logistics and warehouse uses rest on an earlier legislative decision by the village. He said Opus wasn't asking for rezoning or for fundamentally different uses. It was asking for extensions, clarifications and final site-plan approval.
What Opus has put on the table
Opus proposes three light-industrial buildings, two fewer than Hillwood's plan. At the June 24 hearing, Opus gave the total as 755,000 square feet, which is more floor area than Hillwood's five buildings. It described the phases as roughly 370,000, 260,000 and 126,000 square feet, with the smallest building on the north and west side of the site. The hearing transcript places the three buildings this way:
| Building | Where it sits | Which way it faces |
|---|---|---|
| A | The smaller building farther to the west | Truck docks face an internal truck court, away from residents |
| B | The largest building | Truck docks face the same internal truck court |
| C | Along I-90 | Front entrance faces the tollway |
The architect also said the buildings would initially be "speculative," with corner entrances designed for two or three tenants each. In other words, no tenant has been named. Opus also told the commission it expected to stagger construction instead of building all three at once. Someone buying nearby this fall can know what the buildings will look like but not who will be in them.
Decided versus pending, as of mid-October 2026
The annexation and the TIF ordinances are the votes that would actually settle the project, and neither has happened.
- June 24, 2026: The Plan Commission recommended approval of the requested items for board consideration.
- July 9, 2026: The village board unanimously approved an ordinance granting land-use relief within the existing planned-unit-development zoning.
- August 24, 2026: A Joint Review Board voted 5–1 to recommend the Higgins Corridor TIF plan. Members represented the village, Barrington Area Unit District 220, Harper College, the South Barrington Park District, Barrington Township and the public. District 220's representative cast the lone no vote.
- September 17, 2026: The TIF public hearing was held and closed. The minutes note no written objections, and District 220 representatives asked for financial projections and budget-impact information.
- Still pending: The annexation vote, the TIF ordinances, a completed sale to Opus and a construction schedule. The October 8 board agenda listed no TIF adoption ordinance. Vasselli has said the ordinances must be introduced between 14 and 90 days after the hearing, and he expects a board vote on the TIF plan by early 2027.
The TIF would be the village's first. It covers about 100 acres bounded generally by Higgins Road, I-90 and Bartlett Road. According to the August 28 mayor's message, that area includes the former Allstate property and the neighboring office properties along Higgins. The Daily Herald explains how it works: revenue from rising property value or new development inside the district goes into a fund that pays for infrastructure and other projects in that same zone, for up to 23 years. The paper also called the TIF "a key part of Opus' plan." That's why the overlapping taxing districts have a formal say before the village votes, and why District 220 asked for numbers.
Across Route 72, South Barrington had only a public comment
Plum Farms is a 186-acre property north of Route 72 and west of Route 59, inside Hoffman Estates and across from the Woods of South Barrington. The owner, Karis Critical, doing business as H.E. Holdings LLC, asked Hoffman Estates for M-2 zoning that would permit a data center. According to the June 5 mayor's message, McCombie addressed the Hoffman Estates Plan Commission to voice South Barrington's opposition. She argued that M-2 zoning on that corner conflicted with the two villages' shared work to make the area a destination for retail, dining and entertainment. More than 400 people attended, and every speaker opposed the change.
The commission voted 4–2 against on June 3. The Hoffman Estates board never voted on the merits. The Village of Hoffman Estates reported that the owner withdrew the request in writing on June 30. The existing TN and C-MU zoning stays in place, and any future request has to start a new process. NPR Illinois noted that the request included no detailed data-center site plan. The Daily Herald reported that Karis said it would reconsider its proposals.
So on two big parcels across Higgins from each other, South Barrington's influence comes from opposite places. On one, it could end up holding the vote. On the other, it could only argue in front of a neighboring village's commission.
Reading a Higgins corridor address before writing an offer
For a buyer, this doesn't call for a guess about future home values. It calls for knowing which body makes the decisions near a given street, and checking where those decisions stand.
- Find out which municipality has jurisdiction over the nearby open parcels. The Allstate land is unincorporated Cook County until an annexation vote happens. Plum Farms is in Hoffman Estates.
- Read the agendas. South Barrington posts its village board agendas and a separate TIF agenda and minutes page, and it's where the TIF ordinances will show up when they're introduced.
- Read the transcript for site orientation. The June 24 Plan Commission transcript says where docks face, which tree line stays and which building fronts I-90. A house's position relative to the truck court matters more than the project's total square footage.
- Expect a sequence of approvals, with no fixed construction date yet. Opus has described staggered construction, the buildings are speculative, and the TIF vote is expected by early 2027.
This post is general information about public proceedings and is not legal, tax or financial advice. If a pending annexation or TIF could affect a property you're considering, confirm the details with an attorney or tax professional.
If you're weighing a home near Higgins, Bartlett or Route 59 and want to see where it sits relative to these parcels, Tara Kelleher can walk the corridor with you and go through the latest village filings before you make an offer. Sellers in the area can ask for a home valuation and staging plan that accounts for what's proposed across the road.
