(70 ILCS 520/8) (from Ch. 85, par. 6158)

Sec. 8. (a) The Authority may, but need not, acquire title to any project with respect to which it exercises its authority.

(b) The Authority shall have power to acquire by purchase, lease, gift or otherwise any property or rights therein from any person or persons, the State of Illinois, any municipal corporation, any local unit of government, the government of the United States and any agency or instrumentality of the United States, any body politic or any county useful for its purposes, whether improved for the purposes of any prospective project or unimproved. The Authority may also accept any donation of funds for its purposes from any such source. The Authority may acquire any real property, or rights therein, upon condemnation. The acquisition by eminent domain of such real property or any interest therein by the Authority shall be in the manner provided by the Eminent Domain Act, including Article 20 thereof (quick-take power).

The Authority shall not exercise any quick-take eminent domain powers granted by State law within the corporate limits of a municipality unless the governing authority of the municipality authorizes the Authority to do so. The Authority shall not exercise any quick-take eminent domain powers granted by State law within the unincorporated areas of a county unless the county board authorizes the Authority to do so.

(c) The Authority shall have power to develop, construct and improve, either under its own direction or through collaboration with any approved applicant, or to acquire through purchase or otherwise any project, using for such purpose the proceeds derived from its sale of revenue bonds, notes or other evidences of indebtedness or governmental loans or grants and to hold title in the name of the Authority to such projects.

(d) The Authority shall have the power to enter into intergovernmental agreements with the State of Illinois, the counties of Bond, Clinton, Madison, Monroe, and St. Clair, the Southwest Regional Port District, the Illinois Finance Authority, the Illinois Housing Development Authority, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, the United States government and any agency or instrumentality of the United States, the city of East St. Louis, any unit of local government located within the territory of the Authority or any other unit of government to the extent allowed by Article VII, Section 10 of the Illinois Constitution and the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act.

(e) The Authority shall have the power to share employees with other units of government, including agencies of the United States, agencies of the State of Illinois and agencies or personnel of any unit of local government.

(f) The Authority shall have the power to exercise powers and issue bonds as if it were a municipality so authorized in Divisions 12.1, 74, 74.1, 74.3 and 74.5 of Article 11 of the Illinois Municipal Code.

(Source: P.A. 103-517, eff. 8-11-23.)