A seven-story residential and commercial building is set to be built on Waukegan Road in Morton Grove now that a long-time existing building there has been torn down, Morton Grove officials say.
An obsolete office building existed there for more than 50 years even though there still had been a few remaining tenants in the building as late as August, said Morton Grove Village Administrator Ralph Czerwinski. The development project, however, had been in the works for some two years, he said, so occupancy in the building, located in the 8700 block of Waukegan Road, had been dwindling knowing what was coming.
Demolition of the building occurred in November and December to clear the way for construction of the new development, he said.
The torn-down building was once home to a Ford diagnostic center and then a bank, but it had been a skeleton of its old self in recent years, Czerwinski said.
“This is a major project for the village and hopefully it will spur other development in the (Waukegan Road Corridor),” Czerwinski said.
Estimated to cost $55 million, the new development will include seven stories with 184 luxury apartment units along with 14,000 square-feet of commercial space, according to the village.
“The redevelopment of this property with these amazing luxury apartments and new commercial space is one of, if not the largest redevelopment projects within the village of Morton Grove in the past several years,” said Morton Grove Mayor Dan DiMaria during a ceremony last year before the demolition took place.
The project is being overseen by Heartland Real Estate Partners, which DiMaria said has “an incredible track record for building and managing highly desirable residential and commercial developments.”
Village leaders anticipate that the project will generate nearly $900,000 per year in new real estate taxes as well as new sales tax revenues. In addition to improving the streetscape along Waukegan Road, they said, it will create 150 jobs during construction and 20 new permanent ones.
“In my 60 years of building projects all over the United States, I’ve never had the kind and good reception that we’ve had in Morton Grove, and I really appreciate that,” said Heartland Real Estate Partners President David Husman at the same ceremony.
According to Heartland Real Estate Partners, the construction will be performed in phases with the residential structure to be built first.
Czerwinski said the next step is creating architectural drawings and securing proper permits for the construction phase.
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Heartland Real Estate Partners estimated groundbreaking for construction to begin in May and occupancy of the building in fall of 2018.
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