Lake Zurich to consider plan for Kmart site in December
Mark Hoffman says he understands if passers-by on Rand Road in Lake Zurich see the long-vacant, unsightly Kmart and wonder if the building's owner has been trying to find a remedy.
Hoffman is development director for New Jersey-based Garden Homes, which bought Kmart's lease when the retailer was thriving in Lake Zurich in 1987. Garden Homes took ownership after the Kmart closed in 2002, he said, but its best efforts to fill the structure resulted in only a couple of tentative deals with national retailers that fell apart.
"I can personally say we have given it the old college try," said Hoffman, who has been involved with the roughly 7-acre site since 1995.
But Hoffman and Garden Homes this month will seek final Lake Zurich village board approval for a plan to demolish the structure and replace it with apartments and commercial space. A similar idea several years ago was not embraced by a previous Lake Zurich regime, he said.
"We've come up with a plan that we think is exciting," Hoffman said. "I think it looks very nice."
Under a revised proposal, Garden Homes would build 162 luxury apartments - down from an originally estimated 175 - on the land across the street from Paulus Park. It calls for three 4-story apartment buildings and an 18,000-square-foot retail center, including restaurants.
Hoffman said the formula for apartments and retail has worked at other former Kmart sites revived by Garden Homes and its subsidiaries in Florida and elsewhere.
But some skepticism about building apartments in the Rand Road corridor was voiced at a meeting of the advisory planning and zoning commission last month.
Commission member Ildiko Schultz questioned whether the 162 units proposed by Garden Homes would be too many after 48 apartments were approved for downtown Lake Zurich on the northwest corner of Old Rand Road and Main Street.
"We don't have trains," said Schultz, who was a dissenter in the panel's 5-2 vote to recommend approval of the plan. "We don't have public transportation. We don't have employers that draw a lot of people."
Stephanie Halen, whose husband, Jeffrey, is a village trustee, also contended at the planning and zoning commission session that a mix of apartments and retail would not be a good fit in the Rand Road corridor just north of Route 22.
Village board trustees are expected to consider the proposal at a meeting Monday, Dec. 19. The planning and zoning commission recommend approval of the project with certain conditions, including a timeline for the Kmart's demolition and construction of speed bumps or other traffic devices on the site.
Hoffman said nearby Paulus Park and a Jewel-Osco and restaurants that would border the apartments would be reasons to live there.
Kmart operated on Rand Road for about 20 years until it closed. Lake Zurich was part of Kmart's closure of 283 stores throughout the country in 2002, including 14 in the Chicago area.