Apartment, retail plan advances for Kmart site in Lake Zurich
A redevelopment plan featuring a mix of apartments and retail space will proceed for a site where a long-closed Kmart sits in Lake Zurich's Rand Road corridor.
Village board members this week voted 5-1 in favor of preliminary approval of the proposal from New Jersey-based Garden Homes. The company will need to return before the village board for final plan approval in the next few months.
Garden Homes development director Mark Hoffman said the roughly 7 acres on Rand Road, just north of Route 22, would be a good fit for 162 luxury apartments and an 18,000-square-foot retail center, including restaurants. Garden Homes tweaked the plan, in part, in response to feedback from village officials and nearby homeowners since January 2016, he said.
Hoffman said Garden Homes plans a dollar investment "north of eight figures" for the Kmart property. The building would be demolished to accommodate the new project.
"Once again, economically, we feel that this project for the village is a project that will energize that commercial corridor that for many years has gotten a bit tired - and by that I am just referencing the Kmart building," he told the village board.
Trustee Jeffrey Halen was the lone objector in the 5-1 vote, saying he doesn't believe the apartments would benefit Lake Zurich. He contends something along the lines of a restaurant cluster should be pursued.
"If I were to ask any person in this village, this board included, I doubt a single person would have said a year ago, before these discussions were happening about Kmart, that residential would have been your No. 1 thing," Halen said. "I even doubt that residential would have been in the top 10 or even a thought. Why? Because it's in a commercial zone."
However, Trustee Marc Spacone said the long-dormant property has much to offer potential residents who would live across the street from Paulus Park and the village's namesake Lake Zurich.
"Apartments going up in Lake Zurich, we're giving them access to a natural resource," Spacone said.
Trustee Greg Weider said the Garden Homes proposal could benefit businesses bordering the Kmart site and re-energize the strip of Rand Road just north of Route 22.
Responding to a resident on why apartments are necessary, Hoffman said Garden Homes has had no success finding another tenant to take over the 80,000-square-foot building that Kmart departed in 2002. Kmart operated in Lake Zurich for about 20 years.