Wheeling gives early approval to another Dundee Road development

A plan to build an apartment complex with retail space on Dundee Road in Wheeling gained preliminary approval Monday, adding another potential development to the burgeoning thoroughfare.

The village board gave unanimous approval to plans for a 264-unit apartment complex with 12,000 square feet of retail space at the northwest corner Dundee Road and Northgate Parkway. For years, the land near the Metra station has been eyed by developers as an attractive site, including the Wheeling Station mixed-use development that failed to break ground after the Great Recession hit in 2008.

The new development - currently called Uptown 501, though the name will be changed because the address 501 W. Dundee is not available - would join several potential developments in the area. The village board has granted early approval for 45 row homes, apartments and retail space at the northeast corner of Dundee Road and Northgate Parkway. Across the street, the largest development, the Wheeling Town Center, is underway with plans for 300 apartments, restaurants, retail space and a movie theater.

Optimistically, the Uptown development will begin construction by 2018, said Joe Maschek, a land planner for the project. The village board still needs to give approval to final plans.

Village trustees were impressed with the development.

"The design is incredible," Trustee Ray Lang said. "It's unlike something we've seen here, and I think it's going to go very well on that corner."

But the development isn't everything trustees had hoped for. With 12,000 square feet of retail space, it will have about half the retail space originally proposed. The retail space was cut down to include more green space in the development, and because the retail space has be realigned to face the busy intersection.

Maschek told the village board the focus is on quality.

"We felt it was important to have very desirable retail, rather than just retail," he said.

The village also approved some variances for the project, including studio apartments as small as 550 square feet. Under village code, the minimum size is 675 square feet. The building is also one story above the four-story, 50-foot maximum. Additionally, village code normally requires 564 parking spaces, but the development has plans for 443.