Consultant suggests more apartments in Wheeling

As with many other towns around it, Wheeling's condominium market is getting saturated, a consultant indicated in a recent report.

Wheeling hired S. B. Friedman & Co. to do a residential market study that would help the board when it is considering possible projects.

Village Manager Mark Rooney said that the board wanted to look at a comprehensive plan for housing, especially since it is using tax increment financing dollars to promote developments in some areas.

"You've had a very active market recently," said David Stamm, who is with the consulting group.

He said almost 1,000 townhouses and condominiums have been built in the village in recent years and about 900 are in the works.

By the consultant's projections, the town will likely have a surplus of condominiums in the next three years.

However, he said the village has an opportunity for high-end rental housing that could appeal to the 25- to 29-year-old age group.

"There's potentially some latent demand in the market here," he said.

He said retirement housing for 65- to 74-year-olds also has a potentially large market in Wheeling.

He said the consulting group would recommend that Wheeling consider a large mix of units in any upcoming projects.

Trustee Dean Argiris agreed that the town needs to build housing for college-age students who want to stay in the area.

"Where can they go?" he said.

However, he said, he's found in talking to other aging residents that they'd rather stay in a house -- albeit a ranch instead of a split-level -- instead of moving into condominiums or retirement housing.

Trustee Ken Brady said he'd like Wheeling to look at high-end housing, which he said would also give Wheeling stability.

He said his fear with the study is that if developers get hold of it, they will assume that Wheeling only wants high-end apartments or senior housing and not any single-family homes or other kinds of development.