Lindenhurst supports development
As part of an ongoing project, the Daily Herald asked local business and village leaders about what kind of economic development projects were on the way in their communities. Here are the answers from Lindenhurst Village Administrator Matt Formica.
Q. How do you go about supporting business development in your community?
A. The Village of Lindenhurst supports business development by creating a streamlined approval and permitting process. We recently revised some of our review, permitting and development approval processes to make them more streamlined and efficient.
Q. What is currently in the works (ground has been broken or will be in the next couple months)?
A. Lindenhurst has several commercial buildings currently under construction or to be under construction in the next few months. One is an addition to the Waterford Commons development that would house a dance facility. This project is still in the planning stages. There also is a new building in the Falling Waters Business park that will house a Jump Zone children's play area.
Q. What is in the planning stages?
A. Lindenhurst has two major projects in the planning stages. First is the Village Green retail lifestyle center, which consists of about 400,000 square feet of commercial retail space near the corner of Routes 45 and 132. The second major project is Vista Health's plans to build a new hospital on Grand Avenue. This proposed approximately $100 million project will bring much-needed health care to northern and central Lake County and will provide an economic stimulus to the area.
Q. What is your town's biggest economic development wish?
A. The largest possible economic impact project would be the development of a new hospital and the retail lifestyle center.
Q. What is your community's single greatest asset or selling point to potential developers?
A. Availability of utilities, streamlined approval process and the desire to cooperate with potential businesses to ensure their success.
Q. Have the challenges presented by the current downturn forced you and your community to approach economic development differently? What are the changes and how well are they working?
A. As mentioned earlier, we have recently re-engineered our development review and permit approval processes to make the process more business friendly.