Despite economy, businesses are investing in Mount Prospect
The faith that Casto Development and J.P. Morgan have shown in Mount Prospect by sinking $200 million into Randhurst Village has given the village an advantage over neighboring communities when it comes to attracting developers, said Bill Cooney, community development director for Mount Prospect.
“We are very excited about Randhurst Village and feel very fortunate,” Cooney said at the village's annual Business Breakfast Thursday morning. “This kind of massive retail development simply isn't happening anywhere else and that has attracted the interest of other developers for other nearby parcels.”
For instance, Cooney said, there has been quite a bit of interest in the five acres southeast of Randhurst where Mitchell Buick-GMC stood for many years.
Nearby, a vacant hotel on Rand Road will soon reopen as a Holiday Inn with a Bar Louie restaurant and banquet facilities. A new investor has spent $4 million to gut the building and redevelop it into a 135-room hotel with a Holidome indoor pool area.
Northwest Community Hospital has taken over a building on Rand Road just west of Randhurst which was originally built by Alexian Brothers Hospital.
“We anticipate that the Rand Road corridor will be a real focal point for community development over the next year,” Cooney said.
On the site itself, Carson's newly-remodeled store will hold a grand opening Nov. 3. The Pei Wei restaurant and a PNC Bank branch are expected to open soon. PetSmart is under contract to take over part of the current AMC Theatres building once the cinema moves to its new facility on April 22.
Other specific retailers expected to be part of Randhurst Village are still secret, according to Cooney, “but there has been a lot of interest in the project because over the last two years nothing has been built in the retail sector and now stores are looking to expand again.”
Industrial tenants also are moving to Mount Prospect, Cooney said, pointing to the arrival of industrial Corelink Data, Xtrium Laboratories, AllPoints Food Service Parts and Supplies and Multi-Pak at the Kensington Business Center and other sites.
A developer has plans for a 100-unit senior living community just east of Kensington and Wolf roads, he said.
Downtown, the village is studying its options with regard to the second phase of Founders Row on Emerson Street, across from the public library. Whatever is eventually built there, Cooney said, will probably not be an identical building to Phase I because the economics no longer work. Something else that blends well will be chosen for the site, he assured the crowd.
And Developers probably will not move forward on the original plan for a condominium/retail complex bounded by Route 83, Northwest Highway and Busse Avenue, he said.
But there's significant interest from other restaurateurs in two dining spots that recently closed. The former Artemis Restaurant at Golf and Busse roads is under permit for a renovation and the addition of outdoor dining. The new owner has several other restaurants in nearby communities. And the former Michael's in downtown Mount Prospect has three or four interested parties, he said.
Cooney expects the next big redevelopment project to involve the 75-acre United Airlines property south of Dempster Street. It is unincorporated, but totally surrounded by Mount Prospect, so it could potentially be annexed once United finishes moving its employees to Chicago.
“There will be significant changes to that area in the coming years and I expect to see the development community moving forward on that soon,” Cooney explained.
Cooney also said there's a plan for expanded bicycle routes through Mount Prospect and the tollway authority plans to add westbound access at the Elmhurst Road-I90 interchange by 2015 or 2016.