Goodbye, Buffalo Grove Town Center: It'll be called The Clove
When the Buffalo Grove Town Center undergoes its makeover, the developer behind the $150 million project isn't stopping with the bricks and mortar.
The 20-acre site at the intersection of Lake-Cook and McHenry roads will have a new - and spicier - name. Buffalo Grove residents, get ready for The Clove.
Billed as a "modern central entertainment and residential district anchored by a national grocery store, retail shops, a park, restaurants and luxury multifamily" housing, the formal plan for The Clove will be rolled out at an April 6 public hearing before the village's planning and zoning commission.
Village President Beverly Sussman said Thursday she likes the new name and the imagery it suggests.
"I like it because, first of all, it's a short name," she said. "It's a name that people will remember."
"It conjures up images of residents coming together, people from other places coming together," Sussman added. "You can sit, you can talk, you can be with your friends just relaxing there."
A 299-page draft version of developer Kensington Development Group's presentation is posted on the village's website, vbg.org. The plan calls for two phases.
The first phase will focus on redeveloping the southern and central parts of the center, with a new 43,000-square-foot grocery store from a nationally known chain; a seven-story, 275- to 300-unit apartment building with 16,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor; 65,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space scattered throughout the site; and a "Central Park" in the middle of the site for artistic and civic events.
The second phase will concentrate on the remaining 34,000 square feet on the northern portion of the site.
As part of the proposal, Kensington would receive as much as $24.75 million in financial incentives from the village through a tax increment financing district, which would freeze property taxes going to local governments at a certain point and funnel any above that to the development.
"When it's done, it will be very nice looking, which is very important," Sussman said. "I think it will be pleasant, not only for the people that are living there, who have condos there, but for people coming there to shop."