Mundelein mayor touts downtown redevelopment in State of the Village speech
Mundelein Mayor Steve Lentz kicked off his latest State of the Village presentation this week by touting the downtown area’s continued redevelopment.
That work includes the pending construction of a five-story apartment building, an adjoining parking garage, two townhouse buildings and a retail building on the now-empty land on Plaza Circle near village hall.
Announced nearly a year ago, construction of the $68 million project by Indianapolis-based developer Flaherty & Collins should begin this spring or early summer, Lentz said Monday night at village hall.
Elsewhere on Plaza Circle, a four-story apartment building being built south of village hall and near the village’s Metra station should open to tenants this year, Lentz said. Chicago-based Synergy Construction Group is behind that project, dubbed Station 250.
And then there’s the Morris Station apartment complex on formerly industrial land near Park Street and Seymour Avenue. Lentz said the apartments are filling up.
“They’re going gangbusters there,” Lentz said. “We’re very pleased with that project.”
Improving the downtown area around Seymour Avenue and Hawley Street was the unfulfilled goal of mayors, trustees, merchants and residents in town for decades. A variety of cosmetic changes were implemented, but they didn’t do much to draw customers to the businesses there.
Over the last 20 years or so, though, the village has spent millions buying factories, a lumber yard and other unsightly buildings in the area, razing or renovating them and converting the properties to more welcoming uses like retail buildings and multifamily residential complexes. A new village hall and public gathering spaces were created, too.
“We’ve really gained traction now,” Lentz said Monday.
Much of the activity has occurred during Lentz’s tenure as mayor, which began in 2013. He’s now in his third term.
And the work is far from done. One of the other things Lentz discussed Monday night was the potential redevelopment of the so-called “Bank Triangle” east of Seymour Avenue and north of Hawley Street. Some of the properties there are for sale and others are owned by the village, and officials would like to find a real-estate developer “with the means to create something really grand” on the 6-acre site, Lentz said.
The Hezner Corp., a Libertyville architectural and planning firm hired by the village to develop concepts for the site, suggested apartment buildings, a parking garage, stores and open space, among other uses.
Lentz also talked about the plans for the Courtland Commons park on Courtland Street east of Seymour Avenue, which will be the future home of the Mundelein Community Days festival. Long-planned infrastructure improvements on the eastern end of Hawley Street and the Mundelein Arts Commission’s recent artistic installations got mentions, too.
Additionally, Lentz revealed the village website is getting an overhaul that should debut next month.
A video of Lentz’s presentation can be found at mundelein.org.