Finding the right partner: Lisle awaits proposal for Family Square Plaza redevelopment

Another developer is taking a look at the shuttered Family Square Plaza in downtown Lisle, village records show.

According to village documents, Green State Credit Union, which owns the property at the southeast corner of Ogden Avenue and Main Street, accepted an offer from a Chicago-based developer on Oct. 8.

“I am hopeful the mayor and the village trustees will be able to work with Synergy (Construction Group) to make this project successful for the Village of Lisle,” an official with the credit union, identified only as Chasity, wrote in an email to Lisle Village Manager Eric Ertmoed. “Timing is going to be very important.”

Synergy’s offer came just over a month after another developer, Flaherty & Collins, missed an Aug. 30 deadline to show it had financing for a project to demolish the downtown strip mall and build a 198-unit apartment building with retail space on the first floor. That project, initially approved in 2022, had received two extensions to make good on the deal.

Officials from Synergy Construction Group and Green State Credit Union could not be reached for comment.

Last year, Lombard trustees approved a plan that allows Synergy Construction Group to build a five-story apartment complex, called Yorktown Reserve, with 621 units in a Yorktown Center parking lot east of Highland Avenue and Yorktown’s Majestic Drive entrance. The plan also includes the demolition of the former Carson Pirie Scott store to make way for a new mall entrance and a Main Street-style plaza.

Lisle Mayor Chris Pecak said Synergy has not submitted plans for the Family Square Plaza property yet. However, he said the developer is reviewing the previous proposal.

“They want to see where Flaherty & Collins succeeded and where they failed,” Pecak said.

Pecak said he’s not surprised another offer was made on the property so quickly after Flaherty & Collins pulled out.

“For two or three years now, I’ve been saying there are others interested in this property,” he said, adding that Flaherty & Collins had the property “tied up” for years. “Since they had it under contract, nobody else could present anything.”

Village emails show Synergy was not the only developer interested in the property. In an Oct. 1 email from Green State Credit Union to Ertmoed, the credit union notes it had received two letters of interest in the property and that two other parties had reached out about the site.

The strip mall, which has remained shuttered, sits in a tax increment financing — or TIF — district that would give a developer access to up to $10.5 million to help with project costs. In a TIF district, the amount of property taxes that go to local taxing bodies is frozen during the first year of the TIF. As improvements are made to the property, and its value increases, the additional money generated in property taxes goes to the municipality and is used to pay for public improvements within the TIF.

Although Flaherty & Collins indicated it could not make a deal with retail space on the ground floor of its proposed project, Pecak remains steadfast that any project on that property should have a retail presence. Residents have asked for more retail — particularly another grocery store — in the village, he said.

“If it’s mixed-use, then it’s something to consider,” Pecak said of the potential for apartments and retail on the property. “But we’ve got to have ground (level) commercial.”

He’s hopeful that with the “right, motivated developer” the village can see a project like that come to fruition.

“I’m looking forward to having a developer take interest in this and coming up with the right project that satisfies the residents of Lisle,” he said.