ULI Chicago offers redevelopment ideas for Naperville’s 5th Avenue area

A mix of new housing. A more permanent shelter for the Naperville Farmer's Market. An inviting pedestrian environment.

A panel of real estate and development professionals is charting a new vision for properties around Naperville’s 5th Avenue Metra station. The group set out to reimagine the possibilities for the underdeveloped area. Panelists see it complementing rather than detracting from Naperville’s “very vital downtown.”

“Improving the commuter and pedestrian experience, part and parcel to all this, was critical,” said Jon Talty, CEO of Chicago-based OKW Architects. “And then creating a destination that’s, again, not part of the downtown but connected to the downtown. With the development of these almost 15 acres, there's great opportunity for infrastructure improvements.”

The study area compromises land owned or leased by the city. The Urban Land Institute panel — a multidisciplinary, third-party group with “no skin in the game” — has toured the properties extensively and interviewed community stakeholders, said Talty, its chair, at a forum. His view is that the train station is “not befitting” Naperville as it sits today.

The building and its surrounding areas could be improved, he said, so that when someone gets off that train and they arrive, “there's a gravitas to it.”

What 5th Avenue could look like

The group recommends a phased approach and a series of subareas, with higher-density structures toward the west. The panel suggests a redeveloped gateway to the Washington Street corridor.

“That area is sort of that focused arrival to Naperville,” said Vic Howell, vice president of development at Focus and another ULI Chicago panelist. “I think as you move further east, both north and south of the station, you can start to scale that density down a little bit.”

A highly conceptual image shows a parking garage that would support commuter traffic on the west side of Washington Street, south of the train tracks. The DuPage Children’s Museum could potentially be enhanced, or it could be relocated, and the existing building reused.

“We are excited about how the ideas presented on Wednesday may align with the vision and priorities of the DuPage Children’s Museum. What has begun as a productive dialogue is something we look forward to continuing, and we are eager to explore opportunities that best serve children, families, and our community,” museum President and CEO Andrea Ingram said in a statement.

The panel is also looking at a mix of commercial and residential space on the east side of Washington and south of the tracks. The area around the train station could be enhanced with landscaping and furnishings to be more plazalike.

North of the tracks could host a multipurpose farmer’s market and event shelter, community open space as well as mixed-use development. Citing Wheaton’s French market pavilion as an example, the panel envisions the shelter just south of 5th Avenue.

“So the thought is that you could use the shelter, you could go use some food and beverage businesses in the commercial space and create that balance of community life that we're looking for,” landscape architect Jodi Mariano said.

Next steps

The panel has recommended the city hire a third-party consultant to craft a master plan that would spell out development guidelines and design standards.

The area was previously targeted for housing, offices, parking garages, retail, as well as health and wellness space and a public plaza. The city announced in 2020 that the work on the project would cease, citing uncertainty from the pandemic, “namely related to commuter parking needs.”

“It was just not the right place or the right time or the right solution,” Talty said. “From a stakeholder standpoint and the resident standpoint, through interviews that we had, there was a fear that density and height was out of context with the surrounding area.”

Naperville also should work with Metra to analyze usage patterns and projections at both the Route 59 and 5th Avenue stations to estimate future commuter parking needed in the 5th Avenue area, according to the panel’s presentation.

“We know that in a post-COVID world, the parking at the train station isn’t what it used to be, and there's opportunity there,” Talty said.

The ULI Chicago panel will issue a final report to the city.