Developer to finish long-stalled Grayslake townhouse project

Grayslake village board members have paved the way a developer to complete a long-stalled townhouse project near a Metra commuter rail station.

Village board members Tuesday night voted 4-0 in favor of an agreement allowing CalAtlantic Homes Chicago to complete Lake Street Square. Neumann Homes started the project in 2003.

Paperwork approved by the board, called an implementation agreement, essentially confirmed infrastructure improvements, meeting building codes, landscaping requirements and other details to be performed by CalAtlantic. Assistant to the Village Manager Kevin Timony said the document details mostly were part of the original developer's deal in 2003.

Grayslake Mayor Rhett Taylor said after Tuesday's meeting it's good for the village to have Lake Street Square completed. He said it should help overall property values by having a finished subdivision.

“Now, the people who made that purchase, they're going to be in a townhouse community that's now finished, it's been completed and it's intact now and completes that part of the vision for the area,” Taylor said.

CalAtlantic plans to build townhouses on the remaining 84 vacant lots from the original Lake Street Square subdivision, which was started by Neumann Homes about 13 years ago.

Neumann began what was billed as a transit-oriented development because of the subdivision's proximity to Grayslake's Lake Street Metra station on the village's south end.

However, Neumann filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal court in 2007. Neumann, which had been based in Warrenville, at the time consistently ranked among the Chicago area's top six homebuilders and had significant developments under way in Antioch, North Aurora, Gilberts, Grayslake, Hanover Park, Lakemoor and Wonder Lake.

Neumann's Lake Street Square project wound up in court receivership. That status meant Neumann, which went out of business, no longer controlled or owned the development.

“The village spent some money to complete the (subdivision) roads and do some more infrastructure work down there that normally the developers do,” Taylor said. “And that was beneficial to the residents that were there. However, they had still purchased a townhouse in something never completed.”

CalAtlantic Group Inc., parent of the Chicago branch, was formed through a merger last year of Ryland Group Inc. and Standard Pacific Corp.