Palatine moves ahead with strip mall redevelopment
Palatine is moving ahead with plans to redevelop a former strip mall that will include the village's new police headquarters and, potentially, an upscale grocery store.
Last month, the Palatine village board approved an agreement to sell a vacant seven-acre plot at the northeast corner of Hicks and Baldwin roads for $3.05 million. Mariano's Fresh Market plans to open a 75,000-square-foot store at the location, which is just south of the village's new police station now under construction.
On Monday, board members approved amended engineering agreements to reflect the higher traffic volume expected at the site. The move paves the way for further development.
Plans call for Hicks Road to be widened from three lanes to four at its intersection with First Bank Drive, where the new police station will be. An internal driveway from the police station to the proposed grocery store also will be expanded.
The village will pay $9,615 to the design engineer for the project, Cowhey Gudmundson Leder Ltd., for an updated engineering plan.
It will pay Bollinger, Lach & Associates $68,000 for an updated traffic impact study, and to design the intersection and traffic signal.
“We knew we had to do some additional work, but we were waiting to see what the future use was going to be, Village Manager Reid Ottesen said.
The strip mall formerly included stores such as Sears Essentials, Kmart and Walgreens, but since then had become an eyesore, many residents said. Then village officials began to look at the northern portion of the site for a new police headquarters.
Construction began in June on the new $22 million, 70,000-square-foot police station. The project is expected to be complete by fall 201. It will be a significant upgrade from the police department's current headquarters in the basement of the village hall, 200 E. Wood St. Their current space is approximately 39,000 square feet.
The department moved there in 1979, occupying what used to be the cafeteria of the old Palatine High School, which was constructed in 1952.
The proposed Mariano's store is expected to go before Palatine's plan commission and zoning board of appeals in December, Ottesen said. It would become the third such store in the suburbs, with a newly opened Arlington Heights location and a proposed store in Vernon Hills.
Two additional outlot developments are planned on site, though tenants haven't yet been determined.