Arlington Downs wins board's first vote on project

Arlington Downs, the ambitious rental housing and retail complex on the site of the shuttered Sheraton Chicago Northwest, took a huge step Monday when the Arlington Heights village board gave it enthusiastic preliminary approval.

All eight trustees and Village President Arlene Mulder voted yes in the board's first vote on the project. Several trustees called the plans for Euclid Avenue and Rohlwing Road a beautiful “gateway” to Arlington Heights.

Demolition on the former Allstate education center, which was once Cinderella Rockefella nightclub, and the convention center could start as early as March, said Bill Enright, deputy director of planning and community development for the village.

Construction on the old hotel, which will be turned into as many as 200 rental apartments, will hopefully start in May, said Carl Groesbeck, a founding partner of the Argent Group, which is heading up the development. First occupancy could be a year later.

The developers also plan to build two hotels with a total of 300 rooms, with one hotel to serve families using the revived CoCo Key water park. They also intend to build two more rental apartment towers and stores and restaurants.

A concern that parking could be less than adequate was the main issue raised by trustees.

Under village ordinances the first two phases, the apartments in the old hotel and the two new hotels, would be short 250 parking spaces, said Trustee Bert Rosenberg.

“I have a major concern about there not being enough parking,” he said.

Stephen Corcoran, traffic engineer with Eriksson Engineering Associates, said the rule that each apartment should have two parking spaces does not take into consideration that people who live in high rises have fewer automobiles per unit.

The complete project shows 2,015 parking spaces, many of them in four underground garages. That is 500 short of village requirements.

Charles Witherington-Perkins, director of planning and community development, said provisions have been built in to require more parking before future phases of the project are approved if the early parts show a problem.

The village staff estimates the development could give the village $1 million in sales-type taxes and provide property taxes totaling $4.2 million for various governments. The village lost $570,000 in taxes when the Sheraton closed just over two years ago.

Developers plan to have the whole project built in five years.

While rental rates have not been released, the housing is described as “luxury.” The developer plans to meet the village's desire for affordable housing by getting funding to provide apartments for veterans.