Buffalo Grove working on business development plan

Buffalo Grove's new community development director is trying to breathe new life into the village's economic development policy now that a massive proposal to build a downtown is dead.

Christopher Stilling offered his itinerary for the village's new economic development plan before village board members at this week's committee of the whole meeting.

The milestones along that journey will include a market assessment and an economic tool kit, and by late summer or early fall, the board should reach its destination with a draft plan, he said.

Stilling's favorite metaphor for successful economic development is the three-legged stool, with a willing property owner, a business that wants to invest and a proactive village constituting the legs. He said that a couple of those legs might need adjusting. He offered an example of the challenges he encounters.

"I have been working with a retailer on a Chase Plaza site, and they flat out told me, 'Chris, this would cannibalize a store in Mount Prospect.' I said, 'Are you kidding me?' I live in Palatine, and I don't go to Mount Prospect."

He said the village has been proactive in strengthening its leg of the stool.

"We have combined our zoning board and plan commission. We have limited the amount of referrals to the village board in an effort to help developers save time. We have streamlined our architectural review commission process, which is basically done by the plan commission. We allow administrative approvals (for certain subdivisions and variations). This board invested in creating a defined community development department."

Stilling said the village's demographics are an asset, with a population of 41,500, more than 16,000 households, an average household size of 2.5 and a median household income of about $95,000 per year.

He also pointed out that Buffalo Grove is home to more than 800 businesses, with a daytime population of approximately 17,000 workers. "That's one of the higher numbers on a per capita basis in the region," he said.

Of those, 92 percent are from outside the village, representing an economic opportunity, even if it only means they eat lunch within the village.

He analyzed the amount of nonresidential square footage in the village. The highest percentage is industrial, with a vacancy rate of 4.4 percent, which, he said, is remarkable. Office vacancies are 18 percent, retail vacancies 15 percent. Trustee Jeffrey Berman said that a handful of large buildings, such as the vacant Dominick's, skew the retail figures. "What we're not looking at is wide-scale retail vacancies," he said.

Trustee Andrew Stein questioned how long it will take to move from years of talk to action. "Already being done," Stilling said. "We're already starting to do our outreach. We're already starting to build and establish relationships."

Stilling should work to strengthen the village's relationship with the Buffalo Grove Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce, Village President Jeffrey Braiman.