Randhurst Crossing Starbucks expanding, adding drive-through

The Starbucks at Randhurst Crossing in Mount Prospect will be moving a short distance down the street to the former site of X-press-O Coffee and adding a drive through option.

Despite traffic flow concerns, the village board this week gave the contract purchaser, Cornersite LLC of Northbrook, approval for a drive-through location at 195 W. Rand Road. The plan calls for the demolition of the existing building on the site and the construction of a nearly 2,000-square-foot building.

Access to the site from Rand Road and Kensington Road will be provided through a cross-access agreement with the adjacent Northwest Community Healthcare building at 199 W. Rand Road. Under the agreement, 21 parking spaces will be provided on the medical office building's lot. The Starbucks site will contain four parking spaces.

Community Development Director William Cooney told the board cut-through traffic to Kensington Road is already a problem.

"Obviously, Starbucks is going to generate more traffic than the X-press-O Coffee facility did," he said.

But he said Starbucks will work with Northwest Community Healthcare to resolve any traffic issues.

Trustee Steven Polit raised a concern over right turns onto Rand Road from the drive-through, noting the turning radius could cause people to veer into the wrong lane. He also said cut-through traffic already is a problem with more than half the traffic for a new McDonald's nearby coming off Kensington.

The Starbucks drive-through will provide room for nine vehicles, exceeding the eight-vehicle stacking requirement, but Trustee Richard Rogers wondered if that was enough. "I think it's going to be a tight site at seven (or) nine o'clock in the morning."

Mayor Arlene Juracek said it will be tight, but added, "If we design everything for that peak 20 minutes, we're going to have an awful lot of empty stacking spaces all over town, I think."