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Panel: Gurnee should embrace East Grand thrift shops

Embracing - rather than replacing - thrift stores on East Grand Avenue is among the suggestions from an elite team of experts on how to boost the lackluster business corridor.

Private-sector professionals in planning, development, finance and other disciplines volunteering for Urban Land Institute unveiled short- and long-term recommendations for East Grand at a Gurnee village board session Tuesday night. The meeting occurred at Spaulding School on the village's east side.

Urban Land Institute is a nonprofit organization that assists in creating and sustaining vibrant communities across the world. The institute is known for exploring land-use issues and hosting forums to find solutions to problems.

East Grand Avenue has long been a sore spot in Gurnee, with its mix of empty storefronts, thrift shops, nonstandard sign heights and overhead power lines - a contrast to the busy thoroughfare's more thriving section west of the Tri-State Tollway.

However, the experts recommended the city celebrate the low-cost shopping that could be promoted as an alternative to Gurnee Mills and other west side retailers. One idea was "Vintage Garage Gurnee."

"I think a lot of things perceived as bad are actually good," said John Oharenko, a Chicago-based commercial mortgage expert.

Oharenko even suggested Gurnee could tap into an acronym for the village's reference to the East Grand Gateway - EGG.

"We'll visit the big EGG," he said.

Other East Grand recommendations from the panel included considering multifamily housing with condominiums or apartments, improving sidewalks to better connect residential neighborhoods to businesses, and coordinating store signs to eliminate visual clutter. Despite some desire from residents, the panel did not find a grocery store as suitable.

In the near term, the panel said, the village could seek pop-up stores to fill vacant spaces and promote an area with affordable rent that could be attractive to startup businesses. The East Grand Avenue corridor runs from Route 41 on the west up to Green Bay Road in Waukegan on the east.

Gurnee Mayor Kristina Kovarik said Urban Land Institute's ideas are a starting point for village officials.

"There are a lot of 'ah-ha' moments, a lot of low-hanging fruit we can work on," Kovarik said.

Ideas on how to revitalize East Grand date to at least 1999, when a village planning consultant recommended burying power lines there. In 2000, the village board approved a three-point improvement plan that never came to fruition.

Gurnee committed $15,000 for the Urban Land Institute's work.

The organization's technical assistance panel for the Chicago area accepts a limited number of cases.

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