Why more townhouses could be coming to downtown Mundelein
A 125-unit townhouse development could be coming to vacant land in downtown Mundelein.
During Monday night's village board meeting, a representative of M/I Homes proposed building the homes on the 400 block of Crystal Street, just east of Seymour Avenue.
Six acres of the property are on the north side of Crystal Street. Three acres are south of Crystal and east of Courtland Commons Park and a stormwater detention pond there.
Most of the site once was home to Mundelein's public works department headquarters; some of it also once belonged to U.S. Music Corp. when it was headquartered on nearby Courtland Street.
U.S. Music subsequently moved to Buffalo Grove, while a new public works and engineering headquarters opened in 2020 on Allanson Road.
Both of the older buildings were demolished to make way for redevelopment.
Most of the former U.S. Music property was acquired by the village in a 2020 land swap with a company called SB Mundelein Station and converted into Courtland Commons and the detention basin.
SB Mundelein Station got the public works site in the deal. It proposed building apartments on some of the land and selling the rest to a townhouse developer - but its plan never came to fruition.
M/I Homes now is in the driver's seat. It wants to put up 25 buildings, each containing four to six units, documents indicate.
Each three-story home would have three bedrooms and three bathrooms, Scott Barenbrugge, the company's vice president of land, told the board Monday.
He predicted average prices would be $300,000 to $400,000.
The company is targeting younger single people and couples as well as empty nesters in their 50s who "want to be closer to the action" of downtown Chicago. The spot is less than a mile from Mundelein's Metra station.
The company wants to build in 2024, Barenbrugge said. The land already is zoned for residential uses.
Monday's presentation was a concept proposal designed to elicit feedback from village officials.
Among the trustees, Erich Schwenk suggested moving six buildings to shorten a public road that could be built on the property. Trustee Jenny Ross expressed concerns about the site's proximity to flood-prone areas.
No formal action was taken.