Plans for new Rosemont village hall, restaurants moving forward
Architectural designs for a new Rosemont village hall are being prepared, as officials plan to close on the sale of the building that currently houses municipal offices.
The village board Monday formally approved the $704,700 proposal from Wright Heerema Architects for design work on the new building, which is expected to be three stories tall and 54,000 square feet.
It would be built on a portion of a parking lot within the The Pearl District, Rosemont's 16-acre mixed-use complex that opened in 2018 south of Balmoral Avenue and west of the Tri-State Tollway.
Preliminary plans call for the publicly accessible first floor to house the village boardroom, an innovation center to host prospective businesses, training and meeting rooms for village employees, and a Rosemont history display, Mayor Brad Stephens said Monday. Village offices would occupy the second floor, and the village would rent out office space to businesses on the third floor.
The village is selling its current home at 9501 W. Devon Ave. to Northfield-based Saxony Properties. A closing on the $3.8 million sale is scheduled in the next two to three months, while the parties structure the timing of a $5 million tax increment financing district incentive to pay for upgrades to the 1970s-era building.
But under the deal, village government and its public safety department headquarters will be able to stay in the eight-story Devon building rent-free until the end of 2023.
The new village hall is expected to be complete slightly sooner than the delayed 101,000-square-foot cop shop north of the Allstate Arena. A groundbreaking was scheduled for last August until the NORCOMM dispatching agency backed out of the project due to escalating costs.
Architectural redesigns should be complete next month, which would pave the way for a groundbreaking before July, Stephens said.
Both the new village hall and public safety buildings would take about 16 months to build. Price estimates for the police/fire building are $35 million and village hall $7 million to $8 million.
Also Monday, in a contract with Northern Builders, the village board set a guaranteed maximum construction price for two buildings that will house three restaurants at just under $7 million. The village will own the properties - on Higgins Road, west of River Road - and lease them to proprietors of the fast casual eateries announced in recent months: Chicago burger joint Small Cheval, Shaquille O'Neal's Big Chicken and Stan's Donuts & Coffee.
Despite the seemingly high cost, Stephens said the $7 million price is more palatable than the initial $10 million estimate. Much of it is attributable to the retractable roof over the 4,600-square-foot building that will house Small Cheval and enable dining in both the colder and warmer months.
Stephens expressed confidence that Small Cheval, which inked a 10-year lease in December, would be successful at its first suburban outpost, but he also said the roof element would be an attractive feature for any successive tenant.