A year after the North Barrington Village Board rejected plans for a controversial megamall, its developers remained cautiously optimistic that the village might one day reconsider.
Michigan-based Taubman Co. had proposed the village annex 110 acres at Rand and Old McHenry Roads so that it could build a $300 million mega-mall called “The North Barrington Collection.”
But recently the mall’s fortunes may have changed, perhaps as a result of intense competition among developers for land that is located a few miles away in other communities.
The North Barrington Plan Commission has voted to ask the Village Board to renew talks with the developer about constructing the mega-mall.
“I guess this is a hopeful sign,” said Bruce Heckman, vice president of development for Taubman. “We are still very interested in the site. Although we have continued to explore alternate sites, this is still our most preferred site.
“I’d like to talk to somebody there about this. This isn’t anything initiated by me.”
Trustee Lawrence Weiner, who is in charge of municipal planning and zoning, said he plans to ask the Village Board to contact Taubman to determine if building the mall at Rand and Old McHenry Roads is still viable.
Taubman’s plans include several large department stores, such as Neiman Marcus, Tiffany’s and Bloomingdales, which cater to wealthy shoppers. The affluent area around North Barrington and neighboring Hawthorn Woods is seen by developers as ripe for retail development.
But the commission’s action has served to reignite some deep divisions among trustees and residents who live near the proposed mall site.
“They don’t have the votes,” said village Trustee Scott Payne, who voted against the mall. “It’s still the same plan.”
The plan commission’s recommendation may be premature, said Steven Riess, a Hawthorn Woods resident and organizer of Active Citizens for Responsible Expansion, a citizens group that mobilized last year against the mall.
“You can’t just stand up in the middle of the street and say, `I think we should talk about the mall again,’ ” Riess said. “It’s rhetoric.”
“The people who live in the area have not gone away, and their resolve is just as strong as it was a year ago today.”
What may have changed from a year ago, when the mega-mall plan went down in flames, is the increased development a few miles away along Rand Road. It is the kind of large-scale development that might hamper the North Barrington site from ever becoming a significant source of tax revenue.
In Deer Park, a developer is floating plans for a 450,000-square-foot mall at the southwest corner of Rand and Long Grove Roads. In Lake Zurich, a developer is proposing a Kohl’s department store at Rand and Clover Hill Roads. A Target store opened in October at Rand and Ela Roads.
“There’s so much development going on up and down (Rand) that we stand to lose out on this opportunity,” said Mark Kolar, chairman of the North Barrington Plan Commission, which last year voted in favor of Taubman’s proposal.
“We decided to ask the board to re-examine our original recommendation,” Kolar said. “We’re saying, `Hey, let’s have a mall.’ “
The new activity on the mall is unfolding against the backdrop of a proposed boundary agreement between Hawthorn Woods and North Barrington.
According to North Barrington Village President George Larrain, the agreement calls for Hawthorn Woods to support a mall in North Barrington as long as the village agrees to share tax revenue generated from the mall. Both villages are in the negotiation stage of the agreement, Larrain said.
