A special ad hoc committee studying redevelopment of downtown Mt. Prospect has recommended that the village negotiate a contract for Phase I of the project with Town Centre LLC.
“I feel very strongly that they have caught the flavor of what we want,” said committee member Hal Predovich, just before Tuesday night’s vote.
In fact, Town Centre was the only developer still actively bidding for the chance to recreate the village’s central business district.
The recommendation, which goes to the Village Board on April 7, came with several conditions that reflected committee members’ concerns about building designs in Phase I and the future of existing businesses in the project area, which is bounded by Northwest Highway, Central Road, Wille and Main Streets (Illinois Highway 83).
Among those conditions was that extra efforts be made to preserve the existing businesses, and that the design of three proposed condominiums be modified by replacing flat roofs with pitched roofs. The committee also asked the developer to consider creating more retail and office space along Wille Street.
Earlier in the evening, representatives of the Town Centre development team fielded several questions from the Village Board on the lack of new retail in this phase of the project.
Town Centre group defended their design, saying that Wille could not support retail activity.
“The worst thing in the world for us is to build it and nobody come,” said Mark Hopkins of HKM Architects and Planners.
Town Centre also has submitted plans for Phases II and III of the project that do include new retail space.
As recently as a week ago, two development teams had proposals pending for the first phase of the project.
The Town Centre plan, submitted by a development team that included A&T, HKM Architects & Planners, Norwood Builders and Trapani Construction of Chicago, received much higher marks.
But committee members indicated it did not have adequate retail space. The plan proposes three condominium buildings, from five to eight stories tall, laid out in a “U” shape with no retail or office space.
The village’s concept for downtown envisioned multi-story condos with first-floor retail and office spaces. Committee members also took issue with the design and layout of the buildings.
The other development team, Ben-Cor Group of Palatine, decided to take a pass on Tuesday night’s meeting.
Its proposal for two 8-story condominium buildings with first-floor retail space and a single-story retail building had been characterized by some committee members as creating a strip-mall atmosphere that was not pedestrian friendly.
Mt. Prospect had sent requests for proposals to about 70 area developers and only received two responses. A third proposal came in a day after the deadline and was rejected.
Community development director William Cooney said more developers were interested but either did not have the time to prepare a proposal, were busy with other projects or were turned off because property for the project had not yet been acquired.
