John and Therese Goodrich have kept their focus on south suburban Park Forest since 1954, when they moved into a modest townhouse in the community.
In the process, they have grown with a suburb that has been considered a model for major trends in American life.
As their family expanded, the Goodriches moved to a bigger house, remaining in the community.
“We looked all around the area but we kept coming back to Park Forest. We said why would we want to live anywhere else? Then we bought a big house and quickly filled it up with nine kids,” Therese Goodrich said.
After the younger generation grew up and moved away, the Goodriches wanted to downsize to a two-bedroom ranch townhouse.
They thought they would have to move to a different community to find such a home.
But thanks to some new housing development in the community, they once again were able to stay in Park Forest.
“We probably would have moved to another community if this didn’t come up,” Goodrich said.
Park Forest was built to house veterans returning from World War II and was described as the first planned community in the nation when it opened in 1949.
Park Forest also hosted the first regional shopping center in the Midwest, plunked down in the middle of town.
More than a half-century later, the village administration is trying to fill in the gaps in housing that the community’s planners didn’t provide for, such as senior housing, housing for empty-nesters and housing for expensive tastes. There are other challenges, as well.
Park Forest Mayor John Ostenburg said people are attracted to the village because of all its amenities, from the aqua center to the library to its many cultural outlets, and because the village has successfully integrated its races.
“We have been a consciously integrated community. While other communities have struggled with integration, we’ve actually embraced it,” Ostenburg said. The village was one of the earliest in Illinois to create a human relations commission.
New housing in the community has been somewhat limited by a lack of available space, he said.
“We’re virtually a landlocked community. So we don’t have a lot of space for new home development,” Ostenburg said.
Park Centre Townhomes, where the Goodriches now live, was built on the site of the former Lakewood School, no longer needed in the face of declining student enrollment.
The Goodriches were the second buyers in the 48-unit development at Lakewood Boulevard and Orchard Drive.
Townhouses in the development are available in ranch or two-story designs and start in the $140,000s, according to developer Peggy Mulderink, owner and vice president of Builders Associates.
“We knew there were many seniors who wanted to get out of their homes and into maintenance-free living,” Mulderink said.
Models opened in 1998 and construction is set to begin soon on another three-unit building, she said. Half the development is completed and sold.
Goodrich said she and her husband like to travel. They can leave without worry about shoveling snow or cutting the grass.
Another senior-friendly development in the village has been Victory Centre of Park Forest, at Forest and Main Streets near the downtown shopping district. It consists of a four-story 95-unit independent living facility, which opened last year, and a 79-unit assisted living facility, which opened in April.
The facilities provide affordable housing through the Illinois Housing Development Authority’s low income tax credit program, said Jerry Finis, one of the principals of Pathway Senior Living LLC, the project developer.
A way to add equity
The program allows the developer to sell tax credits to corporate investors to obtain equity for the project.
“They get tax credits and the project gets the equity so we don’t have to carry as large a mortgage. Usually you have 50 percent equity,” Finis said.
He said the independent living facility leased up “very quickly” and is currently filled. The assisted living facility just recently started accepting its first residents.
“Our goal was to create an affordable continuum of care. It has been very well received. These projects are addressing a market that wasn’t being addressed before,” Finis said.
Rents at the independent living facility range from $350 to $733 a month, and from $455 to $636 at the assisted living facility, not including meals, laundry, nursing and other services available at the latter building. Those services can bring the cost up to $2,400 a month.
Village officials are trying to address the shortage of high-end housing in the community with a 55-unit development called The Meadows, located adjacent to Hidden Meadows golf course, an 18-hole executive-style municipal golf course on Richton Road near Governors State University.
House prices range from $185,000 to $250,000, said Bill Reichert, owner of Steven W. Reichert Homes, based in Chicago Heights.
There are about a dozen lots remaining in the development, which started in the mid-1990s, Reichert said. Sales have been slower than expected, he said.
“The problem with Park Forest new construction is that the resale price range is $80,000 to $100,000. It’s almost impossible to bring in new construction at that price point,” he said. “It’s too far a jump for the move-up market to go from $80,000 to $180,000.”
Village manager Janet Muchnik said the village surveyed residents moving out of the community and found people were leaving because Park Forest didn’t have enough upscale housing.
Another development that has had mixed results has been Victoria Place, located just west of the village’s downtown. When the village took over the downtown shopping center in the 1990s, one of its goals was to build a residential neighborhood nearby.
Problems with developing the residential area began after developers put in about $1 million in infrastructure improvements and could not recoup those costs.
The developers pulled out of the project when they had trouble selling five model homes that they had bumped up in price to redeem the infrastructure costs, Muchnik said.
The homes were being sold for $185,000 to $190,000, which is too high for Park Forest’s housing market of $125,000 to $135,000, Muchnik said.
Now the Cook County Housing Development Corp. is proposing to build 62 duplex units on the site and promises to build within market rate. It is a non-profit organization established by the Cook County Housing Authority, according to Kathy McDonough, the corporation’s executive director.
Village officials have also been working to transform the moribund Park Forest Plaza into a traditional downtown, featuring offices, service businesses and restaurants as well as retail shops.
The plaza suffered after enclosed malls such as River Oaks Center in Calumet City and Lincoln Mall in Matteson were built in the late `60s and early `70s.
The village took over the ailing shopping center in the 1990s and tore down many of the buildings and installed streets on the site, including a Main Street.
While many storefronts along Main Street remain vacant, there have been some positive signs. Most of the second-floor office space is occupied, and there are a number of businesses there, including a candy store, beauty salon, bookstore, caterer, real estate office and florist.
A number of cultural groups have moved or plan to move into the downtown district, including the Illinois Theater Center, the Tall Grass Arts Association gallery and school, and the office and board room of the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, Muchnik said.
Park Forest officials envision a mixed-use downtown district that draws people to the area 24 hours a day seven days a week.
“The downtown is truly the most exciting project I’ve ever been involved in,” Muchnik said.
