A real estate company is floating plans that could transform a piece of land currently anchored by a Walgreens in downtown Naperville into a mixed-use residential and retail development.
The nearly two-acre property at the corner of Washington Street and Aurora Avenue is home to four businesses — Walgreens, JC Licht, AT&T and Hot Yoga Naperville — and has been up for sale for a little more than a year, according to Matt Ishikawa, senior vice president for CBRE’s Land Services Group.
CBRE is in talks with a potential buyer, Ishikawa confirmed. He declined to share more information, including who the buyer is, when a deal might close or what the buyer intends to do with the land.
“It’s a great piece of property and very well located and has a lot of potential to be a great site,” Ishikawa said.
Representatives for Walgreens, JC Licht and AT&T said there are no current plans to close their existing businesses. Hot Yoga Naperville declined to comment.
CRBE has produced conceptual plans for the property, including an online brochure that advertises the site as the potential home to a retail and multistory residential development. The site is already zoned for multiple uses, including residential units, stores and restaurants.
“The subject property is a prime opportunity for a multifamily development in the bustling and action-packed downtown Naperville, where there is no shortage of restaurants, shopping and local activities, like the Naperville Riverwalk, which is directly north of the property,” the brochure said.
While there is a pending deal that could lead to the property’s sale, Ishikawa confirmed there have been others who have expressed interest in the site as well.
It also is not the only redevelopment likely coming to downtown Naperville.
Downtown Naperville Alliance Executive Director Katie Wood has previously said a number of new projects are on the horizon that will attract more visitors and possibly new residents, including development of the empty lot at the Main Street Promenade and the three-story Beidelman Furniture building at Washington Street and Jackson Avenue.
Last month, Beidelman Furniture shut its doors after 165 years, closing the chapter on what had been the oldest family-owned business in Naperville and DuPage County. No plans for the building have been announced, but the building’s sale is in the works.
When speaking at a Naperville Public Library Board meeting in mid-April, Wood said she believes that “the Walgreens property is going to probably be redeveloped. We don’t know what … typically those developments come in and there’ll be some new mixed use and probably be involved with retail, restaurant, maybe some (residential) too.”
Should a developer pursue residential development for the site, it would not be the first housing built in or near downtown in recent years.
In March, the Naperville City Council approved a six-unit, multifamily residential development for 222 S. Mill St., located near Naper Homestead park, Naperville Park District’s Alfred Rubin Riverwalk Community Center and a park district maintenance facility. Across Mill Street to the west sits the site of the future Riverwalk Place condo building, a similarly sized four-story, six-unit development.
In February, 11 rowhomes were approved for Benton Avenue and Main Street, which sits at the northern edge of the city’s downtown.
And in 2019, condominium units were sold at the newly built Central Park Place, a four-story residential and commercial building at 110 S. Washington St., next to the old Nichols Library, now occupied by the Gia Mia restaurant.
cstein@chicagotribune.com
