Des Plaines’ dowdiness has been the bane of city officials irked by the vibrancy of nearby towns’ hubs. But the City Council’s vote to accept a $19 million downtown redevelopment agreement aims to change all that.
Aldermen have voted 5-3 to accept the plan that will include moving the Des Plaines Public Library to a 6.2-acre parcel. In a second vote of 5-3, aldermen rejected a motion to give residents a say on the redevelopment in a November referendum proposal.
The project’s centerpiece is a free-standing, four-story library building of about 80,000 square feet, nearly double the current library’s size. The new library will cost about $13.5 million.
The downtown redevelopment–bounded by Ellinwood, Prairie, Lee and Pearson Streets–also includes condominiums, two single-story retail buildings flanking the library, and converting the Des Plaines Mall into a parking structure.
Construction of the library on Ellinwood Street is expected to begin in January and conclude in early 2000, said Jack Klaus, Des Plaines’ director of economic development. Work on the retail buildings is to start in late April 1999 and conclude that November. A final phase will include the construction of between 100 and 200 condominium units within six years.
While designs are still being drafted, the city is looking for buildings that will retain Des Plaines’ historic character and avoid a “strip mall” appearance, Klaus said.
“We don’t want this to look like it was plunked down there,” Klaus said. “We’re not going to make this look like something in the year 2000 (clashing with) structures built in the 1920s.”
Developer Plaines Town Center LLC, an affiliate of L.R. Development Co. of Chicago, general contractor of the parking-deck project, will serve as development manager of the library. The architecture firm of Lohan Associates Inc. of Chicago has been chosen to design the library and streetscape improvements.