After a two-hour meeting, the Harwood Heights Plan Commission voted in favor of a plan to redevelop an 8-acre lot on the corner of Lawrence and Harlem avenues.
After a two-hour meeting, the Harwood Heights Plan Commission voted in favor of a plan to redevelop an 8-acre lot on the corner of Lawrence and Harlem avenues.
“It is important for us to have you here. This is a huge development. It’s larger than the Mariano’s,” Mayor Arlene Jezierny said. “This is a huge development that will help to bring income to the community.”
Wednesday night’s meeting was a continuation of the April 6 plan commission session in which Chicago-based developer Bradford Real Estate Co. unveiled its plans for a Portillo’s equipped with a drive-thru and an Art Van Furniture at 7300 W. Lawrence Ave. This is the second commercial development for Bradford in Harwood Heights after bringing Mariano’s to the village three years ago.
The property originally had only one industrial structure on it, owned by Illinois Tool Works, which produces products used in the automotive, construction, paper, and food and beverage industries. John Schoditsch, vice president of development for Bradford, said his firm’s request for the proposal was selected by the village in November 2014, and they since have been working to develop the site.
As previously reported, residents during last week’s meeting were concerned with the potential for additional traffic congestion due to the development and what kind of view residences with their front door facing north and west of the property would be like.
“Everything that was learned last week has been reacted to favorably,” said Wayne Pesek, the economic development coordinator for the village. “It only reinforces the need that this has to be a cooperative effort to tweak the design and engineering drawings so we can minimize the adverse effects.”
To this end, the development plans for Art Van Furniture has been modified to make it friendlier to neighbors.
“[There are] a lot of windows on the south side of the building, facing the parking lot and facing Lawrence,” said Ed Doyle, director of store design and construction at Art Van Furniture. “But on the side facing the neighborhood, we didn’t want it to be so bright facing the neighbors, so we are using a wood tone here and residential material to warm it up a little bit, give it a residential scale. And then we soften it up a lot with landscaping on the north side as well.”
Additionally, a 6-foot-tall wooden fence facing the street, with a landscaped berm behind it, would be installed to prevent pedestrians from cutting through the neighborhood to get to the Portillo’s, Schoditsch said.
Yet, while many of the residents’ aesthetic concerns were beginning to be incorporated into the development plan, a few residents were still worried that the new businesses, Portillo’s in particular, would add the to congestion in the area.
“My concern is that, on a Saturday or Sunday on Harlem Avenue, it’s all backed up. So what people are going to probably do is tear down Foster Avenue and come down Oconto Avenue, and come through [the Harlem Avenue entrance] to get to Portillo’s,” said Robert Schiffer, who said he is a 50-year resident of the village. “No one’s really going to wait in traffic in this area.”
Schiffer worries that regardless of the proposed traffic plans, and signs directing drivers, people would use shortcuts through the neighborhood to avoid traffic. Another resident also raised concerns regarding the proposed semi-truck deliveries for Art Van’s showroom blocking traffic and not being able to safely turn into the lot from the main streets.
Doyle said Art Van expects two to three deliveries a week from the warehouse in Bolingbrook to the showroom in Hardwood Heights. The traffic pattern for these trucks would have them enter the parking lot through the Harlem Avenue entrance. He also clarified that customers who decide to purchase the larger, bulky items from them will have them delivered to their homes from the Bolingbrook location and not the showroom. So, no deliveries would be made from the showroom to homes.
During the presentation Jared Jensen, an architect designing the new Portillo’s location, said the traffic plan has vehicles entering the lot via the Lawrence Avenue entrance and includes employees using handheld, wireless devices to take orders while vehicles are in the drive-thru lane to get them food faster.
The development is strategically located in the heart of Harwood Heights and could potentially serve the nearly quarter of a million people within a 3-mile radius of it, according to the developer’s website. A representative for Portillo’s expects the location to generate $10 million to 11 million in annual revenue and employ between 175 and 225 people total, with 30 workers on site at any time. Meanwhile Art Van’s Harwood Heights location would employ between 30 and 40 full- and part-time employees and be open seven days a week for most of the year. As Art Van is a privately owned company, representatives declined to say how much revenue the new location is expected to generate for the company.
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“As a mayor, my goal is to fill all of our vacant properties,” Jezierny said. “This property has been vacant for a long time. But it also is important to get all of your comments and incorporate as much as we can [of them]. So don’t think that your comments are unheard.”
In addition to the new businesses, a new environmental building will be built in the southeast section of the proposed development. Due to the industrial nature of the lot’s previous owner, Illinois Tool Works, this new building will be built around existing equipment, which will remediate the 8-acre property for a number of years after the proposed development is completed, Pesek said.
The proposed plans for the development are on file at the village hall, and Jezierny invited any resident interested to examine them there. The next step for the development is for the plan commission’s recommended proposal to go before the village board for review. Pending the village’s approval, Schoditsch hopes to break ground on the project later this year.
Alex V. Hernandez is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.