Harwood Heights has agreed to pay the developer of a Portillo’s and Art Van Furniture location planned for the vacant 8-acre lot on the corner of Lawrence and Harlem avenues more than $1 million as part of an economic incentive agreement.
Chicago-based Bradford Real Estate — the same company behind the Lawrence Avenue Mariano’s store that opened three years ago — purchased the long-vacant site last year with plans to build the retail center along the busy commercial corner at 7300 W. Lawrence Ave. The village has since offered a $1.075 million financial incentive to the developer, to be paid in general obligation bonds after Sept. 1.
It was unclear how much of the sales tax dollars the development will eventually generate would be distributed back to the village in return for the upfront payment.
“We determined that the benefit we’ll get from the sales taxes will pay off the bonds,” Harwood Heights Mayor Arlene Jezierny said. We want to fill our vacant properties, and that’s what we’re doing — creating opportunities for our residents to enjoy shopping in our community while reaping the benefits of the tax dollars, so we can eliminate higher taxes.”
A third retailer is expected to join the Portillo’s and Art Van Furniture development, according to plans presented to the village, but a lease hasn’t been signed yet. Last year, the village sold the lot across the street from where the new Portillo’s will open to one of the chain’s competitors — Buona Beef. The 3,950-square-foot restaurant opened on last fall after the village agreed to give Buona Beef $200,000 in sales tax rebates if it meets the terms of a financial incentive agreement.
While village leaders welcome the boost in new sales tax revenue retailers are bringing in to the community, residents near the site of the new Portillo’s who attended a series of plan commission meetings last spring weren’t keen on the excess traffic and noise the restaurant could bring to the corner.
A new traffic light will go up on Lawrence Avenue to help reduce traffic near the main entrance of the 9,900-square-foot Portillo’s and a 72,000-square-foot Art Van Furniture store.
Plans for the property show two entrances. A main entryway with a new traffic light would face Lawrence Avenue at Octavia Avenue, and a second drive would enter off Harlem Avenue at the north end of the Parkway Bank property near Ainslie Street, according to preliminary site plans presented by the developers.
Some of the residents who spoke at the public hearings said they lived on Ainslie Street and were concerned that motorists would use their residential street to get to the retail center.
“Ainslie will be more of a secondary entrance to the shopping center,” said Luay Aboona, principal for traffic consulting firm KLOA of Rosemont. Aboona added that most traffic would go through a signalized main entrance that will be installed at Lawrence Avenue.
Aboona also said traffic signs would be installed restricting delivery trucks and other traffic from going west out of the property onto Ainslie to avoid Harlem.
Plans for that traffic signal are still being worked out by the Illinois Department of Transportation, Jezierny said.
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Construction on the site was expected to begin sometime in September, according to the village.
Portillo’s spokesman Nick Scarpino said the restaurant would likely open in early 2017.
Natalie Hayes is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.