Public hearings on the second phase of the Optima Verdana luxury apartments on Green Bay Road in Wilmette are expected to start in February and plans include more than $2 million earmarked for affordable housing in village, officials said.
Optima Verdana Phase 2, at 721 to 739 Green Bay Road, is still in the planning stage but if the village board signs off on the project later this year it will be build directly north of Optima Verdana Phase 1 at 1210 Central Ave.
Founded in 1978 by David C. Hovey, FAIA, Optima is a family owned, privately-held, design-driven real estate development firm with offices in Scottsdale, Arizona and Chicago, according to a posting on the Wilmette website.
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The developer contributed $1.6 million to affordable housing in Wilmette as part of their agreement with the village to build Optima Veranda 1, and plans call for them to donate more than $2.8 to affordable housing when Optima Verdana Phase 2 is constructed.
Wilmette Village Manager Michael Braiman said the developer had to show a public benefit to the village to get the zoning relief it needed to build Optima 1 and must do the same to build Optima 2. In both cases, Optima said its contribution to affordable housing in the village is the public benefit it brings to the table.
“It’s a sum of money provided to the village specifically earmarked toward affordable housing,” Braiman explained. “For Verenda, one they created an affordable land trust program with Community Partners for Affordable Housing (CPAH). We then granted the money to CPAH.”
From there, Braiman said CPAH is able to leverage the money to receive state and county tax credits that can be combined with initial funding to build single family homes, apartments or condos for affordable prices.
“We have been really excited about the success of the land trust program that was implemented just a couple of years ago.” Braiman said.
Other public benefits the developer could have cited include — but are not limited to — the provision of public open space/recreational facilities, public art, public plazas, preservation of historically significant structures, innovative stormwater management, sustainable design, and provision of accessible dwelling units beyond what is require by code, village staff said.
Phase two of Optima Verdana is designed to complete phase one, “creating a single, harmonious composition,” according to information on the village website. It says the two buildings share the same structural system and use of a glass curtain wall set outside the frame and that phase two is designed to step back on levels four and five at the corner of Green Bay Road and Washington Avenue to “create a tapering effect that aesthetically concludes the combined forms with a rhythmic, logical ending.”
The building will house 150 luxury one, two, and three-bedroom rental residences and an additional 7,370 square feet of destination commercial and retail space, and is “designed to complete the existing Optima Verdana project with vibrant sustainable architecture, high quality construction, and extensive amenities and services.”
Braiman said the development still has to go through public hearings, the appearance review commission and the planning commission before it goes to the board for a vote, which he said likely won’t happen until April at the earliest.
“We are months away from the village board even considering whether or not to approve the project,” he said. “The Downtown Master Plan calls for increased height and density from Washington to Wilmette Avenue and from there it steps down. There are only a handful of sites where development such as this would be appropriate along Green Bay Road and this is one of those sites.”
Brian L. Cox is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.