The East Dundee Village Board has chosen an Evanston company to redevelop the former Haeger Potteries property, a $76.3 million project that will create 136 apartment and town house units.
Trustees voted to start negotiating with Brinshore Development on a redevelopment agreement under which the village would sell Brinshore the property for $1. The company would be responsible for demolition and construction.
The village bought the property at 7 Maiden Lane in May 2024 for $600,000 and sought development proposals in July. Three companies responded, and staff selected the plan submitted by Brinshore.
The company plans to raze the factory building with the exception of a three-story loft building at the north end and a low-slung industrial building near the middle of the block, said Mike Roane, Brinshore’s senior vice president, who presented concept plans at the board’s Monday night.
The loft building would be turned into apartments and the industrial building used for residential amenities, like a community center and courtyard, Roane said. It will have a Haeger Preservation Plaza to honor the site’s history and an area where the factory’s kilns were located will be incorporated into the design, he said.
Brinshore plans to build two four-story apartment buildings along the site’s western border fronting the Fox River Trail and facing a park East Dundee plans to build. A water tower on the property will remain.
Each building will have one-, two-, or three-bedroom apartments renting at the market rate. A section of the units will be set aside as affordable housing, Roane said.
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In total, there will be 55 three-bedroom, 25 two-bedroom, and 25 one-bedroom apartments. Additionally, the site will have 30 townhomes, Roane said.
“Our goal when we started talking with the architect was to leverage the proximity to the river and the bike path and try to integrate the new proposal into the existing community,” he said.
The proposal calls for closing off South River Street to create a cul-de-sac. Brinshore will do a traffic study as part of the project to see what impact the closure will have on traffic along Van Buren Street.
The development will have active space, green space, and sustainable features like green roofs and solar panels, Roane said.
“I think this is a really good first try at what we envision for the site,” Roane said.
Trustee Scott Kunze questioned whether the modern design would fit in with the surrounding area, a requirement East Dundee had for the redevelopment. “To me, these are so different from what’s in the surrounding area.”
The look of the development is negotiable, Roane said.
“This is just the first shot of a very, very schematic design,” he said.
The development is mostly residential, but Brinshore is open to discussing the addition of commercial space, like a coffee shop, near the Fox River Trail. It would depend on whether there’s a market for it, Roane said.
Resident Brittany Hudson said she likes 90% of the plan but said she believed commercial space was needed.
“I feel the people of East Dundee need more for this community to thrive. We need to use some of the space for businesses,” she said. “I feel if you have the Haeger space only residential, it will be oversaturated.”
Brinshore’s proposal is available on the village’s website, with details on how Brinshore is funding the project through a mix of private sources, Illinois Housing Development Authority tax credits and Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district funds from East Dundee.
The village plans to create a new TIF district for the project. The public will have the chance to comment on the proposed district before it goes forward.
Monday’s action is the first step in a process that could take two years. Brinshore expects to start construction in January 2027.
“Nothing is going to happen overnight,” Village Administrator Erika Storlie said. “This is a project that everybody really cares about and has a lot of feelings about and wants to be successful.”
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.