A Bannockburn intersection is seeing an increase in activity, including an all-new retail development going up and an existing business plaza filling back up.
Area motorists have likely seen construction work on the northeast corner of Waukegan Road and Half Day Road, just south of the Mariano’s grocery store, which will become Bannockburn Crossing. According to village documents, between its five buildings, the development will have more than 40,000 square feet of retail space.
Bannockburn Village Manager Stephanie Hannon said the planned tenants include the Gardner School, Dunkin Donuts, Heart Auto, Chipotle, Just Salads, Wells Fargo, potentially Hammer & Nails, and two other unknown tenants.
Documents show the largest building will be roughly 16,200 square feet, and the smallest about 3,500 square feet.
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Hannon said the first approvals from the village were given in the spring of 2024, with final approval last summer.
The new development is “very exciting” for the village. Because Bannockburn is a small community, there aren’t many areas for new developments, she said, making it especially valuable.
The corner of land, previously in unincorporated Lake County, was annexed, bringing additional real estate tax revenue to the village. Coupled with the new business offerings the development will have, it is a “win-win” for the village and residents, she said.
According to Hannon, the current construction timeline has businesses opening by the end of the summer, although she noted that this could be subject to change.
Looking ahead, Hannon said the next major property that needs to be developed is the Trinity International University property. Back in 2023, Trinity announced it would be ending its residential and in-person undergraduate education at the Bannockburn campus due to falling attendance.
Across Half Day Road from the future Bannockburn Crossing is an existing business plaza, Bannockburn Green. It also has some ongoing construction, with a new Starbucks going up, Hannon said. And according to one new business owner, the plaza has seen an uptick in activity.
Highland Park resident Anthony Salerno, along with Justin Litovsky, are co-owners of Ground Up Sports Lab, a new club aimed at young baseball and softball players in the area that held its ribbon-cutting last month.
“We’re really in it because we’re so passionate about baseball,” he said. “Youth baseball is something that is in all our DNA here.”
While Salerno didn’t witness the shift himself, he said many of the parents have noted the recent “transformation” of the plaza. His particular area of the shopping center has been nicknamed “Kids Corner,” he said, with the preschool, dance studio — which his own daughter attends — and now their sports club all within a few hundred yards.
Salerno gave his own reason for choosing the village for his business.
“Bannnockburn is kind of a neutral area,” Salerno said. “We’re kind of in this neutral area where we’re not too deep in Highland Park, where we might cut off Deerfield or Lake Forest … because there’s some competitiveness across the travel programs.”