Wilmette has seen a flurry of retail and residential development lately, so village officials are optimistic in their outlook. The village’s commercial vacancy rate dropped just below 6%, staff shared at a Village Board meeting last month. At one point, however, Village Manager Michael Braiman shared another headline that could have a significant impact on downtown Wilmette.
The Metra parking lot is owned by Union Pacific Railroad, and Braiman said his understanding is that they have a potential purchaser who could develop a residential building on the downtown land.
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“That’s a complicated project with the public parking that’s already there for Metra commuters,” he said.The narrow parking lot next to the Metra station could see “some type of redevelopment application, possibly this year,” though the village has no details yet, he added. The lot has more than 300 parking spots, and downtown visitors also use it.
Braiman said at that Village Board meeting that the parking lot site was “under contract” with a buyer, but Union Pacific has distanced itself from that characterization of the Metra lot.
“We do not have that property under contract,” said Robynn Tysver, a spokeswoman for the Omaha, Nebraska-based railroad.
When asked about that, Braiman chalked up the difference to a misunderstanding about the deal. More information is expected in coming months.
A Metra spokesman declined to comment on the potential redevelopment. The station serves the Union Pacific North Line, with an average of 1,400 daily mid-week boardings in 2025, according to a Metra report.
A resident contacted the village objecting to a potential loss of parking spaces at the Metra station, and Braiman responded to him, in an email contained in a village agenda packet, “I have been very clear in my preliminary conversations with the development team that any project will be expected to replace all the public parking spaces currently onsite at the developer’s cost.”
The Metra lot is not the only spot in the village center that has attracted interest from developers, Braiman said at the April 28 meeting. The owners of a building on Green Bay Road at Central Avenue, the former home of the Lawrence Deans bakery, are “looking to sell,” he said.
“We’ve heard from several interested parties,” Braiman said. “Some boutique hotel concepts, some mixed-use residential developers who are interested in the site. Don’t know when it will move forward, or if the sale will move forward, but that’s where we’re at right now.”
Braiman has also heard interest in the Chase branch site next to the Metra station.
Any such development might follow in the footsteps of the Optima residential and retail buildings along Green Bay Road. The glassy, six-story Optima Verdana complex hosts a street-level Egg Harbor Cafe. Next door, a similar, if slightly more colorful, building will rise under a proposal approved by the Village Board in 2024.
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The Optima Lumina development, which still needs some permit approvals before construction can begin, will include 128 condominium units. Optima will contribute $3.8 million to the village’s affordable housing efforts when issued its building permit, Business Development Planner Lisa Brosnan said.
Other North Shore locales have gotten their share of the recent redevelopment action. In Winnetka’s tony downtown, the under-construction One Winnetka project promises 59 luxury apartments and ground-level retail.
And in downtown Evanston, construction has commenced on The Legacy, an apartment complex on Chicago Avenue. In late 2025 the City Council narrowly approved plans for a residential tower on Davis Street that would become Evanston’s tallest building.
Wilmette’s vaunted downtown dining scene and high-end Plaza del Lago makeover also featured prominently in the village’s presentation. The 6% vacancy rate, down from a recent high of 9% in 2024, might go even lower with a redevelopment of the Lawrence Deans site, village officials hinted.
“The majority of the Village Center vacancies are concentrated at the Central and Green Bay Road corner, which is a location that we view as a tremendous opportunity,” Brosnan said.
Over at Edens Plaza, Walter E. Smithe, the Itasca-based furniture retailer, plans to open a store in 2027, Brosnan added.