The once-bustling retail corridor of Skokie’s Main Street is poised for a facelift, as trustees move forward with a years-in-the-making improvement plan
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they hope will spur new life following years of steady decline in the area.Officials unanimously approved a $1.8 million contract bid from Copenhaver Construction at their July 20 Village Board meeting, the lowest of four offers to revamp the area’s streetscapes.
This project will focus on a portion of the long-term vision for the Main Street corridor, with sidewalk/plaza upgrades slated for the south side near Karlov Avenue and Keystone Avenue and the north side near Keystone and a point west of Crawford Avenue.
Residents and visitors to Main Street can expect a variety of new additions to the streetscape, including fresh hardscaping materials, increased space for gateway and art elements, additional planters and landscaping, site furnishing and an extension to the curb and crosswalks.
According to officials, the contractor will also regrade the identified site sections, repair drainage damage and install new irrigation systems and electrical installations for the Village’s light poles.
Skokie will use an applicable $600,000 grant previously awarded from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) to pay for the improvements, along with additional funding from this year’s Capital Improvement Project budget.
“I wish I was there so you could see how moved and teary-eyed I am that Main Street is getting this attention,” said Trustee Lisa Levy, who participated in the Board meeting via Zoom.
Levy has for years been a primary advocate for Main Street’s revival, having lived in Skokie for more than a decade and only knowing it in its current state of “empty storefronts and buildings in despair,” she previously told Pioneer Press.
“I’m so, so very grateful to the previous Board, so very grateful to staff… for moving this along and [I’m] looking forward to Main Street success and the continued revitalization of other areas of Skokie that have seen disinvestment over the years.”
“I’m just gonna also give a shout out to our own colleagues who had the vision to start this and get things going, and also this Board, who is watching the fruits there, so this is exciting,” Trustee Keith Robinson voiced at Monday’s meeting.
“I can’t wait to see the groundbreaking,” Robinson added.
In 2023 and 2024, officials commissioned landscape designer MKSK Inc. to conduct a study of the Main Street commercial corridor between the five blocks of Crawford and Tripp Avenues and make recommendations for improvements, according to the village.
As a result of the planning study, the village put together an action plan for improvements and engaged MKSK to prepare “schematic designs and construction documents” for the corridor between Crawford and Kildare Avenue, extending it a block further, John Lockerby, Skokie’s village manager, said at the July 20 meeting.
Given the extensive nature of the project and the needed construction approval agreements with current property owners located along Main Street, the village will pursue the plan in phases, so as to minimize business impact, officials said.
Noting that some business owners in the affected area recently “expressed concern” over the pending construction, Skokie Mayor Ann Tennes said she has asked Lockerby to “have staff prepare a very special, targeted marketing plan” for making sure the community is up to speed on the village’s plans.
“I’ll start that now by encouraging the community to continue to patronize all those businesses on Main Street during the construction,” Tennes said.
“They’re stepping up; we have to step up. I think there’s a collective responsibility that we all share.”
Sixteen-year Skokie resident Ken Marley took to the podium at public comment time at the Board’s July 20 meeting to inform trustees that he hadn’t “heard of this proposed work” before the evening’s meeting and was concerned about how the village intended to “convey to the public that this is an effective and equitable way to approach [the] Main Street development.”
“Looking at the plans, it appears that a portion of the work that we’re performing is being done on private property, and I don’t know what the precedent is for us spending public money on private land, and whether that’s truly the case, and how we have landed on that decision,” Marley said.
“The intent of focusing on the block just west of Keystone on Main Street, so one block west of Crawford, is that the village bought that storefront…and turned it into a destination,” Village Manager Lockerby responded to Marley.
“But eventually, the plan seeks for the village to acquire property along that whole block, and then for that plot block to redevelop or to become a destination for a community gathering.”
Lockerby added that the “plan has many steps to it,” but the village purchasing available storefronts and enhancing underutilized space between the sidewalk and the buildings is the primary goal.
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“The way that we, the village, obtain the right to [purchase property] is through agreements with each property owner [along the corridor],” Lockerby said.
“In addition to those agreements, the village is obtaining the right, if the property owner wants to purchase the property, wants to sell their property, then the village would have the right to purchase that property first.”
With a vote of approval from the Board, construction can now move forward for the two-block corridor, although an official start date on the project has not yet been confirmed.
The full scope of the Main Street redevelopment effort is expected to take over 20 years to materialize, due to a significant number of properties needing to be purchased and redeveloped by the Village, per previous reports.
Officials remain optimistic the project’s kickoff will reinvigorate residents to return to the dilapidated area.