Village President: Glenview is ‘Growing A Lot…and Will Continue to Grow’

Managing residential and commercial growth in the future is a top priority for Glenview, according to village president Jim Patterson.

Patterson highlighted new developments throughout the village during his annual “state of the village” address hosted by the Glenview Chamber of Commerce last Thursday, including the Midtown Square project downtown and the Heinen’s Fine Foods coming to Waukegan Road.

“We’re growing a lot and our expectation is that we will continue to grow at a much slower rate,” Patterson said, noting exponential growth over the last 100 years in Glenview. “We have to figure out how to manage that.”

He listed at least a dozen projects going on around town as examples of planned development. The Midtown Square project—replacing the former Glenview fire station downtown—will add 5,000 square feet of office space, 138 apartment units and 9,000 square feet of retail including a coffee drive-through. Occupancy is expected in fall 2014, according to Patterson. Other developments downtown include a 44,000-square-foot Heinen’s Fine Foods that will replace the former Dominick’s store at 1020 Waukegan Rd. Completion is scheduled in spring 2014, Patterson said.

Trustees chose to locate the library downtown in order to encourage more development there, and he said the village board was continuing to make changes to the municipal campus to improve the downtown. The board recently approved a new $6.3 million fire station at 1215 Waukegan Rd., after the old one was demolished to make room for Midtown Square. And trustees are also talking about moving Village Hall from its current location at 1225 Waukegan Rd. to an addition to the police station, outside of downtown. 

Further afield, the former Culligan site at Willow and Sanders roads by I-294 is on track for a Mariano’s grocery store, 290 apartments, a health club, daycare and retail space, according to Patterson.  Another Mariano’s, plus 238 apartments and more retail space, are coming to the northeast corner of Waukegan and Golf roads, at the former Avon property. Commercial and residential construction is expected to begin in spring 2014 and continue through fall 2015, according to the village, while some intersection improvements will be made in the summer of 2014. 

In the Glen, Patterson noted a new Fields dealership going in at Willow Road and Patriot Boulevard as well as the redevelopment of the last remaining parcel of the Glenview Naval Air Station, which was purchased by the village in 2007 for $23.9 million. Willow Creek Community Church is planning to build a 75,000 square-foot facility on one half of the parcel, while residential developer Edward R. James Partners will construct 172 new homes. Plans for both projects must still be approved by the village’s plan commission, which is holding several hearings on the matter this fall. 

Patterson acknowledged the large number of people who had turned out at recently to protest plans for the church, which many neighbors have said would create too much traffic in what they say is an already congested area.

“Everyone wants to know what’s going to happen in their backyard,” he said.

Other developments he highlighted include the Kraft property at Waukegan and Golf roads in Morton Grove, which will become an Illinois Tool Works and McGrath Audi dealership, as well as a residential developments going in at Milwaukee and Lake avenues, new investments at Milwaukee Avenue and Central Street and the American College of Chest Physicians’s relocation from Northbrook to a 45,000-square-foot facility at Waukegan Road and Patriot Boulevard.