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Developers address Lake Zurich board
Updated: August 27, 2012 10:50AM
LAKE ZURICH — For the most part, Lake Zurich officials were irked by the plans proposed for the downtown area’s Block A development at Monday night’s special meeting.
Because the developers’ proposals were different from what the board had originally reviewed prior to the meeting, officials decided to table discussions and questions for a later date. The discussion could be revisited as early as Aug. 6, at which time the board will have had the time to understand each in-depth proposal.
Those that presented included Richard Sova with Landover Corporation; John Bruegelmans with ARDE; J. Moises Cukierman with Antunovich Associates; and David Smith with Southshore Real Estate Development.
All four developers, who had approached the village unsolicited back in February, were given 30 minutes at Monday’s meeting to propose their plans for Block A—the lakefront area bordered by West Main Street, Mionske Drive and Lake Street, ending at 30 Lake St.
Trustee Tom Poynton said that he was bothered by the level of disregard they had for the backup research provided on the village’s website.
“If anyone went to the website and looked at the backup for this meeting, they would probably find that most of the stuff in the backup wasn’t relevant to what was presented tonight,” Poynton said. “We saw totally new stuff; that bothers me a little bit.”
Last year, officials approved a contract with Teska Associates Inc. for downtown redevelopment and tax increment financing district consulting services. The research done by Teska, as well as by Kane, McKenna & Associates, was posted on the website to help identify project areas within the TIF that would be best suited for immediate development.
Village officials plan to first discuss a number of factors before reconvening in about two weeks, those of which include financing and compatibility with their vision for downtown Lake Zurich.
Richard Sova with Landover Corporation presented Block A as a Promenade Place, which would be a condominium building with 87 units. The building was drawn up to look over the water, and was explained to have different views from each of its units.
J. Moises Cukierman and Antunovich Associates proposed developing Block A into a 73,535-square-foot area with 113 residential units, 146 onsite parking spaces and 16 street spaces. The proposed L-shaped building would be complete with a walk-out garden area on the first floor, areas for exercise and a theater.
John Bruegelmans and ARDE presented Lake Zurich as less Alpine, and more “green.” They envisioned both residential and retail space, for which they already had two retailers interested in. Bruegelmans and ARDE also envisioned a village square within the downtown area that would help to reanimate the town.
Finally, David Smith and Southshore Real Estate Development discussed a project that would take advantage of mixed use spaces—spaces that could have a combination of shops, restaurants and condominiums above. Smith talked about working on the blocks in five phases: E, C-North, A, B and C-South.
