Tinley panel approves project
Boulevard at Central Station mixed-use development still needs OK from Village Board
Long-delayed plans for a large apartment development in downtown Tinley Park appear to be finally moving ahead after getting the green light from village planners.
The project, Boulevard at Central Station, still needs approval from the Village Board, with construction likely not getting underway until next year.
To be built in two stages, Boulevard would contain 165 oneand two-bedroom apartments as well as nearly 32,000 square feet of commercial space. In total, the development would have a little more than 296,000 square feet of space and be located on the south
side of South Street, just east of Oak Park Avenue.
Planning for the project dates to 2001, with obstacles such as inadequate financing and the economic recession having stalled the development, whichwould be the first of its scale in Tinley Park’s downtown business district.
“We’ll work real hard to get this thing in the ground,” David Sosin, an attorney for the developer, told planners after their Thursday votes on approving site plans and a specialuse permit.
South Street Development LLC, which is building the apartments, plans two four-story buildings, with amenities including a fitness studio, a club room, an outdoor pool and an outdoor grilling station.
The first phase, at the southeast corner of South Street and 67th Court, will have 66 apartments and 15,000 square feet of commercial space on the first floor. The second phase, whichwould go up directly east of the first building, would have 99 apartments and the balance of the commercial space.
An incentive agreement being negotiated with the village calls for South Street Development to complete the first phase within two years after the start of construction, then begin the second phase within two years of finishing the first building. Sosin told the Plan Commission that South Street Development has a “very strong incentive” to complete both buildings within four years.
Under going many alterations over the years in appearance and name, the long-anticipated project is widely viewed as a potential catalyst for other downtown development, and South Street Development realizes a lot is riding on it, Sosin said.
“We all know we have got to get this right,” he said Friday.
Sosin said that South Street Development and the village are “working very hard” on finalizing an incentive agreement that would, among other things, reimburse the developer for infrastructure work around the site, which includes land owned by South Street as well as parcels owned by the village.
He said there is strong interest from restaurant operators and other commercial tenants for the ground-level space in the Boulevard, whichwould be immediately south of the Oak Park Avenue Metra station.
During the Plan Commission’s public hearing prior to voting on the Boulevard, one resident asked whether the village could require that the commercial space in the first building be fully leased before South Street could proceed with the second phase.
Commission Chairman Ken Shaw said such a requirement “could potentially drag out” the completion of the overall development.
Longtime resident and former Park District Commissioner Ron Centanni said he felt the current design of the building is too modern compared with earlier architectural rendering and could “stick out like a sore thumb” in the downtown business district. He said the development might be in a better position to draw commercial tenants “if it had a more historical look to it.”
Sosin said Friday he could not disclose the expected cost of building the project and that it was uncertain whether construction could begin before the end of this year, noting that final engineering and architectural plans still need to be drawn up. He said he expected the Village Board would vote on the Plan Commission’s recommendations sometime next month.
The first building would have a surface parking lot that eventually would be turned over to the village for public parking after the completion of the second building, which would have a parking garage for tenants.
Parking along South Street could be used by customers of the buildings’ commercial tenants, and parking during the evening hours would be available in the Metra lot to the north of the apartments, Sosin said at Thursday’s meeting.
South Street Development’s principals are Robert Hansen and auto dealership owner Joseph Rizza. Hansen was the developer of Tinley Pointe Center, a mixed-use building at 183rd Street and Convention Center Drive, just east of Harlem Avenue, which combines commercial space on the ground floor with residential units above.
He also haswon approval from Orland Park officials to build The Pointe, which would have 64 apartments and be built at the northwest corner of 143rd Street and Southwest Highway, just west of the Ninety7Fifty on the Park apartments. The 103,000- square-foot development would include a rooftop terrace, a lounge, a fitness center, a community room and underground parking.
Boulevard and The Pointe, as well as Ninety7Fifty on the Park, are part of a trend that’s been embraced by many Chicago suburbs in promoting transit-oriented development. Typically, projects combine high- density residential uses, such as apartments, with commercial users situated near commuter rail stations.