Concerns With 4-Story Condo Development in Clarendon Hills Emerge

Four of six Clarendon Hills plan commissioners on hand at Village Hall Thursday night said they would have trouble supporting a four-story condo development proposed for the vacant land at 88 Park Ave. for reasons including its size and its lack of retail space.

Landowner and Clarendon Hills resident Mike Van Zandt, who purchased the property earlier this year, came to the Clarendon Hills Plan Commission Thursday for a “conceptual plan presentation.” Commissioners did not take action, but had a chance to provide feedback on the project and ask questions of the developer.

A public hearing will likely take place at the commission's next meeting scheduled for July 18.

The brick condo building presented Thursday would rise four stories above grade at its northern boundary (Park Avenue) and three stories above grade at its southern boundary. The development’s first level would contain parking, which would run at grade level along Park Avenue and below grade in the southern portion of the property, where the land rises 11 feet.

The top three floors would contain 11 residential units.

Commissioners Len Austin, Jan Morel, James Scheer and Richard Trembath all were concerned with the size of the building, which would be a neighbor of the single-family residences along Prospect Avenue south of downtown.

“It’s just too massive,” Trembath said.

Trembath suggested a “transitional” design that would lessen the difference between the development and the nearby houses.

"I’m not struggling with 11 units, but I’m struggling with the bulk of this building and the size of it," the commissioner said.

In addition to being concerned with the building’s size, Morel said he doesn’t think it’s appropriate for the property, which is zoned B-1 for business, to not have at least a small amount of retail.

“I think that corner is one of our main corners in town and I don’t think we should give up on having a piece of retail there,” Morel said.

Van Zandt said the price of the land and the cost of construction would lead to retail rent rates of around $25 per square foot. Village manager Randy Recklaus said that is more than the average rate in the downtown business district.

“Retail on a rent-versus-cost basis is uneconomical,” Van Zandt said, explaining that he would likely have to raise condo prices to support any retail. “You’re essentially asking a condo buyer to subsidize retail.”

Commissioners Gregory Jordan and Gregory Kuhn expressed support for the development despite reservations about the size. 

Jordan said he doesn’t think successful retail would even be possible at the location based on the rental rates Van Zandt quoted and the property's location across the street from the main drag of downtown.

“You will never get me to believe that economically feasible retail is going to work at that spot,” Jordan said.

“That is a residential property and that will always be a residential property.”

A public hearing on the project will take place at the plan commission’s next meeting scheduled for July 18.

Back in 2006, the Clarendon Hills Village Board approved permitting for a three-story, mixed-use development on the same property, but that project never came to fruition. Van Zandt has no affiliation with the 2006 project.

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