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Officials break ground for Lake & Forest redevelopment project

Oct. 9, 2014 – Village President Anan Abu-Taleb welcomed a crowd of about 75 business supporters, owners and residents who turned out Thursday morning to watch Village officials and senior executives from the development and construction teams ceremoniously breakground for the long-awaited redevelopment of the northeast corner of Lake Street and Forest Avenue.

Donning hardhats and wielding gold-painted shovels, officials turned over the first of what is sure to be many tons of earth that will be excavated to make way for a 21-story mixed-use building with 270 rental apartments, 25,000 square feet of ground-level retail and an integrated garage with 588 parking spaces.

“This project represents the essence of a public-private partnership,” said Oak Park Village President Anan Abu-Taleb. “The Village is leveraging a parcel of underdeveloped public property to bring nearly $100 million in private investment to our community. The project also sends the message to other developers that Oak Park is open for business.”

Work will start in earnest later this month when demolition of the vacant 40-year-old Lake & Forest Parking Garage is scheduled to begin. Once the site is cleared, construction is expected to take about 18 months.

The project is a joint venture between affiliates of Golub & Company, a Chicago-based real estate investment and development firm, and Wood Partners LLC, a national real estate company that acquires, develops, constructs and manages high-density and mixed-use communities.

The project will feature 21 stories of luxury apartments, including studio, one- and two-bedrooms with sweeping views of the surrounding community and the Chicago skyline to the east. The building will include a fitness center, community room, large landscaped outdoor deck, cybercafé and many other amenities to meet the needs of today’s renters.

Designed by the Chicago office of Gensler Architects, the glass-enclosed tower features a podium wrapped with Roman brick and large shop windows for ground and second floor commercial users. The project is being built by Tishman Construction to meet U.S. Green Building Council LEED Silver requirements.

Redevelopment of the high-profile parcel in downtown Oak Park has been in the works since October 2006, when the developer purchased the adjoining private property and contacted the Village about incorporating the garage into a major project.

While the economic downturn of the recession created delays, officials say they never lost faith that the project would be built.

“It was a long journey to get to today’s groundbreaking, but we know this project will enhance downtown Oak Park and generate economic and community benefits for the Village,” said Michael Glazier, Senior Vice President at Golub. “We appreciate the faith the Village of Oak Park has placed in our team, and we look forward to rewarding that trust in us and this project in the years to come.”

The project represents an investment of about $99 million that officials say will create construction jobs while it is being built and retail positions when it is completed, as well as bring in an estimated $1.3 million in new property and sales taxes each year.

The new parking garage, which will be shared by the public and residential and retail tenants, will replace the public parking garage built in about 1974. The aging garage had become difficult and increasingly expensive to maintain in its final years.

The Lake & Forest project is one of several planned for downtown, including a major mixed-use development on the surface parking lot on Lake Street east of Harlem Avenue.  The Village also plans to extend the Marion Street palette west on South Boulevard from Marion to Harlem Avenue and negotiations are underway to redevelop the Village-owned property on South Boulevard east of Harlem Avenue.

Information on the projects, including traffic and parking updates, will be posted at www.oak-park.us/projects and distributed via Village enews, www.facebook.com/vopnews and twitter.com/vopnews.

artist rendition of the building planned for the corner of Lake Street and Forest Avenue in Oak Park.