Developer Hopes To Appease Trustees On Willow Festival North

After for a retail center on Waukegan Road, the developer says his company will attempt to meet their concerns—but can’t afford a long, drawn-out approval process.

“I’d be lying if I said we weren’t frustrated with the reception we received,” said Paul Sheridan, partner with Hamilton Partners Inc., the firm that developed Willow Festival in 2007.

Hamilton Partners is seeking approval for “Willow Festival North,” a 12,000 square-foot shopping center including a Dunkin Donuts, Jimmy John’s and dry cleaners, among other tenants. It would be located at 2370 Waukegan Road, just north of Willow Festival. 

At a preliminary hearing Tuesday night, trustees said their major concerns about the proposed retail center involved traffic flow and the appropriateness of the tenants. They worried that two drive-throughs planned for the site—located next to a Chase Bank with a drive-through that is currently under construction—would create traffic hazards and possibly impede police and fire vehicles.

“The traffic pattern that is presented here is indefensible,” said Trustee Michael Scolaro. 

But Sheridan said both drive-throughs were critical to lining up tenants. One is designed for a Dunkin Donuts, and the other is designed for a Tide Dry Cleaners. That drive-through involves a valet lane for customers, who could pull up to the store, pass their dry cleaning to an employee under a covered entry, then pay at a window farther down.

“Given the reception we’ve received, I’m not sure we can move forward with that deal,” said Sheridan. “I’m not sure that we have the luxury of time to fight that battle.”

Going forward, he said his firm would like to work with trustees and the Plan Commission to get a better sense of what the village is looking for and to find out how much of the plans Hamilton Partners actually had a shot at getting approved. 

Currently, the firm has letters of intent from three clients, but has not filled the entire shopping center.

In a bad economic climate, Trustee Michael Scolaro worried that the proposed retail center might become “just another strip mall.” Other trustees said stores like Jimmy John’s and Dunkin’ Donuts weren’t quite what they envisioned for the site.

Once home to the Caravel Inn restaurant, the property has been vacant for several years. A bid to fill the site with a car dealership was stymied in 2003 when neighbors complained. The Society of The Divine Word, which owns the land Willow Festival sits on, purchased the property that same year, then leased it to Hamilton Partners in August 2010.

Sheridan promised that his firm’s plans would offer an attractively designed environment, and noted Hamilton Partners’ success in filling Willow Festival. In the 417,000 square foot shopping center, there remain roughly 18,000 square feet left to lease, according to the firm’s website.

“We were trying to do something very upscale and North Shore,” he said, adding that the plans for the new site call for a patio in the middle and potentially a water feature in back.

Given trustees’ concerns over traffic flow, however, he said the water feature might have to be scrapped. 

Ultimately, Sheridan said, his goal was to make the property an extension of Willow Festival, with the same street lighting and landscaping as well as a connecting roadway that would allow drivers to travel from one shopping center to another without going back out on Waukegan Road. 

“It’d be nice if we were given a little credit for our expertise and our ability to get a proper retail center done,” Sheridan said. “Perhaps it’s just us spending more time with the board.”

Sheridan said his firm is currently assessing it’s approach, but hopes to present a version of the project to the Plan Commission soon, if not at the committee’s next meeting Sept. 6. 

“We’re going to do our best to address the concerns of the board of trustees,” he said. “Thus far we’ve had a good relationship with Northbrook, and we’d like to see that continue.”