CityPark Moves into Second Phase

December 28, 2000
Lincolnshire Review
By Joanna Pluta

Five years after Lincolnshire annexed that land at the corner of Milwaukee Avenue and Aptakisic Road, the environmental Community Development Company finally broke ground on the last of the CityPark development sited. The Village Board approved final construction plans in June, after ECD president Scott Greenberg announced the inclusion of high-end restaurants, a live theater and both retail and office space.

Developers wowed the Village Board this summer with plans for a Starbucks coffee house, Red Robin gourmet hamburgers and Chart House seafood restaurant that would stand alongside a 70,000 square-foot corporate center. More than 300 trees, shrubs and plants were proposed to maintain a green landscape year-round, as well as bursts of color during the warmer months.

But while Lettuce Entertain You was negotiating a new Italian-themed restaurant for the site, Village trustees were wrangling over the details of the 34-foot monument sign on the corner of the development, attracting motorists to the complex without dwarfing the surrounding low-lying buildings.

By the end of the year, developers had secured permission to go ahead with plans to build a circular rotunda at the center of the 78,000 square-foot retail space. A two-story day spa and live entertainment are included in the early plans for the retail side of the $90 million project. The only definite plans for the corporate side are a fiberoptic hub and dual electrical sources, designed to attract businesses that never shut down their 24-hour operations.

Considering the $400,000 per year that the existing hotel, movie theater and restaurants in CityPark paid the Village in taxes in 1999, Village officials say they can only anticipate good things from further development along Milwaukee Avenue.

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