Lincolnwood Village Board of Trustees approved plan for former Purple Hotel plot
by MARIO LEKOVIC
The Lincolnwood Village Board of Trustees at its meeting Feb. 4 approved a plat of consolidation of five properties into one parcel for the purpose of constructing a mixed-use development on the former site of the Purple Hotel and surrounding lots.
North Capital Group initially proposed renovating the hotel, 4500 W. Touhy Ave., and constructing several retail outlet buildings, but in August the developer presented a revised plan calling for demolishing the hotel and constructing a $130 million mixed-use development at Touhy and Lincoln avenues.
The Shoppes at Lincoln Pointe development will be anchored by a 160-room Spring Hill Suites by Marriott hotel and will have 126,000 square feet of retail space, 30,000 square feet of office space, a 23,000-square-foot health club and 1,300 parking spaces. The 10.7-acre development includes five buildings with internal private streets, public space areas and off-street parking.
The development will have 730 parking spaces in a raised deck and an additional 200 spaces that will be more centrally located. The developer is seeking to use an adjacent Commonwealth Edison right of way west of the site for additional parking. It has yet to secure a lease from Com Ed.
Neil Stein of North Capital Group said that speedy approval of the development is desired because it can affect finding tenants.
"The tenants, which many of them are national tenants, have many choices today of places to go for their prospective locations," Stein said. "In order for them to really take us seriously as a development, the proper zoning and the required approvals are absolutely essential."
The developer has proposed providing access to the site via a driveway on Lincoln Avenue across from Chase Avenue. Consultant Luay Aboona, who planned traffic and parking for the development, suggested installing a traffic light at the exit with options of only left and right turns, which would prevent traffic from entering the residential neighborhood east of Lincoln via Chase.
Trustee Jesal Patel said that he does not understand why there would not be an option for traffic to enter Chase Avenue. The trustees agreed to extend a proposed 6-month period to review the effect of traffic on the neighborhood to an open-ended status.
Aboona said that if the review shows a significant increase in traffic in the neighborhood, the developer will pay for any needed changes. However, he said he does not think that there will be an increase in traffic because "Chase Avenue isn’t an attractive cut-through."
The developer has proposed removing the existing median on Touhy Avenue and providing two left-turn lanes and two through lanes on southbound Lincoln Avenue at Touhy. Currently there are two left-turn lanes, but one is a shared through and left-turn lane.
"We’re keeping the pavement as it is," Aboona said. "All we’re doing is restriping. We’re basically removing the on-street parking within the vicinity of the intersection and utilizing that additional pavement to create that additional capacity of the intersection."
Because both Lincoln and Touhy avenues fall under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Department of Transportation, the proposed work will have to be approved by the department.
Also at the meeting, the village board approved an ordinance eliminating the class B liquor license that was held by the closed Dominick’s Finer Foods store, 6810 N. McCormick Blvd.
