Fall start planned for downtown Glen Ellyn apartments

Developers of a $30 million apartment building in downtown Glen Ellyn expect construction to begin in fall 2021.

Holladay Properties has secured village approval for the five-story Glenwood Station, a mixed-use project seen as a catalyst for future development on the edge of the downtown core.

The property has a history of unfulfilled development proposals. For six years, a former grocery store has sat dormant on the site at the northwest corner of Crescent Boulevard and Glenwood Avenue. The small lot size – less than an acre – and rolling topography made it challenging to redevelop.

Holladay plans to deliver a mix of luxury rentals, workforce housing and several affordable housing units at the request of village trustees who gave the final go-ahead and awarded financial incentives to make the project a reality.

Glenwood Station will contain 86 units and close to 1,500 square feet of retail space fronting Glenwood Avenue. The building’s amenities will offer fiber-optic internet, smart thermostats, a fitness center, pet spa, temperature-controlled indoor parking and electric vehicle charging stations as developers target young professionals and empty nesters opting for a lower-maintenance lifestyle.

Rent is expected to begin at $1,493 for a one-bedroom, 607-square-foot apartment and run up to $2,966 for a two-bedroom unit with a den.

More than half of the units – 51 – would meet a workforce housing classification and be available to people making 80% to 120% of the area’s median income.

In addition, the village will reimburse the developer up to $250,000 over 10 years for providing up to two affordable housing units for households making less than 80% of the area’s median income. The village each year will cover the difference between the market and the affordable housing rates.

Trustees added that provision in a redevelopment agreement that also calls for reimbursing developers up to $2 million using tax increment financing dollars.

In a TIF district, as redevelopment boosts property values, the extra tax revenue that otherwise would go to taxing bodies such as schools and parks can be used to pay for improvements to the area.

Holladay, a firm based in South Bend, Indiana, identified a financial gap that, but for the TIF assistance, meant the project would not be financially feasible, village officials said.

The financial gap arose “from higher property acquisition costs and higher projected property tax burden from mixed-use apartment projects in Milton Township as compared to other surrounding townships,” Village Manager Mark Franz said.

Holladay originally sought about $3.3 million in TIF incentives, but after negotiations with the village, the request was reduced. The agreement will run through 2035, or one year before the TIF district is set to expire.

“It’s a 50/50 performance-based agreement generated by available TIF increment for up to $2 million, meaning only the increment that’s generated would be returned at a 50/50 split between the developer and the village,” Franz said.

Holladay also has addressed questions about the possibility of incorporating more retail space in the complex. Developers said the constraints of the site, parking requirements and a volatile retail industry hampered their ability to add retail.

“I would argue pretty fiercely that I think it should be two blocks east of us,” Holladay Vice President T. Drew Mitchell said of retailers. “And that it’s potentially doing a disservice to the existing retail heartbeat by trying to add additional retail further off sort of the main drag.”

Mitchell said the project would spur development in what’s now a service-oriented area. To the west is an auto repair shop.

“What we’ve seen repeatedly in these types of catalytic developments is that quality investment begets quality investment,” Mitchell said. “I would not be surprised if we see some sort of different retail concept on the Lord’s Auto site in four or five years.”

Chicago’s Tandem Architecture designed the building.

“I think the architecture improvement on this building has been significant from the first image that we saw to where it is now,” said Trustee Craig Pryde, who’s an architect.

Revisions responded to input from village planners, the Glen Ellyn Historical Society, the Glen Ellyn Historic Preservation Commission, an ad hoc architect group and the project’s neighbors, Mitchell said.