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After starting with an initial pool of seven developers, Oak Park’s village board narrowed the playing field down to just three candidates last week, according to an article in the Wednesday Journal of Oak Park and River Forest.
Up for grabs: the Colt superblock, a village-owned plot between Lake Street and North Boulevard west of Harlem. The fate of the art-deco-inspired Colt Building is still up in the air; sources estimate a rehab of the property at nearly $6 million, almost as much as Oak Park paid to purchase the property last year. From the Wednesday Journal article:
The three finalists – Centrum Properties, AvalonBay Communities Inc., and Mid America Development Partners LLC – were each awarded a $10,000 stipend and a chance to move to the next level in the competition. All three teams, in some fashion, met the board’s top three requirements in the competition of quality architecture, sustainability and solid finances.
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These “superblock” planning exercises are almost always a disaster. Oak Park’s downtown needs some help, though. I just don’t think that a “big box” store is the answer. I’d prefer to see more small pedestrian-oriented businesses there, but the Colt building probably requires a large tenant to be viable.
I think that building is 1 block “east” of Harlem, not one block west of Harlem. One block west of Harlem, would put it in River Forest.
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