The Des Plaines, Illinois city plan commission recently voted 4-0 to recommend approval of a new zoning district for a 52-acre site across the Tri-State Tollway from Rivers Casino. The city council will have the final say regarding the proposed changes that would allow an “eco-campus” of office buildings, residential towers, hotels and retail stores. Currently a five-building office complex occupies the site.
Project architect Rick Fawell said, “This is truly a mixed-use project in the truest sense of the term. It’s a unique opportunity to develop something on the macro scale that can hang together as a whole community in and of itself.”
Robert Kozonis, owner of the O’Hare Lakes office complex, said the zoning changes could allow up to four 10-story office towers, five 11-story residential towers around a lake, two 9-story hotels and four retail levels beneath the hotels. Officials said it could take up to 20 years for the entire development to be completed.
In a memo to plan commissioners, the city’s community development department staff wrote that the proposed rezoning would remain in scale with the casino, office and hotels to the east of the tollway. But staff members said they do have concerns with buildings near single-family homes on the west side of the property. Fawell said the buildings would face north and south to allow more light on the homes.
Jim Postweiler of Jones Lang LaSalle, a real estate firm that would market the development, said the zoning changes would help bring in prospective business tenants who may be considering other locations near O’Hare International Airport. He noted it would be “a couple years” until any building is constructed.
