The proximity of the Arlington 425 project’s proposed five-story parking garage to the existing village-owned Vail Avenue garage has brought on additional delays to the downtown redevelopment.
Courtesy of the Village of Arlington Heights
The stalled Arlington 425 redevelopment project — what would be the largest development in more than two decades in Arlington Heights — received another six-month extension of approvals from the village board Monday while complexities of the project are worked out.
One major stumbling block is the possibility that developer Bruce Adreani’s proposed five-story parking garage on Highland Avenue might have to be shifted, amid structural concerns brought on by being so close to the village’s own Vail Avenue garage.
The board’s action Monday night marks the third extension to zoning entitlements since trustees approved scaled-back plans for the three-building residential and commercial downtown campus in 2021.
An initial 12-month extension was granted in April 2023, and a six-month extension this past April.
A larger project was approved in 2019 but clawed back during the pandemic.
Without board action, the latest zoning approvals would have expired Nov. 3, under village code.
The developer now has until May 6, 2025, to obtain three pending building permits and come back to the plan commission and village board for final plat of subdivision approval.
“We have worked with (village) staff assiduously since we first applied for permits in March,” the developer’s attorney, Stephen Messutta, told board members. “Since that time, so many things have happened that have unfortunately caused — I hate to use the word delay, and I don’t like using the word glitch — but the reality is things are not going to happen when we thought.”
Messutta estimated “we’re probably 85% to 90% there,” and that construction could start within six months of getting permits approved by the village.
But sensing frustration from residents about the long-vacant downtown block, trustees added a condition to the zoning extension Monday that requires the developer to pay the village’s costs — $30,000 to date — for additional project review.
The village hired Walker Consultants, a structural engineering firm that specializes in parking design, to evaluate the proposed garage, which would be four inches away from the existing village garage.
Michael Lysicatos, the village’s assistant director of planning and community development, said a building shift of at least a foot hasn’t been required by the village, but identified as a potential solution to structural concerns. If that change in plans does take place, additional zoning approvals might be needed, Lysicatos added.
At the same time, the village and developer are negotiating a license agreement for use of Highland — a public street — for construction of the garage. But Lysicatos said the developer’s “almost total rewrite of the agreement is not acceptable to the village.”
Some trustees were reluctant to grant another extension — this one, to the day after a new mayor and trustees who aren’t familiar with the project will be sworn in.
But Mayor Tom Hayes said the developer has demonstrated “good faith” in moving the project forward in recent months, and is confident a shovel will be in the ground next year.
“I understand concerns about this, but I really think we owe it to the community to try to get this project developed,” Hayes said. “If we don’t grant this extension and they have to walk away, it’s going to be another five or six years before anything is built there.”