New Real Estate Office Receives Special Use Permit In Lake Forest

LAKE FOREST, IL — The Lake Forest Plan Commission approved a special use permit for a real estate company to open a new office in the city's central business district.

Commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to allow Compass Real Estate to open up an office at 284 E. Deerpath Road, located between a barber shop and another real estate office.

Lake Forest City Code requires any non-retail uses in the downtown area, including banks and real estate offices, to receive a special permit. The city also limits non-retail uses to 10 percent of its core commercial area.

"At that time, in 2003, the code amendment was really initiated by the number of banks that were moving into town at that time," Community Development Director Cathy Czerniak told commissioners during last week's remote meeting.

With changes to the retail landscape over the past 17 years, Czerniak said the property's owners, the Altounian family, described the small Deerpath Road storefront as not particularly easy to rent or appealing to retailers.

The 950-square-foot, 18-foot-wide storefront has been vacant for about a year, according to Czerniak. She explained its most active previous retail use was as a candy store.

"Vacant retail storefronts remain in the Central Business District particularly in Market Square, the focus of the City's retail core, and are available for new retail tenants," Czerniak said in a memo to commissioners ahead of the Aug. 12 meeting. "The Compass real estate office is in a tenant space that has not had a great deal of interest from retailers in the past."

The newly permitted Compass office is set to be operated by Lori Baker, Alissa McNicholas and Peter Coutant.

Coutant told commissioners that Compass has grown to more than 300 locations since it was founded in 2012. It has become the third-largest residential real estate broker in the nation and the second-biggest in the Chicago market, he said.

Baker, McNicholas and Coutant have been partners for the past two years, with more than 90 percent of their business focused on properties in Lake Forest and Lake Bluff, he said.

Compass launched in 2012 and has since grown to become the third-largest residential real estate brokerage in the nation and the second-largest in the Chicago market, Coutant said.

A few months ago, the company approached the trio of longtime Lake Foresters with a proposal to become affiliates, he explained.

"It's something that we gave a lot of very careful consideration to and a lot of thought to before we finally decided to make the leap," Coutant said. He said the team may add as many as 10 agents to the office in the future.

"It's an exciting opportunity," he said. "It's a chance for us to create a business that really is truly hyper-local, focused on promoting why Lake Forest really is the best community to live in on the North Shore."