New Development Talks Highlight 'State of the Village' Address

The variety of development projects either in the works or in the planning or approval stages dominated much of the Northbrook State of the Village address delivered by Village President Sandy Frum at Marcello’s North on Wednesday.

Frum discussed the statues of non-residential, mixed use and residential projects as part of a luncheon hosted by the Northbrook Chamber of Commerce.

“There is a lot of development going on in Northbrook right now,” Frum said - pointing to non-residential examples such as the Dunkin’ Donuts on Dundee Road that is expected to be approved in short time, the new storage facility in the works at 2121 Shermer Rd. and the gas station and car wash coming in on Waukegan Rd. “This all goes in line with what we’d like to see with repurposed spaces.”

Residential development is also on the rise, Frum said, pointing to a group of 21 single family detached homes set to break ground in March in the 3800 block of Dundee Road and 18 more to be built on Jasper Court.

In the 1200 block of Shermer Rd., near downtown Northbrook, a set of 54-84 town homes should help “bring density to downtown.”

“A couple years ago, we had said we needed 200 new units downtown, so this does get us a long way,” Frum said.

Seeming a bit frustrated with the lack of retail overall near the 1000 block of Skokie Blvd., Frum did point out that a “Mariano’s is supposed to be coming in by the end of the summer and 3-4 story apartment buildings by the end of next spring.”

“We had the option of seeing a Wal-Mart come to that area a couple years back, but neighbors were strongly against it,” she said. “I think we lost the battle (of getting more retail to the corridor). It passed us over based on decisions that were made by the village.”