Mayor says redevelopment is changing the face of Elk Grove Village

From refurbishing aged procuring centers to creating new facts facilities, Elk Grove Village will proceed to glance diverse from the old days, Mayor Craig Johnson said Thursday.

“We are conscious of the changing earth. I talk to mayors all the time. At times the mayors get entrenched in the aged techniques of performing factors. We continue to be on prime of that,” stated Johnson, the 25-calendar year mayor, instructed a organization luncheon crowd Thursday all through his once-a-year State of the Village deal with.

“We are regularly thinking what is actually the new wants for tomorrow,” Johnson continued. “I grew up in Elk Grove, and there was very little but printers and instrument and die. That is it. That is all we experienced in Elk Grove. Now we have got information facilities. We’ve acquired technological innovation.”

One particular key illustration of the switching deal with of Elk Grove is just down Rohlwing Highway from Belvedere Banquets, the web-site of Johnson’s speech.

Village officials uncovered at a community assembly late last week that three information heart structures are proposed for a 35-acre portion of WGN radio’s 100-acre transmitter website on Rohlwing Highway/Martingale Street. Designs connect with for the AM radio station’s 250-foot and 750-foot towers to be moved to the north conclude of the home to make way for the 1 million-sq.-foot information heart campus on the south end.

In an interview following the speech, Johnson stated he’s been assembly with WGN’s dad or mum firm, Nexstar Media Group, for about a calendar year and a 50 percent. The firm originally proposed a trucking/logistics firm development. Johnson reported that wouldn’t be a good fit — with 125 one-loved ones properties bordering the house on the south and west — and Nexstar agreed to revise the strategies, ultimately bringing ahead the details centre plan. Nexstar designs to petition the web-site for annexation into the village.

Elk Grove has become the info heart hub of the Midwest, with nearly a dozen of the laptop or computer storage internet sites totaling 3.5 million sq. ft of room contacting the village dwelling. In a several yrs, that variety is expected to leap to 6 million square ft, Johnson reported.

“It’s a wonderful use for our community,” he told the group. “It delivers excellent home tax. It provides even much better electric powered tax. And it is really not substantially influence. They have practically no vans, and not really numerous employees. So our roadways do not get beaten up. … It can be like a best neighbor if you are looking for one thing to occur behind you that’s transformed what you experienced before.”

On the other facet of city — at the northern entryway — the village is eyeing the southeast corner of Arlington Heights and Higgins roadways for redevelopment. It is in which Elk Grove Bowl shut in April and the village board set up a new tax increment financing district to fund enhancement initiatives final month. Officers are envisioning a blended-use progress of flats and retail.

When the bowling alley and neighboring procuring center went up for sale — and the village agreed to pay out $12.7 million for the attributes very last December — Johnson claimed it was a golden opportunity to condition a new progress at a prime intersection.

“Hallmarks are not in each and every strip procuring middle anymore. The (Bath) and Entire body Works are not in a strip shopping centre any longer. They are likely away. Retail use like that is likely away,” he stated. “The challenge is what do you do with that? … That will not be the only site in Elk Grove that is heading to see that type of conversion. And I’ll inform you this for a truth: We will not be the only town pushing this.”