Bannockburn Considers Annexation Plan For Apartments, Retail

BANNOCKBURN, IL — Three weeks after the first public hearing on a proposed mixed-use development on the northeast corner of Half Day and Waukegan roads, the Bannockburn Village Board Monday considers approval of a package of ordinances to annex the 5.3-acre property and grant a special use permit for a planned development.

Thom Beeson, the second-generation owner of Beeson's Nursery, wants to develop the currently unincorporated site on the northeast corner of the village by adding four buildings with over 30,000 square feet of retail space, including a four-story, 60-unit apartment building. The site plans for the property also include a gazebo and "village green" space in the parking lot.

Beeson, 70, of Lake Forest, said his father founded the nursery in 1929 and he took over in 1976. In the early 1990s, he and his father presented plans for a mixed residential and commercial development for the site to local officials. He said the plan he's hoping will be approved on Dec. 9 is the same one he proposed 27 years ago with his father.

"But he died, so that kicked off years of trying to go and put the property back together," Beeson said. "And all kinds of other adventures."

There were attempts to "step in and grab" the property, Beeson recalled. He said there was "too long of a list" of people that have tried to buy the property, which has never been on the market for sale.

"After my father died, Bannockburn did a midnight annexation of this property. That started all kinds of things," he said.

The draft ordinances and annexation agreement were not posted publicly when the agenda was posted ahead of the Dec. 9 village board meeting. But village staff provided them to Patch Friday night upon request, and they are included below. Village staff did post some planning materials online ahead of the vote, including a market study from April that contemplates 74 multifamily units, a traffic study marked "draft," and a preliminary drainage report.

Those who live in the immediate vicinity of the 4.9-acre property received notices of last month's public hearings. But some village residents and neighbors have raised objections about the pace of its approval and the level of public involvement in the process. Residents have also expressed concerns about traffic, the impact on the local school and nearby property values.

The annexation and development plan was recommended by the village's Plan Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals on Nov. 18 with a vote of 4-1 with one abstention. The next day, the Architectural Review Commission was evenly split. But the commission's 2-2 vote on Nov. 19 is considered a decision to approve the application, according to an ordinance that would approve a zoning map amendment, granting a special use permit for a planned development and approving development plans for the corner.

"There's going to be a vote for an annexation, I have the zoning in the county to do my project. It's more appropriate to be in a village," Beeson said. "We'll see if it goes through."

The developer for the proposed project, Lake Forest Real Estate Capital, is promoting 2021 occupancy at the site and describing the units as "luxury rental apartment[s]." According to the plans, the 60 apartments include two 600-square-foot studios, 27 one-bedrooms with 781-823 square feet, 27 two-bedroom units with 1092-1143 square feet and four three-bedrooms with between 1,321 and 1392 square feet of space.

The addition of rental units outside of Trinity International University will be a new development for Bannockburn. One of the the proposed ordinances up for consideration at Monday's meeting are amendments to the village's 2014 comprehensive plan.

Among the additions: "Because of the low-density residential development of the Village's residential core, consideration should be given to mixed use developments that will enhance the vitality and customer base for any retail developments," "The northeast corner of Waukegan and Half Day Roads also provides the opportunity for creative mixed-use development that complements the commercial character, and enhances the vitality, of that intersection" and "It may also be appropriate to authorize mixed use development that complements existing development and fortified additional commercial uses to be developed on such a site [as the Beeson's parcel.]"

According to Census estimates, the village has 268 housing units and a population of about 1,600. If any elementary school-aged children live in the development, they would attend the Bannockburn School District 106. The district has a single campus, Bannockburn School, with fewer than 150 students and spends more than $32,000 per pupil, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. The comprehensive plan says the village's population should remain at 2,000 or below, even with the addition of the Beeson's property.

The annexation agreement requires the property owner to pay applicable school impact fees, as set out in the village code. And while the code does require each residential planned development to provide a school impact study, among other things, one of the zoning code amendments up for consideration Monday allows the board discretion to waive any of the application requirements. Village Manager Maria Lasday said the developer is working with the district to determine the impact on the school.

Beeson publicly announced a "Beeson's Corners" project 20 years ago, after a federal bankruptcy court allowed him to keep the property a Lake County judge had earlier ordered sold at auction by paying $4.6 million to pay off debts, according to the Chicago Tribune. To do so, Beeson sold off a shopping mall he owned in Wilmington, North Carolina, the newspaper reported at the time. He declined to discuss the extent of his current real estate holdings.

It did not help that Beeson's was the victim of one of the largest embezzlement cases in Lake County history, when Lynn Garrett, the company's bookkeeper from 1991 to 1997, stole about $1 million from the nursery. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison, according to reports from the time.

In 1999, Beeson cut a 99-year lease with Jewel-Osco's parent company, American Stores Properties, Inc., or ASPI. But in April 2001, the Beesons sued the company for breach of contract and ASPI countersued the next month. The dispute wound up in federal court. The Jewel parent claimed it had exclusive rights to annex the property into Bannockburn, that the Beesons did not retain the right to approve any site plans and how the Beesons were able to sublease the property. But former U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo disagreed and determined the terms of the lease favor the Beesons' positions. Beeson declined to discuss the litigation.

Then in 2016, the northern portion of the property was annexed and turned into a Mariano's grocery store despite concerns from the owners of the Heinen's at the Bannockburn Green development on the other side of Half Day Road. The existing shopping center at the intersection, developed in the mid 1980s, now has several vacancies for spaces up to 11,300 square feet, according to the commercial broker marketing them.

The developer, Chicago-based Lake Forest Real Estate Capital LLC, was founded by Principal Michael Seimens and has been involved in financing the North Shore mixed-use developments at the Glen Town Center in Glenview and Sherman Plaza in Evanston, according to its website. But plans to develop the infamous Purple Hotel site in Lincolnwood led to acrimonious litigation earlier this year.

In April, Lake Forest Real Estate filed suit against the Village of Lincolnwood and its mayor, Barry Bass. The company's website says the plan was "derailed when the village took precipitous action against the developer," buying the property through eminent domain "then refused to meet with the developer." That suit alleges Bass violated the developer's constitutional rights to due process and equal protection by interfering with its deal to acquire the site at 4500 W. Touhy Ave. by instead cutting a deal with longtime Bass associate Richard Tucker, chief of Highland Park-based Tucker Development. The complaint claims the village failed to follow its own rules and "'greased the skids' so that its preferred purchaser, who had known Bass for over thirty years, would acquire and develop the property." Discovery in the case, which was first reported by Crain's Chicago Business, is scheduled to continue through April 2020, according to court records.

Annexation requires the approval of the property owner and the municipality that is adopting the new property, so the Beeson's Corner project would not require approval from the Lake County board or local school districts. The residents of the neighboring Del Mar Woods development, which was built in the 1950s and remains in unincorporated Lake County, also do not have to sign off on the project for it to be built.

Bannockburn trustees plan to hold a public hearing to hear concerns from residents and a presentation from the developer at Monday's meeting, which includes five items related to the 11760 W. Half Day Road project on its agenda. They will determine whether to take a vote on the project or continue considering the matter a future meeting.

Village President Frank "Bud" Rothing did not respond to a request for information about the development.

Seimens, the developer, did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the estimated price tag of the Beeson's Corners project.

Beeson said he did not know how much it is expected to cost.

"We'll find out," he said. "It is what it is."

More: All ordinances under consideration at the Bannockburn Village Board's Dec. 9, 2019 meeting