Albion Highland Park Set For Final City Council Approval

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — Councilmembers are set to approve the final version of a development agreement authorizing the construction of 161-unit apartment building on the Karger Center property later this month. At a special meeting Monday, the City Council agreed to put a package of ordinances and resolutions allowing Albion Highland Park to be built at 1850 Green Bay Road, between Sunset Woods Park and the Sunset Foods grocery store, on the consent agenda for its Aug. 26 meeting, signaling likely unanimous approval.

Since the project received preliminary approval in January, the plan has seen several adjustments. Its size was reduced from 171 units, its garage was moved away from residents of single-family homes on Sheehan Court to the south side of the building, access south to Central Avenue through was restricted and a landscaped island was added in front of the Lake County Health Center. The developer also arranged easements and land swaps with Sunset Foods to allow for better access to the apartment building's parking lot and to the grocery store's loading docks.

Despite the reduction in size, the developer will stick with its plan to include 17 units of affordable housing. Due to the proportion being below the 20 percent requirement set out in the city's 2003 Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance, the developer is contributing a one-time "in lieu of" payment of $1.25 million to the city's affordable housing fund, which it must make before it can receive any building permits, and it also receive a discount of 10.6 percent — representing the proportion of affordable units on the site — on all city taxes and fees associated with construction.

Councilman Michelle Holleman, the council's liason on the city's Housing Commission, said members initially had some hesitation over whether to recommend allowing the Albion development to be built with fewer than the 27 on-site affordable units required by ordinance. She said the commission spent a significant amount of time and effort to reach a solid compromise, which would up receiving unanimous approval from its members.

"By the time we got to our final meeting, the developer had met and exceeded all of the requests that the committee had made," Holleman said. "The committee saw this as an opportunity. We have never brought this number, kind and quality of units available online in the past and we also see the need down the line for additional revenue in the housing trust fund for a variety of long-term projects, which we are going to face funding needs for."

The developer, Albion Jacobs LLC, is a joint venture of the Jacobs Companies, whose CEO is Highland Park resident Keith Jacobs, and Albion Residential, a subsidiary of Texas-based Sammons Enterprises that focuses on developing luxury apartment buildings in the Midwest.

The 2.6-acre site of the development has been owned by the city since it was deeded from the park district in 1949, shortly before the construction of the Karger Center. The City Council put parcel on the market for $3.5 million in May 2017. In a statement at the time, city staff said a 2014 assessment found the building was "rapidly aging with escalating operating costs." In January 2018, the councilmembers accepted Albion Jacobs' bid of $3.76 million. Last August, the developer presented its first draft of plans for the five-story project. The Plan Commission unanimously voted to recommend approve the plans in December and the City Council voted 4-2 to grant preliminary approval the following month.

Cal Bernstein, attorney for the developers and local park district commissioner, said the Albion Highland Park would be Highland Park's first building with luxury amenities — a swimming pool, fitness center, library lounge and coffee bar — to include affordable units.

"The whole idea is we didn't want to make the people in the inclusionary housing units second class citizens," Bernstein said. "They have the exact same rights, in fact they have additional rights that the market-rate units' owners don't because we're providing one parking space for every inclusionary housing unit where the market-rate units, they have to rent their parking spaces."

The building's market-rate units will consist of 62 two-bedroom apartments with monthly rents from $3,500 to $5,000, 52 one-bedrooms for $2,300 to $3,000 per month and 30 studio units renting for $1,600 to $2,000, about half of which will be convertible into two rooms.

Its affordable units will include seven with two bedrooms renting between $902 and $2,005, seven with one bedroom for $802 to $1782.50 and three studios from $702 to $1,560 a month. Qualifying renters pay different rates depending on their relative percentage of area median income.

"We are on the verge of bringing online a number of units that we have never seen before. These are units that range in size, that families could grow into in this building, that we have never had an opportunity like that before," Holleman said. "I hope that we can all appreciate what this is going to mean for the people who need these affordable apartments. This is a big leap forward for Highland Park."

Earlier:

• Developer Offers $1.25 Million Instead Of Adding Affordable Units
• Albion Development Plans Gets Preliminary City Council Nod
• Plan Commission Recommends Albion Development Despite Complaints
• Luxury Rental Development Plans For Karger Center Revealed
• Highland Park Gets Bid To Build 171 Units At Karger Center