Wingspan Wins Elk Grove Development Site with Multifamily Proposal
Published by: TheRealDeal Chicago Real Estate News
Nick Papanicholas Jr.’s development firm won a contest to transform Elk Grove Village’s oldest shopping center with a midsize apartment complex proposal.
Officials in the northern Chicago suburb chose Wingspan Development Group to redevelop the 10-acre Elk Grove Woods Plaza at South Arlington Heights and Higgins roads, the Daily Herald reported. Wingspan’s plan was selected out of a pool of four proposals considered at a November open house.
Wingspan, whose president is Papanicholas, earned the job with its five-story, 267-unit apartment complex proposal it will dub Elk Woods Lofts, with 11,000 square feet of retail space as well as 16 three-story townhouse units and attached garages. The proposals the village passed over in preference of Wingspan’s include one by Synergy Construction Group that would have brought 319 apartments and 30 townhouses, which was the largest submission, and two others by developers the village declined to name that would have brought 206 apartments and 32 townhomes, and the other with 282 apartments.
The village of Elk Grove spent more than $17 million on behalf of taxpayers to assemble the real estate needed for the project. The village bought the Elk Grove Bowl bowling alley for $2 million and the adjacent retail strip for $10.7 million, shortly before buying the Shell gas station at the corner of the block for $5 million. The bowling alley was recently demolished.
Wingspan previously built the village’s public works garage and renovated a number of schools. Plans also call for a single-story, 25,855-square-foot retail building with a clock tower at the corner of the development and another 21,930-square-foot retail building along Higgins Road.
The village will hold another public open house for residents to see updated plans, likely in March. The project will then go before the plan commission for a public hearing and then on to the village board for final approval. Wingspan will also likely pursue redevelopment and tax-increment financing agreements with the village.