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CIVILIAN TAKEOVER

Former Illinois naval air station converted to Glen Town Center

BY JESSICA ROE

Just over 10 years ago, Glenview Naval Air Station was off-limits to the residents of Glenview, Ill., even though it sat in the heart of their village. Now, with developers turning a 1.5 square-mile piece of the now decommissioned base into a second downtown, the red carpet is rolled out for visitors.

San Diego-based Oliver McMillan is building the 1.1 million-square-foot mixed-use Glen Town Center as part of a $1.25 billion redevelopment of the base. The site lies inside one of the country’s most affluent residential regions, 20 miles north of Chicago.

“Within our 15-minute drive time, there are a half million people with an average household income over $100,000,” said Dene Oliver, the development firm’s CEO. “The North Shore is the most affluent suburban area in America. There is no greater population of wealth than that. That makes it fertile ground for retailers.”

A $1.25 billion redevelopment is bringing homes, stores and offices to the site of the former Glenview Naval Air Station.

Glen Town Center’s retail, residential and recreational space is the redevelopment’s first phase (no definitive time table for completion). The builders expect the center to generate its own shoppers — there will be 1,600 single-family homes, condominiums and town homes, as well as about 2,000 apartments directly above the retail space. And it will be the linchpin of a redevelopment that also involves creation of a 140-acre park, the Kohl’s Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago, two golf courses and the 1 million-square-foot Prairie Glen office park being developed by San Francisco-based Catellus Development Corp.

“Having a lot of customers in walking distance is a bonus that you don’t get at most traditional shopping centers,” said Joseph C. Parrott, CLS, first vice president of retail services at Chicago-based CB Richard Ellis, which has no affiliation with the project. “With most other suburban retail you don’t have a large number of people in walking distance.”

Besides providing shopping for its residents, Oliver says Glen Town Center will become a regional shopping and recreational destination for people from farther away.

The first tenants in the 470,000-square-foot, unenclosed retail area began opening in October. Those include anchors Von Maur and Galyan’s, such restaurants as Noodles & Company and Red Star Tavern, and a 10-screen Crown Cinemas theater. By the beginning of this year, 90 percent of the retail was leased, says Steve Frishman, a principal at Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based Mid-America Real Estate, which is handling the leasing. The developers expect the majority of tenants to be occupying their space by July.

Proximity to all that disposable income is just one of the site’s attractions, say Glenview officials.

“This project has been about pursuing a quality development that is focused on being a ‘destination,’ ” said Donald Owen, economic redevelopment director for the village of Glenview, to which the Department of Defense handed the base over. “Not in the sense that we want the world to come here, but so that our community can have an amazing place to be together.”

To accomplish that goal, the village retained Chicago-based Mesirow Stein Real Estate as development adviser; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill as master planner; Harza Environmental Services as infrastructure engineer; and Oliver McMillan to help guide the development, along with others.

To accommodate the town center, contractors tore out the old flight runways and crisscrossed the base with a new street grid to connect it with the rest of the village. The layout puts the residential and office components within a five-minute walk of the retail.

Many of the shoppers will come from the development’s 1,600 single-family homes, town houses and condos, and 2,000 apartments.

The developers are not erasing all traces of the base, however. Hangar One, which was the world’s largest airplane hangar during the 1930s and is on the National Register of Historic Places, now houses a Book Market store and a café. It will eventually include a museum dedicated to the base’s history.

Glen Town Center’s shops are designed to be as convenient for drivers as they are for pedestrians. Diagonal parking will allow shoppers to drive right up to storefronts, and there is also a parking garage behind the shopping complex.

Though the developer owns the buildings, the municipality retains ownership of the streets that run between them. Thus, the municipality removes snow and cleans and maintains the streets, says Michelle Panovich, a principal at Mid-America Asset Management, which manages the site.

The developer and the village have flushed out several issues between them. For example, the village initially considered limiting street-side parking to two hours. But tenants voiced concerns, so the village agreed to study the matter further. Meanwhile, the developer is encouraging shoppers making longer visits to use the parking garage.

Glen Town Center does have competition from two established regional malls within a 10-mile radius: Westfield Shoppingtown Old Orchard, a 1.7 million-square-foot super-regional, and Northbrook Court, a 1.1 million-square-foot regional owned by General Growth Properties. To counteract their influence, Oliver McMillan and Mid-America Real Estate brought in retailers that are new to the market.

“The anchor tenants we have were not able to get into the regional malls,” Oliver said.

Von Maur, an upscale, Iowa-based department store, leased 160,000 square feet as part of its current expansion effort into midsize and large Midwest markets.

Sporting goods retailer Galyan’s opened an 80,000-square-foot store that the developers say is a natural complement to the 140-acre park, which will have sports fields, playgrounds, a community center and lake.

Other newcomers to the area include the Bravo! and Cameron Mitchell restaurant chains.

The center is also host to Ann Taylor Loft, Jos. A. Bank, Ritz Camera and an Ulta Salon.

Oliver McMillan has 25 years’ experience developing mixed-use projects. Previous projects include The Pike at Queensway Bay, Long Beach, Calif., and Village Hillcrest, San Diego. The firm is currently redeveloping San Diego’s Gaslamp District and overseeing the Screenland revitalization project in downtown Culver City, Calif.

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