| |
In 1999, the City of Park Ridge started a long planning process that has resulted in one of the top suburban, downtown transit-oriented redevelopment projects in the Midwest.
Uptown Park Ridge redevelopment was originally scheduled for completion in 2008
and includes: 165 loft and luxury condominiums; 24 row/townhomes; 71,000 square feet of ground floor retail space and restaurants; parking for 702 cars; and new open spaces, streetscape, and signage.
This $120 million redevelopment project is considered the critical piece of Park Ridge’s downtown planning “puzzle” as it is a large site that was considered a “no-man’s land” and barrier between developed blocks and the Metra train station. It can be truly called a “catalytic project”,
sparking new public and private investment as well as interest and confidence in Uptown.
The multi-block project site is triangular in shape and encompasses approximately 5.5 acres, including the Meacham and Summit Avenue rights-of-way. This site occupies a highly visible location in the central core of downtown Park Ridge, traditionally referred to as “Uptown”. For years it has been the location of an underground City water reservoir, a few deteriorated commercial properties, and obsolete car dealerships.
Park Ridge is a town with a strong sense of community rooted in its quiet residential neighborhoods and the picturesque Uptown. With the iconic
Pickwick Theatre,
Public Library, City Hall, shopping, and restaurants it is the commercial and cultural heart of the community and has an urban/suburban character centered on the train station.
| |
The City’s Uptown Planning Study, completed in 2002, acknowledged a unique opportunity to unite the north end of downtown with its south end and enhance the overall physical and economic life of Uptown.
|
|
The city desired to redevelop the area with a mixed-use development that would solidify the Uptown core, blend the old with the new, and eliminate its physical and symbolic gap. New activity on the subject site was intended to further energize this already active downtown and maintain support for its train station.
The City’s redevelopment objectives included:
- Reinforce Uptown as an exciting and diverse mixed-use area with a strong retail and entertainment focus.
- Contribute to the improvement and intensification of Uptown as an active, pedestrian-oriented shopping and business environment.
- Provide new high-quality multi-family residential development.
- Create improved linkages and connections between the redevelopment site and overall Uptown area, including the train station.
- Provide an architectural design that is compatible with the existing context of Uptown.
- Address conflicts between vehicular and pedestrian traffic.
- Provide an adequate supply of convenient and attractive public parking.
- Create an attractive and visually distinctive streetscape that unifies, enhances and interconnects the redevelopment site with Uptown.
Project Process & Participants
City’s Planning Process
The Uptown redevelopment project is the culmination of several stops/starts in planning for the revitalization of downtown Park Ridge and a lot of hard work by appointed and elected officials, consultants, and developers. Following is an outline of the long process that led the City to the selection of the developer and the recent construction of the project:
- City initiates Downtown Planning process (1999).
- Uptown Planning Study/Guidelines completed (January 2002).
- City Council approves Uptown Plan as amendment to Comprehensive Plan (August 2002).
- City Council approves relocation of central water reservoir/pump station to Hinkley Park (February 2003).
- 50% of City Council turns over, including Mayor (Spring 2003).
- City Council approves ordinances designating Uptown TIF District (July 2003)
- City’s development advisors prepare Request for Qualifications/Proposals (Summer 2003).
- RFQ/RFP released (September 2003) (19 responses received, 5 short-listed).
- PRC Partners selected (May 2004).
- City team conducts financial analysis of Redevelopment Plan/Program (2004).
- City team negotiates redevelopment agreement (2004).
- City Council unanimously approves PRC Project and Redevelopment Agreement (December 2004).
- Phase 1 groundbreaking (June 2005).
- The Phase II parking garage opened to the public (August
2008).
After an extensive public review process, the redevelopment team was selected based on its fit with City goals and development guidelines, site planning and design quality, architectural design quality, and economic benefits. The City and
redevelopment teams then joined forces to refine the project and its development program, truly becoming a classic public/private partnership.
City Team
City staff and elected officials worked closely with
S.B. Friedman & Company,
HKM Architects and
Parsons Transportation Group
to conduct economic, site, and traffic analyses of the subject site to provide critical technical information for the RFP that supplemented the Uptown Planning Study.
Klein, Thorpe & Jenkins served as the City’s legal counsel.
Developer Team
The selected developer, PRC Partners, was a partnership of
E.R. James Partners,
Mid-America Real Estate, and
Valenti Builders. PRC's consultants included:
The Lakota Group,
OKW ,
KLOA,
SpaceCo, The Laube Company, and
Piper Rudnick.
Project Plan
The PRC team crafted its plan for the site based on a thorough review of the City’s studies and guidelines, and analysis of the overall Uptown area, the Northwest Highway and Touhy Avenue corridors, Hinkley Park and Busse Highway. Vehicular movement and pedestrian circulation were evaluated, in addition to analyzing land use context and the patterns of existing Uptown building architecture.
Following the City’s development guidelines, the plan integrates four-story and five-story buildings and three-story townhomes into the larger scale of Uptown’s blocks and streets and into the smaller, pedestrian-scale of open spaces and streetscapes.
Touhy Avenue
The mixed-use buildings along Touhy create two new public spaces for downtown – Fountain Square and Gateway Plaza. The buildings also frame two important public places, the Public Library/City Commons open space, which was completely redesigned in 2007, and the Pickwick Theater, to create visual and pedestrian connections to surrounding blocks.
The buildings along Touhy have condominiums over retail space. While the base of the buildings remains constant, each have various stepbacks above the second floor to reduce their scale and create opportunities for public and private terraces.
A new traffic signal on Touhy at the Summit intersection facilitated movement of vehicles and pedestrians between the development, surrounding Uptown blocks, and Metra station.
The streetscape along the south side of Touhy was also improved to facilitate safe and pleasant pedestrian movement to/from the project
area and to further integrate the project into the rest of the Uptown area.
Northwest Highway
Using materials, building rhythms, and storefront design found throughout Uptown, the project’s mixed-use buildings along Northwest Highway created a new street wall of shops to reinforce the multi-block shopping experience of the area.
The streetscape on the north side of Northwest Highway was also improved to provide a uniform design, consistent with the project.
 Six-Corner Intersection
The City’s plan and guidelines for the project site embraced a “prominent architectural presence” at its “six-corners” intersection. The development included a focal building at the intersection
to help frame it and draw pedestrians and interest across the street. This new building projects a high level of activity for the core blocks, complements the Pickwick Theater, and defines this important intersection as the primary gateway into Uptown.
 Streetscape
Streetscape elements were based on the area’s existing physical conditions, Uptown design guidelines, and an
art deco design theme relating to the Pickwick Theater. The streetscape elements enhance the new and existing public spaces and interconnect the development with the surrounding environment.
Fountain Plaza
This multi-functional plaza is located on Touhy Avenue mid-block between Summit Avenue and Northwest Highway. It
is one of the main focal points of the Uptown Redevelopment Project, providing public space for window-shopping, meeting friends, and outdoor dining.
Gateway Plaza
Positioned at the northeast corner of Touhy and Summit, “Gateway Plaza” is
another a focal point. This plaza is located at the confluence of busy travel
paths that lead to the train station, Theater, Library, new restaurants, shops,
and new public parking garage. A highly visible, glass walled space for
elevators and stairwells will lead to the garage located below grade and up to
restaurants and shops located on terraces above street level.
Signage, Gateways & Kiosks
Several directional, informational, and identity sign concepts have been generated for the development based on the site layout, area marketing needs, and City guidelines. These design features are being adapted to other Uptown sites.
Transportation
The Project’s master plan was also developed to support the City’s vision and goals for transportation. Accordingly, the project plan integrates various transit, vehicular, and pedestrian movements into a transportation supportive “place.” Amidst a rather challenging traffic environment, the project optimizes new access opportunities, creative methods for traffic control, good internal circulation, accessible parking supply, and a comfortable, desirable pedestrian environment.
Housing and Retail
The redevelopment plan eliminated the large open gap and obsolete uses that existed for years on the site, a situation that affected not only the look and feel of downtown, but investor/developer confidence. It provides for several new blocks of retail that reinforce the multi-block walking, shopping, and dining experience of Uptown. While its buildings create new street walls with ground floor stores, the plan also provides numerous openings and spaces that allow people to walk around and through the development.
 Another key ingredient of this project is the introduction of new housing products into the City to accommodate young professionals, empty nesters, and seniors. Park Ridge has had multi-family housing in downtown for years, but the demand for alternatives to single-family homes was increasing and more products were needed.
Uptown Park Ridge now features
The
Residences and Shops of Uptown Park Ridge, luxury
condominiums and lofts located above first-floor retail space.
The
Residences and Shops of Uptown Park Ridge range in size
from 1,145 square feet to 3,107 square feet
 Public space and streetscape were also important in planning the site. Creating
a European-style plaza open spaces within the site reinforced the City’s larger system of plazas and greens located on most blocks of Uptown.
Regarding parking for the project, most spaces are placed underground to reduce the dominance of parking lots and parking garages at ground level. Prior to the development, the City relocated its underground water reservoir from the site, which allowed two levels of parking to be built in the excavated hole.
After construction was completed, the townhomes sold out overnight.
The retail space called The Shops of Uptown, was leased at a good
pace and home to Trader Joe's, Chicos, Jos. A. Bank, Lens
Crafter's Optique, Kriser's pet boutique, Noodles & Co., Jason's
Deli and Houlihan's.
Looking Back
The new uses, buildings, parking areas, streetscapes, and open spaces have
dramatically changed the image of Uptown and have brought more supporters to the
process. High quality site planning and design was a mantra of the redevelopment team.
The attention to detail and precision of the master plan, financial program, and redevelopment agreement regarding physical form, uses, products, phasing and financing, significantly contributed to the project’s early success and the effective and efficient use of land and public funding.
The new design character of the project has spread to adjacent blocks, having completed significant changes to streetscapes, signage, the City Commons space, and
Park Ridge Library site.
The planning and redevelopment process involved numerous people from the beginning. As the RFQ/RFP was starting to be crafted, the City Council turned over by 50% including a new mayor. Yet, the understanding of the serious need for real change and the eventual buy-in of elected and appointed officials moved the plan from vision to reality.
As noted earlier, the Uptown Redevelopment Project can be seen as an
implementation model. It has made significant positive changes to an area that
was stagnant. It has shown major action and big change, while fostering a
positive investment climate for developers, businesses, property owners, and
residents. More importantly, it is significantly enhancing what residents and
leaders consider the heart of the community with new uses and new activity.
|
|
