Green Acres is still the place to be for a new Northbrook fire station headquarters.
But those two acres being purchased by the Village for a new firehouse site at 820 Dundee Road are not part of the original 10 acres of promised land at the former Green Acres Country Club. Those 10 green acres were proposed for a new fire station complex under a failed data center proposal.
The highly anticipated Green Acres data center proposal under Dec. 12, 2023, non-binding developer legalese with then Green Acres owner GA Northbrook LLC., included 10 acres for a new fire station facing Dundee Road, more than 50 open space acres to the west for the Forest Preserves of Cook County and an estimated 65 acres for the new data center.
Green Acres Country Club closed in 2016 and many proposals have failed. Neighbor complaints and the village’s affordable housing requirements became too costly for developers in tightening economics among factors to bail.
At the Tuesday, Aug. 13 Northbrook Board of Trustees meeting, the village bought residential land at 820 Dundee Road from seller Carmelita T. Carriaga of Chicago for nearly $1 million ($997,963) as a teardown. The property is listed at nearly $1.5 million. See https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/820-Dundee-Rd_Northbrook_IL_60062_M78870-37659.
On Aug. 1, Carriaga’s electronic signature helped to execute a purchase agreement for 820 Dundee Road with a closing date set for no later than Oct. 15.
Carriaga was working with a Des Plaines applicant who proposed 15 townhomes in three buildings for 820 Dundee Road on an approximate 500-foot depth and 167-foot frontage width lot to village trustees last May 14.
Concerns then included high building density with limited access and turnaround by emergency responder vehicles, delivery trucks and possibly school buses. Plowed snow, especially during blizzards, was also an onsite storage issue with snow at risk of being dumped on the proposed playground or guest parking spots.
This townhome pitch happened at the same May 14 board meeting when Northbrook Village President Kathryn L. Ciesla read a statement addressing the early May surprise sale of the 127-acre former Green Acres site to the DuPage (County) Water Commission (DWC) for $80 million.
The DWC plans piping systems along allowable routes to deliver Lake Michigan water from Glencoe to its one million DuPage County customers. Glencoe needs a new lakefront water treatment plant to replace its current Glencoe Beach facility at nearly a century old.
Northbrook’s Fire Station 11 headquarters is deemed outdated and on a 740 Dundee Road slim strip of land comparable in width to some portions of the shorter rectangular 820 Dundee Road property.
Last May, Pioneer Press asked Northbrook officials if the village would consider buying 820 Dundee Road to have in its hip pocket to negotiate with the DWC on the commission’s Green Acres adjacent land to combine with 820 Dundee Road for a larger fire station site.
“The 820 (Dundee Road) property seems like it would share too many of the drawbacks as the (740 Dundee Road) current station (proximity to water main, train tracks),” said Northbrook Village Communications Manager Nicholas Glenn via email.
But then on Aug. 13, under the President’s Report of the agenda, Ciesla said of the Village’s oldest fire station, “We are looking for a site for a future Fire Station 11 and it appears that 820 Dundee Road is that site.” The ordinance for purchase passed unanimously.
DuPage Water Commission Response
Paul D. May, DWC general manager, told Pioneer Press on Aug. 14 that the Village of Northbrook, “had expressed that they had an interest in acquiring some of the property that we had bought and we’re willing to have that conversation with them.
“We did not have a discussion about the piece that they just bought, the two acres, but that is adjacent to our property and we would like to be a good neighbor for the village and the neighboring residents,” May said.
“We’d be happy to have a conversation with them about them acquiring an adjacent parcel (alongside 820 Dundee Road) if that’s still a benefit to them,” May said.
“We haven’t had that conversation with them but we have told them that we’re happy to have it whenever the time is right for them.”
May could not speculate if all 10 acres previously promised by the Green Acres data center plan would be available to be sold or donated by the DWC. May agreed it would make sense to offer DWC green acreage that wraps around the back of 820 Dundee Road, sharing borders on two sides of 820 Dundee Road.
“I think we can figure out a way to make that work,” May said.
Two Chicago law firms, Neal & Leroy, LLC and Emry Murdoch LLC, were hired by the Village via a June 11 consent agenda resolution to represent the village on eminent domain and land acquisition for the relocation of municipal facilities including fire, police and public works facilities.
On June 12, DWC Board of Commissioners Chairman James F. Zay told Pioneer Press about hearing of Northbrook trying, “to float legislation to get eminent domain to take the property from us, but they can’t take it, they still have to buy it, that’s part of eminent domain, they have to pay market value for it,” Zay said.
“They can either work with us,” Zay said, “…or they can go to eminent domain and have to pay us for it.
“That’s up to them.
“When you do eminent domain on the entire property, you can’t use it for anything else except municipal use,” Zay added last June 12.
New Fleet Maintenance Garage Facility
Then on Aug. 13, Ciesla also announced the $2.3 million purchase of the Glenkirk headquarters at 3504 Commercial Ave. in the Sky Harbor industrial park as the site for the new Fleet Maintenance Garage. This ordinance to purchase also passed unanimously.
The current fleet garage behind village hall under the Northbrook “Ferris Bueller” renowned water tower is 11,250 square feet, was constructed in 1956 and expanded in 1967. The closing of the 3504 Commercial Avenue sale is also set for Oct. 15.
Glenkirk indicated to Pioneer Press that it needed to find a buyer for its current building to move to its desired new location at 3300 Dundee Road.
Glenkirk’s zoning request for 3300 Dundee Road came before the village board on July 23, one day before the 3504 Commercial Ave. contract was signed with the Village.
Glenkirk is the contract purchaser of 3300 Dundee Road which has a building constructed in 1989 on 3.5 acres owned by Bancroft Architects and Engineers and listed for $7.2 million at https://www.atproperties.com/12002222/3300-dundee-road-northbrook-illinois-60062-nei.
Glenkirk is a not-for-profit corporation that provides home and community services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Chicagoland. See https://glenkirk.org/.
Glenkirk is looking at early 2025 for a possible move.
Kim Berenberg, chief executive officer of Glenkirk who signed the real estate contract with the village on July 24 and did not divulge the Village would be the contract purchaser of Glenkirk’s current Sky Harbor property, did tell Pioneer Press on July 23, “We’re really excited.”
Glenkirk has been in Sky Harbor since the 1980s.
“We’ve been in Northbrook for 40 years,” Berenberg also said, “and we’re celebrating our 70th year of being in existence.”
Karie Angell Luc is a freelancer for Pioneer Press.
