Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen highlighted Skokie’s successes in economic development and looked forward to future projects in his State of the Village address, delivered to the Skokie Chamber of Commerce June 14 at Urnina Banquets in Skokie.
Economic Development
Van Dusen touted new businesses in the village, such as the village’s backing of a soon-to-be redeveloped strip mall on Main Street, hundreds of apartments along Old Orchard Road and technology firms, including LanzaTech, extending their leases at the Illinois Science + Technology Park.
Van Dusen also said 17 new or reconfigured stores have opened at Westfield Old Orchard Shopping Center in the last year.
“Some of you may have seen the publicity of the opening of the new Rick Bayless restaurant. You don’t get that kind of investment if there isn’t something about your community,” he said. He added that the outdoor shopping mall will add six more stores before the end of the year.
The village relies heavily on sales taxes and food and beverage taxes from those businesses, Van Dusen said. Because those taxes have provided a reliable source of revenue, the village has been able to rely less on property taxes paid by the village’s residents, he said, adding that the village enacted a voluntary property tax increase freeze in 1990.
“Multifamily housing is exploding. If you take Skokie Boulevard, probably within the next two years… We will probably add close to 750 units of rental housing,” Van Dusen said. In February 2023, the Board of Trustees approved $1.7 million tax increment financing for a mixed-use building on Skokie Boulevard, among other rentals coming to the boulevard.
Highpoint at 8000 North, a highrise apartment complex at 8000 N. Lincoln Ave., Skokie, is 98% leased, Van Dusen said. He also said that an Italian restaurant is slated to open its doors off the building’s lobby in the fall.
Infrastructure
The village received federal funding f from the National Infrastructure Act to assist in the reconstruction of several overpasses, Van Dusen said. The Crawford Avenue overpass is through the design phase and will begin the engineering phase in the next year, he said. Van Dusen said by late 2025 or early 2026, construction will begin. He added that construction on Gross Point Road between Golf Road and Old Orchard Road will be completed by the end of the current construction season.
The village is also anticipating a report from its stormwater task force to update its flood control program, which could cost up to $80 million.
“When we began a flood control program… it was the first in the nation to have the water in the streets as a way of ensuring that that water would not be in your basement,” Van Dusen said. “‘Better in your streets than in the basement,’ is what the engineers used to tell us.”
Van Dusen said the village is also in the beginning stages of replacing its system of lead pipes that transport water. “That too, we estimate will be an $80 million program.”
“We’re met with some challenges, just like every other municipality. Supply chain issues… interest rates. Hopefully by the end of the year the Federal Reserve will begin to ease up on interest rates as inflation continues to recede, and that will even stimulate more economic development,” Van Dusen said.
