A developer plans to demolish three single-family homes on Lyman near Madison to make way for new retail space.
Sung Park recently applied for demolition permits to raze the three long-vacant houses at 500-508 S. Lyman. Reached last week, the Lake Forest resident said he expects the homes will come down in the next couple of weeks.
He’s planning to build a one-story commercial space in their place, with frontage on Madison Street. Park said it’s too early to say what might occupy the storefronts, but his preference is to have one large store take up the entire block, such as a hardware dealer.
“I love Oak Park. I’ve planned for a long, long time to get in there but am just starting now because of this economic situation where I can find the right price for the right property,” he said.
According to county records, Park bought the three homes (along with a fourth lot where another home had already been razed) for $194,000 back in April. He also purchased a two-story office building at 44 Madison across the street for $456,000, and plans to renovate it and bring retailers to the first floor.
The swath of properties was once owned by the now-failed Park National Bank until that institution was seized by the feds and its branches taken over By U.S. Bank in late 2009. The bank didn’t want the handful of properties, so they were put up for sale by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. shortly after.
Park National had originally planned to construct a drive-thru on Lyman, according to neighbors, and the office building on Madison was previously home to Head Start — a federally funded development program for children and families in the Oak Park area.
The four lots on Lyman are zoned for commercial, and Park would be able to build most retail uses on the site “by right,” without any zoning variances, according to Mike Bruce, zoning administrator for the village.
Park estimated that the new retail space would offer as much as 9,000 square feet. He previously developed projects in the city of Chicago, and partly owns some 19 beauty supply stores in both Chicago and Milwaukee.
Neighbors on the 500 block of South Lyman expressed some worries Monday over what might replace the three homes. Radule Tepavcevic, 70, said he would prefer to see a park instead. If a business needs to go there, he hopes it won’t create tons of traffic, and that the developer will include landscaping to create a buffer.
Tepavcevic questioned the need for new commercial space on Madison, with all the current vacancies along the stretch.
Peter Dougherty, 60, said he, too, would prefer to see a green space or apartment building on the site. He thinks a business could create all kinds of traffic and density along their residential block.
“Even looking at a house that nobody is living in is better than looking at the back of another wig store or nail salon,” he said. “No imagination here at all as far as Madison development goes. They’ve got their head in the sand.”