A proposed office building, long planned for Madison Street in Oak Park, is still in the works, despite worries over the past few years that it might be dead.
Since late 2007, a group of local investors has been trying to erect a four-story office building on the south side of Madison Street. The proposed building would include a parking garage, retail space on the ground floor and a bridge spanning Highland Avenue.
But the idea has languished on the backburner for years, and in August 2011, village trustees gave Madison Highlands LLC a third delay to start work on the building.
With that, the group had until Feb. 16 to apply for building permits, or risk losing the village’s approval, but the group was granted a fourth extension last week.
Mas Takiguchi, the attorney for the developer, told village trustees Feb. 21 that they’re still working behind the scenes to make the development happen. It hit a snag in late 2010, when the Park District of Oak Park nixed plans to expand its gymnastics program at the office building, instead settling on a former Aldi grocery store site on Lake Street near Austin Boulevard.
Takiguchi said they’re talking to several tenants who have expressed interest in taking up part of the 75,000-square-feet of office space. Plus, they’re eyeing a large restaurant chain to take up about 10,000 square feet of the ground-floor storefronts, and a deli to take up the remaining portion.
Madison Highlands now has until July 16 to apply for building permits, and until Nov. 16 to start construction. If they’re able to line up tenants in the coming months, they expect to finish the building by March 2014.
