New townhouses are likely headed to the northeast corner of Oak Park, pending approval by the Oak Park Board of Trustees.
One trustee who won’t be voting, though, is James Taglia, who owns the parcel of land at 6033 W. North Ave., which is now a 17,400-square-foot asphalt parking lot.
Developer Noah Properties plans to build two five-unit residential townhouse buildings on the land.
The buildings are planned as 38-feet, 5-inches tall and include 2,400-square-foot units with 400-square-foot garages.
They are expected to sell for between $550,000 and $600,000, according to Nicholas Ftikas, an attorney with Sam Banks Law Offices who is representing the developer.
Noah Properties was given unanimous approval by the Oak Park Zoning Board of Appeals at its May 1 meeting. The developer needed a special-use permit to build residential on the commercial corridor.
“We believe that the proposed multi-unit residential development will help preserve and enhance the residential environment of the immediate neighborhood and provide economically diverse housing options, expanding the village’s real estate tax base,” Ftikas told the zoning board.
The deal was brokered by David King of the Oak Park-based commercial real estate firm David King & Associates.
Taglia said in a telephone interview that he purchased the lot from Oak Park businessman Mike Kelly in 2012 through his company Deep River Development, LLC, and that he would recuse himself from the vote, when it reaches the board of trustees.
Taglia said there have been several interested buyers over the years – Burger King, a title loan company and a car rental business – but he believes townhouses are a “far superior use.”
“I was always hoping for a nice development to come along,” he said. “This appears to be a good outcome potentially.”
He said the property is under contract and the sale will go through if the board approves the project. He declined to reveal the terms of the deal.
Taglia did reveal that he came up with the spur-of-the-moment name for his LLC after seeing a billboard for Deep River Waterpark in Mellville, Indiana.
Eric Davis, a member of the Oak Park Township Board of Trustees, voiced his support for the project at the meeting, speaking as a resident and member of The North Avenue District community group.
“We’ve been working since 2013 to revitalize North Avenue between Austin and Harlem,” he said, adding, “We’re already on record as supporting more residential projects on North Avenue, where the supply of retail and office space exceeds market demand.
Davis said his group believes residential development along the commercial corridor “can help build the customer base for existing businesses and add more foot traffic and vitality to the district while reducing vacancies, including vacant land.”
He said the project is “precisely what our district needs to thrive.”
Viktor Schrader of the Oak Park Economic Development Corporation, a group that works to attract new business to Oak Park, said OPEDC endorses the project. Schrader said the townhouses “fits within an exciting new narrative” for North Avenue, considering other residential development planned for the street.
Zoning Board member Jim Lencioni said the first-floor family rooms in each townhouse are ideal for work-live spaces “which is the thing we’re trying to encourage along North Avenue.
“This is a great project,” he said.
tim@oakpark.com