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New warehouse planned as Devon Avenue corridor develops in Elk Grove

A 146,000-square-foot light industrial warehouse is planned on a portion of an existing strip mall property in Elk Grove Village - a further sign of continued development along the Devon Avenue corridor.

The precast 32-foot warehouse distribution building with 15 loading docks will be developed by CA Industrial on the west side of the Devon Avenue Market shopping center at Devon Avenue and Tonne Road. It will be leased to an industrial user, officials say.

The building will be constructed on most of the vacant property west of the strip mall, but the $7.3 million project also will require partial demolition of the 31,000-square-foot shopping center.

A 7,680-square-foot portion of the existing one-story building will remain, with plans for a number of the existing restaurants - including Tata's Pierogi, Fatt Mustard Cafe and Subway - to stay.

Mayor Craig Johnson said the developer originally sought a fuller scale redevelopment that would have displaced those businesses, but the village board was insistent to try to keep all of them, if not most.

"That restaurant area needs a shot of adrenaline. It needs an upgrade to its look. The facade needs to be done," Johnson said. "The new look is going to be very appealing, very high end and very good for the businesses."

The board this week gave initial approval to a resubdivision and rezoning from a business district to industrial district and associated variations that will allow the project to begin.

Trustees also endorsed the developer's application for a Cook County Class 6B tax incentive, which will allow the property to be assessed at lower levels for a dozen years: 10% of market value for the first decade, then 15% in the 11th year and 20% in the 12th year. The property would otherwise be assessed at 25%.

When the project is complete, it's projected to have a market value of more than $13 million, officials said.

Along with the new building, plans call for extension of a 12-foot screen wall at the rear of the site to provide a barrier, though Johnson noted there's a natural barrier - with ComEd power lines overhead - of some 200 feet between the shopping center and the nearest homes to the north.

A bicycle/pedestrian path from nearby Walnut Lane through the ComEd property will be extended back into Muir Park. The village and park district will ink a shared parking agreement that will allow people to park on the private property of the warehouse/shopping center.

Because the new warehouse will be neighbor to the recently opened village public works facility, part of the approved deal will allow village trucks to use an alternate exit behind the warehouse to get to Tonne Road.

The $21 million, 84,854-square-foot public works headquarters opened in January on the former site of Berthold's Floral, Gift and Garden Center and Elk Grove TV and Audio Service. Further west along Devon, a private Christian school is renovating the former office building of the shuttered Putt Putt miniature golf course.

Johnson said the village is in discussions to bring a retailer to a village-owned piece of land at Devon and Ridge avenues. There's talk of further retail and light industrial development close to Salt Creek, he added.

"We're going to see more of this along Devon," he said. "Devon is becoming more of an arterial street for businesses."

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