New developments in Shorewood

A La Quinta hotel rising in Shorewood may be the most obvious sign of new development in town, but it’s not the only one.

The four-story hotel being built along the Interstate 55 East Frontage Road is designed to have 81 rooms when it opens.

It’s one of two projects in the works on the frontage road and among a few others in various stages of development around town.

Village officials would like to see the older part of town redeveloped and have established a tax increment financing district to attract interest.

The core of the TIF district is the crossroads of Routes 52 and 59, two major commercial corridors that meet in Shorewood.

It’s the original center of town but an area that village officials would like to see take a new direction.

“It’s the oldest part of Shorewood,” Mayor Rick Chapman said. “Everybody agrees that it needs to be rebuilt.”

TIF incentives, which offset development costs, could be particularly useful for developed sites, interim Community Development Director Rod Tonelli said, pointing to the intersection of Routes 52 and 59 as a prime example.

“Some of those corners have been around for decades,” Tonelli said. “If they were vacant and someone had come to develop them later, they wouldn’t look like that.”

TIF incentives offset costs that developers might face in assembling several parcels for a new project, he said. The TIF incentive allows a portion of property taxes to be used to cover development costs.

The district was established in 2017, and some of the development now visible began without TIF incentives.

The La Quinta, next to an existing EconoLodge that is the only other hotel in the village, is in the TIF district but is being built without the incentives.

Next door, TIF incentives were used for Shoot Point Blank Range and Gunshop, an indoor shooting range and gun shop that is being developed by a Cincinnati-based company that has stores in six states, including Chicago-area locations in Naperville, Mokena and Hodgkins.

The shopping center at the corner of Routes 52 and 59, which features the Chicken-N-Spice restaurant that opened last year, is not a TIF project, Tonelli said.

There is commercial development along Route 59 outside of the TIF district, which was an area of strong retail growth in the prerecession years.

The corner of Route 59 and Black Road is home to several projects. Mad Hatchet Brewing, the village’s second craft brewery business, opened in April near the intersection.

Aldi is slated to begin construction later this year on a store on the southwest corner of the intersection, where The Home Depot also is located. Another project on that corner is The Learning Experience, a preschool.

The vacant Babies R Us store, located in the strip center that includes Mariano’s supermarket on the northwest corner of Route 59 and Black Road, is due to be occupied. Tonelli said the village has been informed a tenant has been found for the location.