Developer eyes residential development on River Road

A developer recently demolished three vacant structures along North River Road in Algonquin with the hope of constructing a residential development on the property sometime next year.

The property is 2.7 acres, with a 437-foot frontage on the Fox River.

Property owner Carl Swanson, of Commercial Property Associates, said he officially closed on the property on Aug. 20, 2018.

The developers paid $324,000 for the property at auction.

Work began last week on demolishing the vacant residences at 120, 207 and 299 N. River Road. Trees in that area have been going down all summer, Swanson said. The trees being torn down were approved by the village because they weren’t “quality trees,” he said, but trees that were healthy were marked not to be cut down with a green ribbon.

Swanson said he currently planning on putting an 18-unit residential development there, made up of 13 townhomes and five single-family homes on the property. This would include some new docks and a little parking area.

Swanson said developers got approval for reconfiguration of the docks on the property, so they will pull out the old ones and put new ones in.

The property also came with 17 piers.

Grading and removing stones will happen later on “down the line” when the developers go for full approval of the site plan, Swanson said.

Swanson said the main demographic for the people living in the residences would probably be somebody older than 50, who still has an active lifestyle.

“Maybe their children live in the Algonquin area, they want to have a nice place for their grandkids to enjoy the river and do recreational stuff,” Swanson said.

Swanson said developers are looking at naming the development after the east side of the Fox River where it is located, but no names have been finalized yet.

Ben Mason, senior planner for the village of Algonquin, said nothing has formally been proposed for redevelopment of the property yet. The property owner still needs to provide a development plan and go through the process for formal approvals to get started with building the townhomes and single-family homes, said Russ Farnum, community development director for Algonquin.

This would include going before the village’s planning and zoning commission, and then the village board, for a development review.

The developer has been discussing options with village staff, but there have been no formal applications for the residential redevelopment yet.

Swanson currently is looking for a contractor who would be interested to build the 18-unit residential properties.

The property is located in the Downtown Algonquin TIF district. This means the property could be eligible for certain incentives such as the reimbursement of TIF-eligible costs, including mass grading and most site preparation costs.

Swanson said he hopes to get formal approvals in by winter and break ground on the residential development in the early spring.

So far, developers have just given village staff a preliminary site plan and told them what they think is the market for a development like the one they’re planning, Swanson said.

“There’s a lot of demand,” Swanson said. “There was so much activity on the river this year. People like that. They like that recreation.”

Swanson said he does not expect the potential residential development will be a major issue with those living in the area.

“I just thought it was an interesting parcel,” Swanson said. “I’ve lived at the river since 1992, I know what a nice feature it is, even in the winter when there’s no boating. It’s quiet. I actually like it in the off season. It’s very peaceful, yet it’s very picturesque.”