Redevelopment talks for Hillcrest/Blackhawk lot continue with DeKalb City Council

DeKALB – The second of several community listening sessions will take place this week inviting the public to weigh in with the city of DeKalb and area nonprofit Opportunity DeKalb regarding how to redevelop the Hillcrest/Blackhawk lot and the Annie Glidden North area.

Input on this topic will be welcomed by DeKalb city leaders, according to documents released ahead of Monday’s City Council meeting, set for 6 p.m. in the Yusunas Meeting Room at the DeKalb Public Library, 309 Oak St.

City officials envision the workshop will serve as a way to generate further ideas with greater specificity about how to redevelop the 4.87-acre lot that has been prepped for redevelopment on the city’s north side.

Among the ideas solicited for the lot during the first community listening session held on July 25 was to create student dining and study center, attract a mini “Target” or other general merchandiser, create a student-focused gathering area, and avoid a bar or late-night venue.

Opportunity DeKalb, a group tasked with redeveloping the city’s north side, has hosted four listening sessions, which have not been open to the public. DeKalb city leaders plan to incorporate feedback solicited there, as well as the publicly held community listening sessions into any decision-making regarding the redevelopment of the Hillcrest/Blackhawk lot and the Annie Glidden North area.

The city originally took ownership of what was formerly the Hillcrest Shopping Center in 2021 and the Blackhawk Road property in 2019 after years of disputes with the property owners.

Ownership change came on the heels of the movie theater being condemned, only for the property to remain vacant for years thereafter. The Hillcrest Shopping Center, however, was acquired by the city for $1.18 million from Evanston-based Hunter Properties, once DeKalb’s largest landlord. Upon acquisition, the city demolished the structures that once occupied the two properties and formed what is now an “L”-shaped lot at the corner of Hillcrest Drive and Blackhawk Road.

To date, the city has invested $2,508,431 in local and federal funds to assemble the lots in the “L”-shaped area at the corner of Hillcrest Drive and Blackhawk Road, city documents show.

An additional $1.87 million from late 2018 to present was also put forward by the city of DeKalb for surrounding costs which included $200,000 for new streetlights; $310,000 to extend fiberoptic cables for community Wi-Fi at no cost to area residents; $150,000 to support the University Village Collaborative; $30,000 to aid DeKalb County Community Gardens’ traveling food pantry, Grow Mobile, in the area; $70,000 to support neighborhood summer program Camp Power and meals; $110,000 for Twombly Road sidewalk work; $53,000 for the University Village summer bus shuttle and $80,000 to aid former tenants of Hunter Hillcrest in relocation costs.