More than a year after Glencoe’s Village Board approved a new subdivision that will create 29 homes, construction has yet to begin.
In October 2020, Glencoe’s Village Board unanimously approved a permit allowing for the construction of the Forest Edge subdivision at 1801 Green Bay Road on the 12-acre site commonly known as the Hoover Estate.
While the demolition of the manor house, coach house and stables occurred earlier this year, work has yet to start on the 29 new houses that are expected to measure 2,600 to 4,000 square feet.
Arthur Goldner of Glencoe Developers LLC, which is the manager for Hoover Owner LLC, the owner of the property, admits he is not happy with the situation.
“We are very frustrated. As developers, we wanted to get going as soon as possible,” Goldner said.
Following the lengthy process toward village approval during which many residents expressed concern over potential stormwater management conflicts, the developers did not receive a separate permit from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District to start building until June, Goldner said.
“They held us up for nine months,” Goldner said.
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District spokeswoman Allison Fore confirmed the district issued the Watershed Management Ordinance permit in June, but differed with Goldner on the reason for the delay.
“The project was very complex with seven different detention/retention systems,” Fore said. “Their permit application submittals contained inconsistencies between the plans and application documents, and the design engineer required a number of submittals to rectify these inconsistencies.”
Once the MWRD permit was secured, Goldner said the ownership team wanted to start construction. However, the ongoing national supply chain issues in combination with cost escalations of commodities like lumber, caused additional problems.
Goldner said the developers heard from the homebuilder selected for the project that he does not know how much the project would cost and he could not assure delivery of products necessary for homes like ranges and refrigerators because of the ongoing worldwide shortage of semiconductor computer chips.
Goldner said he and his team did not think the problems would ease anytime soon and with colder weather setting in, the land will stay quiet for at least the rest of 2021, Goldner conceded.
“People are going to be selling their houses and expecting us to give us a house by a certain date and we are not going to be able to fulfill that,” Goldner said. “That would have been a terrible situation to put people in.”
He did not commit to a start in 2022.
“We will see what it looks like in May when the weather improves and where the numbers and supply chain issues are then,” Goldner said.
Village Manager Phil Kiraly wrote in an email that large projects often can be delayed and sensed the coronavirus pandemic also played a factored into the holdup.
“We are hopeful that work will be underway soon,” he wrote.
Goldner anticipates construction of the homes will take 10 to 12 months once the project is underway, believing three or four houses will be constructed at a time.
Despite the setback, Goldner, who has worked in real estate for more than 50 years, remains confident that it will happen someday.
“We think it is a wonderful — and very rare — property in Glencoe,” he said. “We think whenever we do go forward we will be doing a great job and hopefully it will sell quickly and we will develop the whole thing.”
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelance reporter.
