After 20 years, the Highland Terrace neighborhood just north of Bangs Lake and downtown Wauconda is set to be finished.
A new company, Elgin-based North Mark Homes, is taking over where the original builders left off when the economy tanked.
A permit has been issued and construction equipment is ready to go with a model home at Highland Terrace in Wauconda.
Mick Zawislak/mzawislak@dailyherald.com
Infrastructure was installed and 21 units of the 81 planned for the community on North Main Street and Regency Court were built before work stopped in 2004. North Mark has approvals to complete the job by building 60 new units in 12 buildings on either side of Regency Court.
Unless you know the background, it’s hard to tell the site actually is an unfinished product. The undeveloped space has been kept up.
Twenty years later, work is getting underway to complete the Highland Terrace subdivision north of downtown Wauconda. This is the model home site.
Mick Zawislak/mzawislak@dailyherald.com
“It’s been manicured and mowed. It’s been like this for 20 years,” said Jeff Pelock, president of Revco Ventures Inc., a real estate investment firm. North Mark is a division Revco.
After 20 years, work to complete the Highland Terrace townhouse development north of downtown Wauconda is about to begin. The open area is part of the original development approved in 2004 but never built.
Mick Zawislak/mzawislak@dailyherald.com
North Mark and village officials met Wednesday for a ceremonial groundbreaking next to the beginnings of a new model to take shape in coming weeks.
“We’re excited to get started,” Pelock said.
The original development began in 2004 when the property was annexed and zoned and a developer’s agreement to construct 16 buildings inked.
Utilities were installed 20 years ago for the original Highland Terrace development in Wauconda. Work stopped with an economic downturn but is set to resume.
Mick Zawislak/mzawislak@dailyherald.com
North Mark has been working to get to this point for a few years and closed on the property purchase about six weeks ago, Pelock said.
“It took a lot of time,” he said. “There are so many parties involved.”
Greg Anderson, community development director, noted that building codes applicable in 2004 have been revised and updated.
“They had to go through a review process to make sure the product they were designing was closely related to what actually was built,” he said.
Anderson said he hasn’t encountered a situation where an existing unfinished subdivision was being completed 20 years later. There is a scattering of residential building sites in town but “this is an actual true development,” he said.
North Mark has projects in Bloomingdale, Channahon, Grayslake, South Elgin, Gilberts and Woodstock.
At Highland Terrance in Wauconda, homes will range from 1,521 to 1,786 square feet in two-story and ranch-style plans with two to three bedrooms and one to three baths. Prices are expected to start in the mid-$300,000s with downsizers the anticipated market, Pelock said.