A newly updated architectural rendering of the townhouse development expected to soon begin construction of 164 units on the east side of Bell Works Chicagoland at 1705 Lakewood Blvd. in Hoffman Estates.
Courtesy of village of Hoffman Estates
Bell Works Chicagoland in Hoffman Estates will soon truly earn its self-applied moniker of “Metroburb” by adding a residential component in the form of 164 high-end townhouses to its multipurpose commercial redevelopment of the sprawling former AT&T headquarters building.
Preparations only await the issuing of a building permit now that an updated and slightly revised approval has been made of the site plan first given the green light in February 2023.
Only minor changes to such aspects as the lighting and landscaping were made, though the original approval was in need of a refresh for being more than a year old, Hoffman Estates Director of Development Services Peter Gugliotta said.
Nevertheless, the renewed vote provided another opportunity for the village board to ask questions and hear additional information about the project and the timing of its construction and marketing.
“Yeah, we’re ready to go,” said Ken Gold, vice president of acquisitions and development for New Jersey-based Inspired by Somerset Development. “It’s really going to be based on market conditions and selling, but when the site work starts it’s going to take about six to nine months to start getting the dirt moved and start going vertical in under a year. We want to get started selling like this summer. My sales team wanted to go on sale last week.”
Hoffman Estates officials have granted approval to the construction of 164 high-end townhouse units on the east side of Bell Works Chicagoland. New Jersey-based Inspired by Somerset Development also is planning roughly 300 apartments on the same 20-acre site.
Courtesy of village of Hoffman Estates/2023
About 300 rental apartments ultimately are planned to join the owner-occupied townhouses on the same nearly 20-acre site at the east end of the 152-acre property. But the apartments so far have received only conceptual approval.
The townhouses are expected to be priced in the mid-$400,000s, each with three bedrooms and an option for a fourth. Each unit would have three floors, with a two-car garage on the ground floor and the living areas above.
As with the original Bell Works redevelopment in Holmdel, New Jersey, the plan is to create an environment in the suburbs in which people can live, work, dine and be entertained within a more concentrated, urban-style area.
From the village’s perspective, the start of the townhouses is a big step toward that goal, Gugliotta said.
“I think it’s huge, because it’s a key component of what the whole vision was for that property,” he added.
Hoffman Estates village board members have approved a revised final plan for 164 townhouse units on the east side of the Bell Works Chicagoland property, on the former site of the AT&T corporate campus. A concept plan for 300 apartments also has received preliminary approval.
Courtesy of village of Hoffman Estates/2023
Based on the village’s experience with multifamily developments whose residents ended up owning more vehicles than originally expected, Trustee Patrick Kinnane expressed his concern about the availability of parking around the townhouses.
But Director of Planning & Transportation Jennifer Horn said each unit’s having a two-car garage with room for two more vehicles in the driveway is but one reason parking is believed to be adequate.
“All the private drives can accommodate parking as well,” she said. “So there’s enough parking that could accommodate well above what the recommendation is in the village code.”
Trustee Karen Mills’ question about whether the revised landscape plan created natural divisions between the units’ backyards provided a reminder of the unusual design of this particular Hoffman Estates development.
“These are actually rear-loaded townhomes, so the parking is in the back and the front yard really acts as the backyard where you have your garden,” Gold said. “And so we have pocket parks in front of the units. So it’s actually going to be a pedestrian-friendly, beautiful place where you can walk and see the front of the houses.”
This year saw the office, warehouse and recreational tenants at Bell Works reach 80% of the capacity of the initial eastern phase of the building’s redevelopment, and preliminary planning begin for the leap to the western phase. The entire building has a potential 1.2 million square feet of available tenant space.