Lake Zurich’s downtown TIF district could get a big boost with a proposed 130-room hotel, southwest of Rte. 22 and Old Rand Road.
The hotel is being proposed by John Breugelmans of Lakeland Asset Management; Breugelmans was one of the developers who had proposed a development on Block A, across from the Promenade, in downtown Lake Zurich this summer. The village board decided not to go with any of the developers.
Breugelmans started his presentation saying he was trying again. He said the owner of the property, Greg Schwermer, approached him because he was impressed with Breugelman’s proposal for Block A. A sliver of the land of proposed hotel site is owned by the village.
Breugelmans brought the plan to the village board Monday night, and board members responded positively, agreeing to send the proposal to the village plan commission. The plan commission would conduct a thorough review and public hearings.
The proposal is for a seven-story, full-service hotel, with 130 rooms, a restaurant and bar, coffee shop, banquet facilities, and a landscaped rooftop garden. Breugelmans said the entire developer investment for the project would be about $20 million.
Breugelman’s said the closeness to the train tracks was one of the reasons he opted for a hotel rather than residential development at the site. “It’s a beautiful piece of land from all aspects; the train track is an obstacle,” he said, noting that hotels have substantial sound insulation.
He also noted that the proposed extension of Rte. 53, is expected to double the traffic on Rte. 22.
“The idea here is that Rte. 22, in the future, will accommodate a lot more traffic than now. With that in mind, a hotel makes a lot of sense; the nearest hotel on Rte. 22 is in Lincolnshire,” Breugelmans said.
Trustee Tom Poynton said it seemed the hotel would complement any future downtown development and help restaurants and businesses downtown. He noted that currently the downtown does not have any buildings higher than three stories.
Breugelmans said the three-story limit is a thing of the past as the village was considering allowing more stories during the discussions of Block A.
Trustee Rich Sustich asked Building Director Dan Peterson to determine the process for selling village owned land.
“I propose we find a way to move this process faster. We need to be more developer friendly,” Sustich said.
Breugelmans said if the project is approved, his group would embark on a study of four hotel groups. “We want to pick the right one; we want to be in the middle range of full service that reeks of some level quality that Lake Zurich deserves,” he said.
Yeah swanky like Deerpark and Barrington? Neither have 7 story buildings. How about planning a thriving downtown instead of driving companies away. A hotel does not bring a lot of business in, it supports existing business. Lake Zurich was the place to live when they had a thriving small business community. The push to go big has chased LZ to fall far in the rankings of desirable communities to live in. Stop looking for the big money and start looking to grow a sustainable market of shops, restaurants and small businesses. Why on earth would several hundred people ever need to spend the night in a town filled with vacant run down lots?
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-115188496.html http://www.eapl.org/lakezurich/burgess/Farmans.asp Also, with the CN railroad tracks being close to the site, maybe the old PLZ & W Railroad can be resurrected!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatine,_Lake_Zurich_and_Wauconda_Railroad Back to the Future? --- or, is history repeating itself?!! Maybe it's just this Village going around in circles
Those rooms could be used for other meetings and weddings. And a hotel in our area would be helpful during holidays when families need roooms to house visiting family members. All in all, a hotel in downtown LZ would have to pull it's own weight to sell rooms. It doesn't necessarily need a thriving downtown to make it succesful. But to have a hotel there would help with the ( hopefully) continued growth of LZ in general.