Berwyn rebrands with a commercial edge
July 30, 2010 | Mark Thomton | Print Article | Email this Article
The City of Berwyn is making aggressive pitches to commercial real estate practitioners and providing incentives for signed deals, as the Cook County community attempts to bolster its retail offerings and develop a destination
dinning corridor.
Some communities like to keep it even keel. Commercial development is not necessarily frowned upon, but genuine attempts to engage the commercial real estate market are sometimes few and far between.
Not in Berwyn.
The suburb sandwiched between Cicero to the east, Riverside to the west, Oak Park to the north, and Stickney to the south, is attempting to set itself apart from its neighbors and deliver an affordable, yet dynamic option for families looking to relocate from Chicago.
At 3.8 square miles it may not seem like a traditional sprawling suburb, but that is exactly what local economic developers are selling.
“We are really looking to brand Berwyn,” says Tim Angell, senior project manager at the Berwyn Development Corporation. “It’s not just another suburb. We are a mix of urban and suburban. We want to provide growth opportunities for mom and pop retailers as well as find the right national tenants. We are proactive in forming relationships with commercial brokers to make this happen.”
The community attracts home buyers who want affordable stock, the amenities that a major urban neighborhood can provide, and a quick commute to the Midwest’s largest city. Berwyn is positioned with three Metra stations and supports a CTA bus route to Chicago.
Berwyn city officials aggressively market first time home buyers from Chicago neighborhoods, says Angell.
While the home buyer market has cooled down and Berwyn has some product overhang, particularly with condos in the 52-unit Century Station development, the city is clearly positioning itself for the recovery with
major redevelopment projects and commercial corridor upgrades.
Berwyn has a total of four tax increment financing districts. All four TIFs stretch along the major commercial corridors in the city, Roosevelt Road, Cermak Road, Ogden Avenue, and the Metra tracks in an area known as the Depot District.
The Cermak corridor has recently experienced a big jolt in reinvestment as Cermak Plaza, the 1950s era retail center, received a $10 million face lift. The parking lot has been resurfaced, new lighting installed, and exterior façades have received upgrades. The facility is about one-third vacant, after losing high-profile tenants like Circuit City and a Rent-A-Center.
However, there has been positive news as of late, as Marshall’s expanded its lease by one-third and the facility is in what it hopes to be fruitful discussions with a national grocer.
Angell says that he cannot disclose the grocer, but that BDC staff is optimistic that it will be the first nationally-known grocer to set up in Berwyn.
Cermak Plaza is not the only location on Cermak to receive attention as of late. Directly across the street, at the Northeast corner of Harlem and Cermak, the city has filed an RFQ for a 1.5 acre parcel of land that has received numerous inquiries from national retailers.
Traffic counts and proximity to other retailers has made the corner an enticing spot for national chains.
“National tenants are interested in that corner,” said Paul Zimmermann, president of the BDC. “It is nice to see that happen concurrently (with Cermak Plaza). We think there are big things ahead for that area.”
On the same stretch of Cermak, only a few hundred yards east of Harlem, the city’s first Jimmy John’s is under construction. The deal was done by Allen Joffe, principal with Baum Realty.
“It was the right spot for the tenant, based on where we needed to be,” says Joffe, citing the commercial corridor’s high traffic numbers.
Joffe was able to take advantage of the city’s DINER program, which delivers an additional $3,000 to any commercial broker who successfully delivers a full service restaurant to Berwyn.
“We are seeing programs like this more often these days, where municipalities are getting creative (to attract brokers),” says Joffe. “They (the City of Berwyn) were great to work with, and they delivered on what they said they would.”
BDC officials are using this incentive to help revamp the Roosevelt Road corridor on the northern border of town.
As Zimmerman says, a rare achievement was obtained when Oak Park, Berwyn, and Cicero all agreed to a uniform code for Roosevelt Road, forming the Roosevelt Road Streetscape. All three towns border Roosevelt Road at one point, and, in a unique decision, the three municipalities agreed on one set of codes for the commercial corridor to give it a consistent look.
The stretch of Roosevelt Road has long been a destination for those looking to visit the Turano Bakery or Fitzgerald’s pub, but with the recent inclusion of Bodhi Thai Bistro and Wishbone, a gourmet southern restaurant, city officials want to draw more full service restaurants to the corridor and make it a dining destination.
Tags | Berwyn, Cermak Plaza, Retail
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That would be SIX Metra stations, two CTA trains (one within walking distance to many), with buses leading to all. The Union Pacific/West line is just as close or closer to many Berwynites as the BNSF.