Journal & Topics Media Group

Changing Face Of Ellinwood Street


View of storefronts along Ellinwood Street in Des Plaines circa 1890. (Photo courtesy Des Plaines History Center)

Ellinwood Street will never look quite the same after this year’s Taste of Des Plaines.

During the two-day festival set for June 15-16, attendees will be able to view the under-construction, 113-unit Opus luxury apartment building on Ellinwood, just east of Pearson Street, where Sims Bowl once stood.

Construction was pushed back about a year from original estimates of summer 2017. Now it is expected to be complete by spring next year, said Mike McMahon of the city’s Community Development department. When finished, the seven-story building will include studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments, 2,000 sq. ft. of retail space and 4,000 sq. ft. of “amenity space,” according to McMahon.

Since 2015, the Opus site was utilized for the Taste of Des Plaines petting zoo. Now that construction is underway, the petting zoo will not be part of the 2018 Taste, according to Des Plaines special events coordinator Bryan Cory. A remote-controlled car area will instead be included in the Taste family entertainment area in front of the Des Plaines Public Library.

“We have to figure out a place to put it,” he said when asked if the zoo may return in future years. “In fact, we thought we were going to lose that grassy area last year,” he added.

Across the railroad tracks from the library, the city is in negotiations to purchase and renovate the Des Plaines Theater, a well-known city landmark that has been shuttered since 2015. These efforts could also change the downtown landscape by the time next year’s festival comes around.

At the opposite end of Ellinwood from the Opus apartments, also encompassing portions of Graceland Avenue and Lee Street, another development earned city council approvals earlier this month. The mixed-use building from developers Bayview-Compasspoint will be even larger than Opus at 212 units. Bayview president Dennis Thompson said he plans to attract two high-end restaurants to fill 10,031 sq. ft. of ground floor retail space in the building along the south side of Ellinwood between Lee and Graceland, just west of the Taste.

Work is expected to begin on the Bayview site while construction of the Opus development is being completed, city staff said.

Since the Taste itself returned to the city’s control in 2015, after several years of the “Summer Fling” festival in downtown Des Plaines, another part of downtown has seen rapid transformation. As of this year’s festival, development of 58 townhome units on Lee Street between Prairie Avenue and Thacker, called Lexington Pointe, is about halfway finished. Preliminary approval of the Planned Unit Development for the project was granted almost three years ago.

“There is a lot of construction in the downtown area,” Cory said. “We are a little bit landlocked.” He said being bordered by state highways such as Lee, Northwest Highway and River Road makes it difficult to block off more space in the area. Even though the Taste may be losing some real estate, Cory said the city and festival partners are excited to find new ways to fit into the fast-changing downtown.

“We look for something that’s a win-win for everybody,” he told the Journal.

A bustling Ellinwood Street in 1957. (Des Plaines History Center photos)

 

Artist’s rendering looking west of proposed development along Ellinwood and Lee streets in downtown Des Plaines. The bank at the corner would remain, but other existing buildings would be demolished.

 

Artist’s rendering of new 113-unit apartment building going up on Ellinwood east of Pearson on previous site of Sims Bowl.

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