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Village-Owned Bank Building Meets Wrecking Ball This Week

Plans In Place For Expanded Golf Mill Park, Festival Grounds, Underground Stormwater Detention

The village owned former bank building at 9101 Greenwood Ave., is set to be demolished this week.

Demolition of the Niles-owned multi-story office building at Greenwood Avenue and Church Street was set to begin yesterday (Tuesday). The demolition will make way for massive underground stormwater detention vaults and an expanded Golf Mill Park with festival grounds above them.

A joint village and park district committee will interview five firms who submitted proposals to design the expanded Golf Mill Park and festival grounds to include the property at 9101 Greenwood, which sits directly adjacent to the park. The combined, expanded park would total 9.09-acres. Those meetings are scheduled for 8 a.m. tomorrow (Thursday) and 9 a.m. Monday, Sept. 17, both at village hall.

The joint committee will review proposals from finalists for the expanded park and interview officials with finalist firms PRI, Ratio and Site at Thursday’s meeting, and finalist firms Greenberg Farrow and Hitchcock at Monday’s meeting. In August, the joint committee reviewed proposals from 10 firms and narrowed them to five.

Once the joint village and park district committee decides on a firm to design features for the expanded Golf Mill Park, both village trustees and park board commissioners would need to separately approve those design firm agreements.

Mayor Andrew Przybylo commissioned conceptual designs for the expanded Golf Mill Park from Ed Uhlir, who before his death in November, was the Chicago Park District’s chief architect, tapped by former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley as Millennium Park’s project director. He also helped design Maggie Daley Park in Millennium Park.

Renderings of what a possible expanded Golf Mill Park could look like, including artist pavilions.

Those conceptual renderings detail a series of artists pavilions on one side of the park, athletic fields on the other side and a walking or running path circling the entire park.

Under the park, the firm Hey & Associates would work to design underground detention vaults. Niles Village Manager Steve Vinezeano said an intergovernmental agreement would be needed with the park district before underground storage work begins.

The planned underground detention vaults beneath the park would hold the equivalent of 12-acres of one-foot-above-ground in stormwater detention and install 4,000 feet of 36-inch-to-54-inch sewer lines.

The estimated cost to install the detention vaults and redesign the park is estimated at $8.6 million. Several years ago, the village purchased the bank building for $2.6 million from the Cuneo family, former owners of Golf Mill Shopping Center. In May, village officials announced, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago committed $2 million in funding for the project. The agency sees the project as one of regional significance.

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