News

The monks of St. Bede Abbey have announced plans for the first phase of the St. Bede Senior Living project that includes a 70-unit assisted living and memory care facility.

“The Benedictine Society of St. Bede just celebrated its centennial,” said project developer Jim Louthen of Town Builder Studios. “Now they’re making plans for the future to celebrate their bicentennial.”

“Over the last year, they have developed a strategic plan to expand their service to the Illinois Valley community by providing an opportunity for lifelong learning and for serving the senior population in the Illinois Valley,” Louthen said.

Louthen said the ultimate plan features the build-out of an 80-acre portion of the campus on the west side as a senior village.

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Like shopping centers across the suburbs, Berwyn’s Cermak Plaza was skewered by the recession, but the one-time home of the famous car-kebab statue called the “Spindle” is plotting a comeback.

Built in 1956 by shopping center magnate David Bermant, Cermak Plaza has survived dozens of downturns. But “it had gotten pretty shabby,” concedes Michael Flight, president of Westchester-based Concordia Realty Corp., the property’s manager.

Now amid the deepest economic trough since the Great Depression, the center is getting a $10-million face-lift that its owners see as the key to competing with newer malls for scarce tenants and reversing years of decline.

The effort already is paying off in terms of tenant interest, Mr. Flight says: “Things are finally starting to turn around.”

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In January, the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association invited its member communities to discuss a novel approach to housing issues — municipal cooperation. At the end of that meeting, approximately 20 towns signed up to explore this idea a little further.

Just five months later, the South Suburban Housing Collaborative is off and running, having recently hired its first director of housing initiatives and now gaining national attention as a promising suburban model for addressing housing needs and an innovative example of how to use funds coming from the federal economic stimulus package.

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Not every community has the resources to hire dedicated housing staff. Working together allows towns to share knowledge and expertise across borders, operate more efficiently and attract more investment. This effort can support and enhance existing economic development initiatives and help create more jobs in the area. Collaboration also provides a platform for integrating energy efficiency into housing and thoughtfully linking the intertwined issues of housing and transportation.

The efforts of the collaborative are getting both support and attention from local and national institutions. The Metropolitan Mayors Caucus and the Metropolitan Planning Council have been supporting the collaborative since the beginning. The Chicago Community Trust recently awarded a grant to the collaborative to hire its director of housing initiatives, who will lay the groundwork for this new effort and provide needed assistance on housing issues in the participating communities.

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Consultants drafting a strategic plan for downtown Glen Ellyn will publicly showcase two conceptual plans in the coming weeks.

Residents will be able to provide feedback on both plans during an open house from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Nov. 3 at the village’s Civic Center, 535 Duane St., Glen Ellyn. The consultants from Town Builder Studios also will give a brief presentation at 7 p.m.

“The main purpose of the open house is really to present the plans to the public and get feedback from them on the two concept plans that have been developed,” said Michele Stegall, Glen Ellyn’s planner.

From Nov. 3-12, residents also will able to provide feedback online by visiting the village’s Web site at glenellyn.org.

Town Builder Studios then will take all the comments and create a preferred plan, which will either be a fusion of both plans or the most favored plan.

The downtown advisory committee is expected to view the preferred plan on Nov. 20. Another open house for residents will be held on Dec. 9.

“Overall, I think the Town Builder Studios team has done a great job, and added a number of additional public forums and meetings,” Stegall said. “We think things are going well.”