Sept. 05--LaGrange Road may be Orland Park's main retail thoroughfare, but some village officials want Harlem Avenue to get attention, too.
A few lots on the major street have been empty for years -- most glaringly a large expanse of weeds and gravel that was the former site of a two-story strip mall that included Iwan's Deli and Catering, where an record E. coli outbreak in June 1998 sickened about 5,600 people.
Assistant Village Manager Joe La Margo said the village couldn't say how long the property, southwest of Harlem Avenue and 157th Street, had been vacant, but the mall was torn down in 2009.
Immediately north of that site is a shuttered restaurant where the land is used for valet parking by Cooper's Hawk Winery Restaurants, which is across 157th Street on Harlem Avenue.
The owner of the former strip mall site, Inter Continental Real Estate and Development Corp., could not be reached for comment on any plans for its redevelopment.
Village Trustee Jim Dodge said the property appeared to be "kind of languishing" in the mid-2000s, and the economic recession likely hurt attempts to redevelop it.
"While we are eager to fill all vacant sites in Orland Park, we have little control over this depending on who owns them, cost, etc.," La Margo said.
Andrea Staley, of 15690 Harlem LLC, which owns a group of adjacent condominiums, said their units were consistently full and the vacant lots didn't seem to be deterring residents.
But Paul Gabriel, general manager at Traverso's Restaurant, said empty lots and "For Rent" signs don't look good and don't help other Harlem Avenue businesses.
"More people and traffic in the area always helps," Gabriel said, adding that he has heard rumors over the years of plans to build on the empty property, but they never actually were realized. "I think money's tight, that's all."
Dodge said the Harlem Avenue situation will get more attention now that there has been progress in redeveloping Orland Park's Main Street Triangle, northwest of 143rd Street and LaGrange Road, along with an apartment/townhouse complex and a Mariano's supermarket being built west of LaGrange Road. The Triangle property includes the Ninety7Fifty on the Park apartment complex and the planned University of Chicago Medicine outpatient clinic.
"It's on our radar, and it's something we're starting to talk about," he said of the vacant land along the otherwise thriving Harlem Avenue business district. "... We (village) don't own the property, but we can bring attention to the area."
Dodge said the empty Harlem Avenue land had come up at recent strategic planning meetings among Orland Park officials. He said it's not clear whether Harlem Avenue would be a good candidate for a special taxing district that would offer substantial tax breaks to foster redevelopment, but tax incentives would be considered.
"The critical mass of retail is going to be on LaGrange Road, but look at the success of Cooper's Hawk," Dodge said. "Restaurants and businesses can do well there."
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