Waukegan Maps $1.2B Downtown, Lakefront Redevelopment

WAUKEGAN, IL-The first step in a $1.2-billion redevelopment of this city’s Downtown and lakefront could be 12-story multifamily buildings on Sheridan Road, followed by a minor-league baseball park at Belvidere Road and Genesee Street. City council members Monday night endorsed a master plan drawn by Chicago-based architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which attempts to map out city efforts to revitalize its slumbering Downtown and reclaim a lakefront given away to now-idled industrial users who once employed 30,000.

The plan includes a substantial price tag of at least $50 million in city money, which could be generated by a sales tax, tax increment financing and the sale of city-owned land, to pay for infrastructure needed to “set the table” for at least a dozen developers who may be interested in making the master plan a reality.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill estimates it will take $245 million in city, state, county and federal money to build new roads, eliminate contamination and buy more than 250 acres of land. Most of that investment will have to be made in the early years of the master plan, with the biggest chunk–$92 million—expected to be spent turning former industrial properties along the lakefront into sites able to handle multifamily development.