Owner revises plan to convert Lombard hotel into apartments
Lombard's village board will look next week at a revised plan to convert an extended-stay hotel into 144 garden-style apartments.
Churchwick Partners, the owner of the Sonesta ES Suites property at Highland Avenue and 22nd Street, went back to the drawing board after the village's advisory plan commission raised parking concerns. The New York-based real estate firm reworked the proposal to provide additional on-site parking.
Commissioners recently voted 4-2 to endorse the modified plan. Village trustees will have an initial discussion of the project on Thursday, Sept. 7. A final vote is expected as early as Sept. 21.
Churchwick wants to repurpose the hotel rooms - housed in two-story buildings - as studio and one-bedroom apartments with anticipated rents ranging from $1,500 to $1,750.
Each hotel room already has fully-equipped kitchens with full-sized refrigerators, ovens, microwaves and dishwashers. And hotel guests are already staying for long durations, Asaf Fligelman, a Churchwick partner, told the plan commission earlier this summer.
"We think that young professionals would love to live in a community like this," he said.
The company has requested an amendment to Lombard's comprehensive land-use plan - a road map for future growth and development - to turn the long-standing hotel into an apartment complex called Saint Regis Village. Also, the property owner is asking the village to rezone the nearly 5-acre property from a community shopping district to general residential.
However, the company is no longer seeking relief from parking requirements set forth in the village code. The updated site plan calls for 216 parking spots - or 1.5 spaces per dwelling unit, as required by Lombard's zoning ordinance. That standard is intended to account for resident and guest parking. Under the original plan, the apartment complex would have had 176 spaces on site.
The hotel was built in 1987. Sonesta Suites is bounded by an office building to the north, multifamily housing to the south, another hotel to the east and a fire and gas station to the west.
The village sent notifications to 331 adjacent property owners in the area informing them of the proposed project, Village Manager Scott Niehaus said.
Churchwick still intends to keep the hotel's clubhouse and pool as amenities for apartment residents. The company has acquired 15 extended-stay hotels and currently owns and manages 1,000 apartments in the New York area. The firm bought the Sonesta Suites in May 2022.