Mount Prospect mayor cites successes across town in State of Village address
Mount Prospect Mayor Paul Hoefert took his audience on a tour of the community Thursday, touting the village's accomplishments all across town, during his first State of the Village address at the Mount Prospect Chamber of Commerce's Dynamic Year Breakfast.
Highlights included new development, growing revenues, and annexations that have brought additional opportunities. And he gave much of the credit to village staff members.
"You can't underestimate the elbow grease by staff that goes into preparing for potential opportunities, which may occur in the future," he said.
On the north end of town, Hoefert pointed to developments along the Rand Road corridor, including the opening of HomeGoods in a portion of the vacant former Carson Pirie Scott space at Randhurst Village. He also mentioned other highlights along the corridor, including the openings of Northern Tools + Equipment and Wild Fork food market.
"HomeGoods is key at Randhurst. Department stores are struggling these days. So dividing the space and using it for HomeGoods and other uses is critical," he said. "And they were able to do that."
Another key development was the subdivision of the Randhurst outlots, so they can be sold individually.
Moving to downtown, Hoefert noted three luxury apartment developments.
"These three projects alone, if you add it up, represent $160 million of new investment in our downtown and they bring 428 new living units," he said.
He also delivered encouraging news about Caputo's, the long-awaited downtown grocery store.
"If you've driven by there lately, you've seen that the refrigeration units have been delivered," he said. "Caputo's is going forward. And we're all very excited about that."
Other downtown happenings include the redevelopment of Prospect Place and the HQ Residences, which will occupy the former police and fire headquarters, which the village sold for $2 million.
On the south end of Mount Prospect, the biggest impact is being made by Cloud HQ, which is investing $2.5 billion in a new data center campus at the former United Airlines headquarters.
Hoefert credited Village Manager Michael Cassady, Community Development Director Bill Cooney and Director of Building and Inspection Services Bill Schroeder with achieving the annexation of the property.
"We are going to garner, just in utility taxes, $1 million a year from that," Hoefert said.
Other new developments are on the horizon as well, as the village is poised to create a new tax increment financing district on the village's south side.
"Mount Prospect is going to continue to be a great place to live, work and run a business," Hoefert said. "I'm sure of that."