Eleven thousand square feet of retail space may be added to 1603 Orrington Ave., a block lined with empty storefronts, starting in the first quarter of 2006.
The development will consist of an anchor store — replacing Borders Books & Music, which moved to Maple Avenue in 2003 — and several specialty stores, which could include restaurants. It also will add 12 angled parking spaces and 20 short-term parking spaces. The project should take 10 months to complete, said Stephen Yas, one of the architects for a proposed development on the property.
The plans were recommended for approval by the Evanston Plan Commission at its May 4 meeting and will come before the Evanston City Council on May 23 or June 13, according to Arthur Alterson, Evanston’s zoning administrator. Alterson said the Plan Commission had “some misgivings” that construction would eliminate open space, but its comments were mostly positive.
The development will be set 50 feet back from Orrington Avenue but will go to the property line on Davis Street, Yas said. He said he plans to create more open space by widening sidewalks and creating an extra lane where people can be dropped off in front of the tower.
Although the proposed development still must go before the City Council, Yas said he does not anticipate that many residents will oppose it because it will only be two stories high and there are no residential areas directly adjacent to it.
“We’ve had absolutely no opposition that has come forward, and we don’t want to entice any, either,” he said.
After businesses like Borders moved from 1603 Orrington, business in the area slowed down, Yas said, hurting stores nearby. There are no stores left on the east side of Orrington between Church Street and Davis Street after Cingular Wireless moved Jan. 31.
“The ones on Orrington are dying on the west side of the street because there’s nothing on the east side of the street,” Yas said.
The development will help neighboring retailers by bringing more customers and traffic to the area, said Bhasker Patel, manager of Ben and Jerry’s Scoop Shop, 1634 Orrington Ave. He said he is not worried about competition from incoming restaurants.
“Right now we don’t have attractive shops down here in this corner,” Patel said. “It’s going to make a reason for people to walk onto Orrington Avenue”
Not everyone thinks the area will get a boost. Tom Mader, owner and operator of Aladdin’s Eatery, 622 Davis St., said he didn’t think adding restaurants on Orrington would help other retailers, although he said he wouldn’t mind the competition. Currently, he said, “there’s like 800,000 restaurants in four blocks of Evanston.”
Aladdin’s would benefit most from additional parking, Mader said. He said Aladdin’s customers currently must park a block away from the restaurant.
“As long as they put enough parking in there, that’ll make a huge difference because right now there’s no parking in Evanston at all,” he said. “If they put enough parking just for the businesses that’s not going to help us any.”
Reach Tina Peng at [email protected].
