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Village President’s Letter

The village of Northbrook is a community of approximately 35,000, with a daytime population of more than 80,000. Located on Chicago’s North Shore, Northbrook is a very diverse community.

In a recent Chicago Magazine article, Northbrook’s schools (in four independent districts) were listed number seven of the top 10 schools in the area. For many years, Northbrook was known as a bedroom community with very little shopping and restaurants other than Northbrook Court. My challenge when I was elected was to change this situation.

I vowed to help create economic growth, bringing this community into the next century. I started with discussing a long-promised but never-realized retail project called Willow Festival, located at Willow and Waukegan on property owned by the Society of the Divine Word. When completed, this will be a beautiful project landscaped with trees, bushes and a large fountain at the corner of Willow and Waukegan. Willow Festival will be a tremendous boost for Northbrook’s tax revenue and will give our citizens a great place to shop and have fun. Pinstripes — a unique bistro, bowling alley and bocce ball complex with a banquet hall — was one of the first businesses to open, along with Starbucks (which is Northbrook’s first drive-thru), Best Buy, Lauren’s Cleaners, Lowes, REI, American Chartered Bank, CVS Pharmacy, DSW Shoes, Potbelly’s and the new Whole Foods. A Sheraton Hotel and numerous other businesses will be opening soon, and several restaurants are scheduled to be built.

Another outstanding project that just broke ground after two years of negotiations is the Center of the North Shore. This will be a mixed-use project with 71 high-end condominiums, a Hyatt Suites Hotel, offices, retail, restaurants and a bank. There will be many water features with fountains (one will be an ice-skating rink in the winter) and exquisite landscaping, walking paths and bicycle trails. This will be another beautiful entrance to our village and a great place for our residents to eat, play and shop. Additionally, it will be a great way to augment the local economy.

Several other projects recently approved include a gated community of 164 townhouses on the Techny property next to Willow Festival. There is a new small office condominium project on Techny Road behind Crate & Barrel that is doing very well. Kraft Foods left its facility on Shermer Road and I was fortunate to find Highland Baking Company, who expanded their facilities and moved to Northbrook, bringing about 200 jobs. Walgreen’s bought the Motorola building on Commercial Avenue, establishing a call center with about 800 employees.

Downtown Northbrook is finally taking shape. The new Gerson Building is almost complete on Shermer by the train station. This is a three-story building of executive furnished office suites and a small breakfast/lunch restaurant.

Selwin Marcus, the owner of the block across from the park, just east of Meadow, has completed adding several stores to his complex, and a building is anticipated. The other owners in downtown are now talking to me about adding more stores and condos and possibly senior housing. Bonefish Grill, Marcello’s and Subway are all new restaurants to our downtown, and Georgie V’s is expanding to include evening hours.

Trader Joe’s just moved into Northbrook at Village Square on Skokie Boulevard. There is discussion of Circuit City moving back into town on the west end along with a new restaurant, Butterfield’s Pancake House. Northbrook will also have a new industrial facility, C&D Recycle, which will be able to recycle 90 percent of the construction materials of a teardown house. This costs builders less money than using dump facilities. In addition, we are working with C & D Recycling to provide electronic, battery and fluorescent recycling for our residents.

There are also many other projects being considered. We now have become a business-friendly community, we have gone from a deficit to a balanced budget, and we are in the process of greatly expanding our investment in the infrastructure of sidewalks and streets and water improvements. It is a great necessity to invest in these important assets.

Northbrook is also going green. We are the first community to purchase wind power to completely run our water facility. At the present time, we purchase more wind power than the entire state government. We are now just one of four communities that have reached Platinum Status with Clean Air Counts; our water was in the top 15 finalists nationwide at the U.S. Conference of Mayors — and this is only a portion of the efforts we devote to this purpose. We received an honorable mention for our environmental work at the national organization’s conference. To be in this top 15 for our environmental work out of hundreds of cities was both an honor and validation of this important work.

I am proud to be president of a board and community that has recognized the need to address the concerns of sustainability as it seeks positive ways to grow.

Northbrook Village President Gene Marks