Mundelein project developers promise ‘unprecedented' community; ‘This … will forever transform our village'

Chicago Tribune

5 days ago

Driving west on Route 60 in Mundelein, motorists will get to a point where the big box stores suddenly stop, the road narrows and farmland opens up all around them. A sign proclaims the picturesque fields to be 'Ivanhoe Farms.'
The farm's owners are the Wirtz family, and they have been for nearly 170 years. The family, through the Wirtz Corporation, most famously owns the Chicago Blackhawks, as well as various business holdings such as the Breakthru Beverage Group, a beverage wholesaler.
The family has big dreams for the 800 acres — Ivanhoe Village, a self-described 'traditional neighborhood development' that will 'forever transform' Mundelein, according to village officials.
It's a massive project that will bring several thousand housing units — in the form of houses and apartments — and more than 2 million square feet of commercial space over decades of planned construction.
Developers call it an 'unprecedented' opportunity for Mundelein — potentially the first of its kind for the Chicagoland area — and emphasize how it fundamentally differs from typical suburban neighborhood developments.
But what is a 'traditional neighborhood development,' and will Ivanhoe Village really create the vision as promised?
According to Don Vitek, senior vice president at Wirtz Realty, when fully complete, Ivanhoe Village will have more than 3,100 residential units, including for-sale and rental, in a variety of sizes and types. About 25% of that will be targeted or restricted to seniors.
Residential development will be limited to 155 units in any given year to control growth, with less than a third of those being single-family detached dwellings. Between its Village Center, medical offices, health-related commercial space and small industrial facilities, it will have more than 2.2 million square feet of commercial space, Vitek said.
Developers and Mundelein officials emphasize its nature-oriented design — the farm will remain, with 11 acres to provide locally grown produce. More than 40% of Ivanhoe Village's land will be preserved as open space, Vitek said, and it will have a network of paths and community amenities connected by 12 miles of trails.
Every resident, he said, will be within a few blocks of a trail entrance connected to the neighborhood's amenities and the regional Millennium Trail.
Ivanhoe Village is designed to reduce dependence on vehicles, lead planner Marina Khoury said. Residential, commercial and civic spaces will be integrated. Cars and garages will generally be accessed from rear alleys, with the fronts featuring porches and landscaping to create pedestrian-friendly streetscapes for walking and 'everyday interactions between residents.'
The Village Center will provide space for shops, restaurants, services and workplaces, as well as a gathering space for events and activities.
The development's renderings paint an idyllic image of an American community, literally. Using vibrant watercolors rather than the more typical 3D models, they depict bustling historical downtown-esque streets and communal green spaces, where neighbors sit in the shade of trees. It's a vision drawing from the development's traditional neighborhood development (TND) principles, developers say.
Emily Talen is a professor of urbanism at the University of Chicago. TNDs are not a technical thing defined by an official body, she said, but more a philosophy around development. Talen said it traces its roots back to the 1980s as a reaction to suburban sprawl. 'New urbanists' emphasize building in more traditional ways, with walkable neighborhoods and nearby services.
She said similar concepts under different names, like 'garden cities,' were launched in the United Kingdom and Germany in the 19th century.
Modern suburban neighborhoods have numerous issues that experts like Sybil Derrible, a professor of urban engineering at the University of Illinois-Chicago, point out. Their heavy reliance on cars creates environments unfriendly for pedestrians or building communities.
They're usually not within walking distance of businesses, schools or community amenities, and lack alternative transportation options beyond personal vehicles. Pedestrians face long, winding streets that discourage walking.
'I always say, 'Can you go and buy a pint of milk by walking?' That's my criteria,' Derrible said.
Derrible's initial reaction looking at Ivanhoe Village was a positive one. He noted the walkways, parks, leisure areas and green infrastructure. Numerous trees will provide shade and help lower ambient air temperature, and the landscape architecture will help handle stormwater.
He did wonder about where stores will be located throughout the community, and how that would play into walkability.
'I'm cooking and I need tomatoes. Can I send my daughter just to buy some tomatoes, and can she just walk there in five minutes and come back?' Derrible said. 'If the stores are well-located, then people are going to have the option to walk there if they want.'
He also praised the long-term perspective of the developers. Rather than maximizing profit over a short period of time, he sees a commitment to, 'make sure the residents are happy, enjoy their lives, have neighbors and build a community.'
It's a hard quality to find in developers.
'I think the intention is there,' Derrible said. 'Making it happen the way they want is challenging, so I really applaud their effort.'
New urbanism and TNDs aren't without their critics, and Talen outlined some of the issues that have been raised. While one of the tenets of TNDs is a diverse community, many 'didn't end up being socially diverse,' she said.
Their very strengths, like superior aesthetics and walkability, make them very attractive and subsequently very expensive, creating a socially and economically uniform community. One of the most famous TND examples, Seaside in Florida, today is 'completely bougie,' Talen said.
TNDs like Seaside also face another criticism best highlighted by its use as the filming location for 'The Truman Show,' a 1998 movie starring Jim Carrey about a man unwittingly raised in a fake city for the entertainment of television viewers.
Because of the control wielded by developers of such projects, they can have a sense of fakeness, Talen said.
'The Seaside people were really mad at the makers of that movie, because they didn't know they were going to be characterized as being this cartoon fantasy of what a community is,' she said. 'A very Kafka-esque kind of situation.'
The top-down control of a TND, compared to a community built 'bottom up' by residents, can conjure up images of towns built by the 'benevolent industrialist' with their hearts in the right place that ultimately go wrong in some fashion, Talen said, such as Pullman in Chicago.
And some consider new urbanism to be little more than a 'better form of sprawl,' Talen said, making a community that is only slightly less car-dependent. She noted, however, that having amenities embedded into the community, like schools and businesses, still helps reduce car use.
While TNDs push back on many of the issues seen in typical suburban developments, which Talen considers a good thing, there's an argument to be made for 'good being the enemy of the best.' She said she is personally wary of the promises of Ivanhoe Village. While developers underscore the 'attainable housing' it will bring, she sees its potential to become another Seaside: a predominantly white, wealthy enclave.
In response to questions about how the village will be able to keep its middle housing offerings affordable, Khoury said the large variety of housing types and sizes will create a diversity of price points. Smaller homes on compact lots, cottage courts, townhomes, duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and small apartment buildings meet different needs at different price points, compared to the monospecific offerings seen in other developments, she said.
Mundelein for its part has embraced the philosophy of new urbanism and TNDs, Mayor Robin Meier said. It was partially that acceptance that helped attract the developers to Mundelein, she said.
For village staff and officials, discussions about Ivanhoe Village began in 2022, but according to Vitek, the concept goes back more than a decade, with William Rockwell 'Rocky' Wirtz seeing it 'as a way to celebrate the family farm and its history, while allowing the farm to contribute to the long-term development of a vibrant and resilient TND within the Mundelein community.'
Wirtz died in 2023, and his role as owner and CEO of the Wirtz Corp. was taken over by his son Danny.
Meier said the development will be a boon for the village, creating an 'enormous number of jobs' and 'significantly' boosting its tax revenue stream. It will also fill a housing gap for the entire region, with a variety of home types.
'This is a legacy project for Mundelein, and will forever transform our village,' she said.
The unique nature of the Wirtz family's connection to the area, and their long-term commitment, make the project especially attractive, she said.
The 'amount of open space and trails, connectivity and accessibility cannot be overstated,' she said, and the focus on neighborhood aesthetics, amenities and green space is, 'a product type that production builders are not going to deliver.' It takes 'a great deal of time and willingness to abandon the cookie-cutter style of development.'
Vitek said the Wirtz family was an 'ideal steward' for the project with a 'multi-generational' perspective. While possible elsewhere, developments like Ivanhoe Village require, 'more than just land and funding,' he said.
'They require vision, patience and a developer committed to long-term stewardship rather than short-term gains,' Vitek said. 'Great communities are grown over decades, not overnight.'
Meier emphasized the project is no fly-by-night operation. It's planned to take place over more than two decades, and will employ a town architect to oversee the, 'integrity of construction and the vision of the development.'
There is still plenty of work ahead. According to Vitek, the first residences are still a few years out at the earliest, with planning is still ongoing. For now, it remains quiet farmland.