Plans for Triangle Apartment Complex Move Forward Amid Questions

Questions about parking, pets and building safety were fielded about a luxury apartment complex that will likely be built in Orland Park, but the main question on many residents’ minds won’t be answered until Tuesday or Wednesday, according to the village.

The site plan for was up for discussion Monday night during the Development Services Committee meeting. No details about how the project will be paid for were discussed, despite the vocal pleas of attending residents for more information about the possibility of .

The committee was slated to decide on a special use permit that would allow Flaherty and Collins, developers of the project, to put 365 parking spots in the building’s central garage, rather than an originally required 468 spots.  

Talk quickly turned critical toward the project as an array of concerns were then brought to both village staff and representatives from Flaherty and Collins.

Trustee Ed Schussler questioned whether the amount of parking open to the public and to visitors would be enough, especially since space in the complex will be dedicated to commercial. Twenty of the 365 garage spots are to be set aside for visitors. Village Manager Paul Grimes and Flaherty and Collins Vice President of Development P. Christopher Kirles said on top of the 20 garage spots, about 30 street parking spots that will be on Ravinia Avenue once it is extended and 91 spots are available near the 143rd Street Metra station on nights and weekends. Grimes and Kirles also said adding more parking may be an option later should it become necessary.

“It’s a structure inside,” Schussler said about the complex’s parking garage. “Whatever we put in is what we’ll be stuck with.”

The building type is described as a Texas wrap, meaning the actual apartments are in buildings that surround the parking garage. Grimes said the parking spaces had been “discussed extensively” and suburbs tend to “build parking facilities for maximum use, but that only happens periodically if at all.”

Orland Park resident Janice Fleury questioned the comparisons made to a similar apartment complex in Indianapolis built by Flaherty and Collins, and whether the two locations themselves are similar enough to reasonably compare. The complex called Cosmopolitan on the Canal was built last year in downtown Indianapolis and has been fully rented out, Kirles said.

“Indianapolis isn’t a little suburb like we are,” Fleury said. “Everything comes down to dollars and cents, and we want to make sure this isn’t on our tax bill.“

Fleury complimented the Flaherty and Collins staff, calling the firm “great,” before asking about a for-sale condominium tower the firm started building in Charlotte, N.C. that was never completed. Kirles said the market plummeted around the time the Charlotte building was in construction, and a partner in the deal didn’t live up to their end.

Tom Cunningham then took the podium to ask why the apartment complex never went to referendum. Schussler heatedly responded that there was no need to do so and “that’s why residents elected a mayor and trustees, to make these decisions.”

Other questions included effects on schools, whether pets could be allowed and how safe trash chutes would be from fires. Kirles and Jess Fisher, Flaherty and Collins Director of Architecture and Engineering, said none of the residents in the Indianapolis building have kids, some apartments would be open for pets depending on the demand and that the trash chutes would be equipped with sprinkler systems.

Just before the meeting ended, Karie Friling, director of the village’s Development Services, said two people have called to be put on a waiting list for the apartments.

After all the talk, the committee voted in favor of the special use permit. A public forum is tentatively scheduled for Aug. 29 for residents to discuss the apartment complex.

The site plan is expected to be voted on by the full village board on Sept. 6.