The Forum

I had plans for a multi-part series on Sunrise Senior Living and the Riverfront development site, giving readers the details on everything that has happened with the issue since the beginning.  But our time grows short.  The Plan Commission hearing on the issue is tonight, and the Village Board votes next Monday.  As such, I have put together a rough outline of what happened. 

Before we get into the outline, I need to emphasize that the Village Board does have the power to stop the Sunrise development from happening.  It is not a done deal.  Yet.  So if you feel passionately that this the Sunrise Development is not the right thing for Shorewood, now is the time to email your trustees.

Ok, here is the shortened version.

1. Sunrise Senior Living first approached the Village in August of 2006 through Andy Stefanich (An SHS classmate of mine), a commercial real estate agent for CB Richard Ellis.  At that time, the Village had already gone through several iterations of planning for the site, including the original Master Plan recommendation, and early interest from several developers who later pulled out.
2. There are currently 3 properties on the site which are or have been for sale.  Milwaukee PC, the Touhy Apartments, and the Riverbook Restaurant.  Sunrise has been in negotiations with the owners of these sites since as early as September, 2006, according the Open Record emails.
3. As it stands now, Sunrise is the only property which would be put on the site.  Other proposals, including condominiums, and an Advanced Health Care Clinic have been unsuccessful.  In the case of AHC, their proposal was even more out of line with what Shorewood is looking for than what Sunrise is offering.  The condo proposals were abandoned, at least for the time being, due to the sluggish real estate market.
4. Most of the early negotiations took place with Village staff rather than Village Trustees.  President Johnson was involved in some of the earlier meetings.
5. Negotiations and planning have gone through many twists and turns, including details related to traffic control, parking, building plans, the orientation of the building, green building concerns, and subsidies to the developers, among many other details. 
6. Email records indicate that members of the Village Staff were not aware of the legal and ethical issues confronting Sunrise Senior Living until as late as December of 2007. 
7. The final proposal would be as follows.  Sunrise would buy the Riverbrook and the Touhy Apartment Building.  They would build the assisted living center, which would take up the entire Riverbrook lot, and 1/2 of the Touhy lot.  The Village has guaranteed that we will repurchase the other 1/2 of the Touhy lot from Sunrise for $800,000. 
8. Various zoning changes and parking exceptions would be required for this deal to take place, all of which will be voted on at the Plan Commission and Village Board level within the next week.