Arlington Hts. cosmetology center to move for new condos.(News)

Construction in downtown Arlington Heights isn't over yet.Work likely will begin next spring on the third and final residential-retail building at the Village Green development, thanks to a deal reached this week with the Arlington Academy Cosmetology Career Center.

Under the deal, which should be completed today, the academy will vacate its 201 W. Wing St. quarters by Jan. 31, clearing the way for Village Green developer Mark Anderson to begin construction by April 1.Drawings and plans of the new Village Green building will be released within the next 60 days, Anderson said.
"We're going to come in with a proposal that I think will be instantaneously accepted as tremendous," Anderson said.


The school plans to sign a lease to reopen Feb. 1 at the Strathmore Shopping Center, at Arlington Heights and Dundee roads in Buffalo Grove, said Liz Raleigh, the academy's director and daughter of owner Don Millman.The new location in a former Walgreen's gives the 28-year-old school about 15,000 square feet to accommodate its 200 current students and still have room to grow, Raleigh said.
"We're all excited about this move. Things have a way of working out," she said.
The deal doesn't mean that Village Green's third building is entirely in the clear, however.

Village Green was given financial aid by the village in the form of tax increment financing and lost a $1.2aemillion payment because the third building's foundation was not laid by July 1, 1999, as required by a redevelopment agreement with the village.

If Anderson still wants that aid, he'll have to ask the village to renegotiate the agreement, said Bill Enright, deputy director of planning and community development.
Anderson said he is "absolutely" going to ask village officials to reopen the agreement. As for the new building, as long as it's in "substantial compliance" with the already approved Village Green plans, no further public hearings will be required, Enright said.

A&T Investments, owned by Anderson and Greg Trapani, president of Trapani Construction Co., bought the 201 W. Wing St. building in 1996, knowing the academy's pre-existing lease did not expire until 2002. Because both sides were too far apart to reach an agreement, and since they didn't want to kick the school out, Anderson said the decision was made to proceed with Village Green's Vail Residences and Campbell Courte buildings.

But given the brisk sales at those condominium buildings, as well as the loft condos at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, "it was time to get serious and settle this thing with the beauty school," Anderson said.Neither Anderson nor Raleigh commented on details of their negotiations. Raleigh said, however, that the atmosphere "turned amicable" when A&T "finally made an honest effort at reaching a fair settlement" that helped cover some of the school's relocation costs.
Looming over the negotiations was the implied threat that village officials were on the verge of suing to condemn the lease.

A condemnation ordinance had been approved two or three times for reaffirmation purposes, to help village attorneys prepare for court, Village Manager Bill Dixon said."We knew that was an option and we put that option out there," Village President Arlene Mulder said, while declining to say how close the village came to exercising that option.

"I don't know that I could answer that," Mulder said. "I think the incentive was there for everybody to move forward. Agreement is always preferable over the condemnation process."