Northeast Mixed-Use Commercial District

Conceptual Development Plan for NE Mixed-Use Commercial Park

Conceptual Development Plan for NE Mixed-Use Commercial Park

The Northeast Mixed-Use Commercial District includes approximately 115 acres of vacant industrial land (90 acres of it owned by the City of Blue Island) at a site with excellent access to I-57 and freight railroads.

Successful redevelopment of this area will offer desirable sites to industrial businesses relocating from the TOD area, and should generate about 500 new industrial jobs. Businesses will be built along a dedicated truck road through industrial land, eliminating more than 5,000 heavy truck trips per month through Blue Island streets. Current limited uses of some of this land, for a soccer field and for outdoor industrial storage, must be relocated before these parcels are developed.

Redevelopment plans for the site include a retail development on the north portion of the site with an eco-industrial park to the south.  The retail development will further establish 119th/I-57 as a commercial corridor by enhancing the shopping center currently under construction across the street in Chicago; the industrial park will capitalize on its proximity to I-57, existing rail access, and its adjacency to a small intermodal facility located just to the south.

Redevelopment objectives for the proposed project area include the development of a eco-industrial park that will employ approximately 500 workers in industrial/logistics/green jobs, the restoration of an access road that will serve as a dedicated truck road and reduce the volume of trucks using City streets.

The NEMUD was identified as priority site in the City’s 2005 adopted Blue Island Plan for Economic Development. Redevelopment efforts began in 2006 when Blue Island received an IEPA Municipal Brownfields Redevelopment grant.  Since that time, the City has worked closely with IEPA and environmental consultants, V3 Companies and Weaver Boos, to complete Phase I & II Assessments, Remedial Investigations and Site Remediation.

Northeast Park Cleanup/Remediation Projects