New train station start of $300 million Bellwood, Melrose Park development

New train station start of $300 million Bellwood, Melrose Park development

A new $10 million to $15 million combined train station and parking garage for Bellwood and Melrose Park is expected to be the catalyst for more development and investment in these villages and adjacent communities.

The combined train station will not only be the first Metra station built in predominantly minority communities, but it also will help foster more than $300 million in new development and investment in Bellwood and adjacent communities, including a transportation-oriented development featuring 55-acres of residential and retail facilities, said Bellwood Mayor Frank A. Pasquale.

“The project will be the catalyst for our new downtown district,” he said. “Bellwood is a natural transportation hub, and our residents and businesses need and deserve a modern new station to more easily travel around the Chicagoland area and suburbs.

“People who live in the entire west Cook County region will benefit from this improved transportation option. We have high hopes that the new station will be an economic engine in more ways than one.”

The new station at about 29th Avenue north of Grant Street along the Union Pacific West line will replace what officials said were outdated stations in the two villages and contained inadequate parking. The plan calls for a pedestrian crosswalk and a 680-space, two-story parking garage.

The land is located in a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district created by Bellwood. In addition to TIF funds, federal government transportation grants will be used to build the facility.

Infrastructure improvements will begin immediately and construction of the new station will start in about one year.

Melrose Park Mayor Ronald Serpico said the new station is a tremendous opportunity for economic development in his village, which has about 17 acres of its land in the proposed development.

“If we can get more people to come to the new station, then development will follow,” he said. “The tired, older area, including land where there was a steel mill, could use a shot in the arm.”

Serpico said it is a win-win situation for both villages in the long term even though the current economic climate in the area and beyond may not be conducive to developing related projects in the short term.

The mayor noted that there will be benefits for two minority communities—Bellwood, which has a large black population, and Melrose Park, which has a large Hispanic population.

The combining of two train stations is unusual, according to Mark Davis, director of corporate relations for the Union Pacific northern region, who said he was unaware of any other situations where two train stations were combined.

“Probably the greatest accomplishment is how two communities worked together,” he said.

Davis added that the location of the new train station plan would help alleviate train congestion in the area which includes freight train traffic. The existing railroad tracks will be relocated.

Dan McLeister, Contributing Writer

Posted on Monday, December 29, 2008 (Archive on Monday, January 05, 2009)
Posted by jstoltz Contributed by jstoltz

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