The Homewood Board of Trustees approved a planned development that will allow Apparel Redefined to move its headquarters to the village and build a production plant for its custom clothing business on 175th Street.
The company’s facility will be on 6.38-acre site at 1313-1351 W. 175th St. The land is immediately north of Izaak Walton Preserve and east of Homewood Disposal’s headquarters.
The vacant portion of the property is the last remaining parcel of land Homewood still holds. The village purchased a swath of land in the 1990s in order to redevelop the former home of the Washington Park Race Track.
The project has been in the works since June 2022, when Apparel Redefined owner John LaRoy approached the village about relocating to Homewood. The Crestwood company was founded in 1970 and has outgrown its current location, according to Angela Mesaros, Homewood economic and community development director.
To create a large enough space for Apparel Redefined’s needs, the village purchased the building at 1313 W. 175th St. to include it in the redevelopment package. The village sold the site to Apparel Redefined last year.
The company plans to build a 45,900-square-foot production facility and renovate the existing 8,900-square-foot office building for its headquarters.
The two buildings will be linked by an enclosed walkway. A second production building is part of a planned second phase of development in the future.
During staff review of the plans, Landscape Maintenance Supervisor Bryon Doerr made a number of recommendations for changes to the landscaping plan. The village Appearance Commission reviewed those changes along with examples of the exterior building materials at its Oct. 3 meeting.
The skin of the production facility will be a corrugated metal, and the existing brick office building will be covered in similar material or stained to match the color scheme of the production building.
According to plans presented to the village Planning and Zoning Commission on Sept. 12, the company intends to preserve a line of mature trees and maintain an eight-foot berm along the south side of the property that is adjacent to the Izaak Walton Preserve. The trees and berm will serve as a buffer between the facility and the preserve which is used as a recreation area by local residents.
Storm water runoff from the property will empty into retention ponds in the preserve. The ponds were designed to be part of the drainage system of the adjacent business park to the north.
According to a memo from staff to the commission, draining into the preserve will support “sustainable storm water management and reduce reliance on large mechanical detention systems or artificial detention areas lacking in biodiversity or proper ecosystem development.”
LaRoy said construction is expected to start next spring.
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