Lake and Forest Project Altered?

Plans for the glitzy hotel and condo tower at Lake Street and Forest Avenue could be scaled back to instead include dwellings for senior citizens and luxury apartments for high-end tenants. 

A sluggish economy and a dried-up condo market might force the project's developer, Sertus Capital Partners, to reinvent plans for the property, according to a Wednesday Journal story.

"Obviously the condo market isn't doing well," village planned Craig Failor told Wednesday Journal. "So just based on the market realities, they saw there needed to be a change in their programming."

That change could include age-restricted housing and upscale apartments instead of hotel rooms and snazzy condos. According to the story, Sertus hasn't formally submitted any plans for the changes, and the talks are just preliminary. 

The controversial project, located near , the  and at the gateway of the Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District, was originally slated to include a 140-room hotel, 85 condominiums and 28,000 square feet of retail space contained in a 20-story tower. 

Those elements would be wrapped around a new 510-space parking garage, a majority for public use. 

In March, the Oak Park Village Board to obtain a building permit for the $85 million project.

At the time, he told the board discussions with investors were encouraging, but funding for the hotel portion was increasingly hard to come by, and the board set a December 15 deadline to secure the permit. 

Now, Sertus may seek yet another extension to accommodate the potential switch in plans.