According to the Daily Herald, Birdy's Coffee House & Little Kitchen served its last scone on February 9, 2025. Owners Maria Mandarino and Dan Temesy had run the spot at 725 N. Milwaukee Ave for six years, steps from the Metra tracks in downtown Libertyville, on a month-to-month lease that finally ran out when the building's future stopped being theirs to plan around. They gave customers two weeks' notice. The building, they said, would likely be sold for redevelopment.
That closure wasn't an isolated small-business story. It was one visible signal of something the Village of Libertyville had been working through for years: a plan to put more housing units, at greater density, directly around its own train station. If you're comparing a walkable downtown Libertyville listing against a quieter option a few blocks out, the corner of Lake Street and Brainerd Avenue is worth understanding, because it shows exactly how that kind of change happens here, how long it takes, and how the village is pursuing this plan.
The Apartment Plan for the Lake Street Site
The parcel in question is known locally as the Suydam property, an L-shaped assemblage that wraps around the Metra station with frontage on Milwaukee Avenue, Lake Street, and Brainerd Avenue. The Suydam family had held it for more than 60 years, since the late John Suydam began piecing together what became Liberty Plaza, a mix of retail and residential rental space. In late 2021, his children packaged it as a redevelopment opportunity.
The proposal that emerged, from a buyer entity called Libertyville Land LLC, was a four-story apartment building with 91 units at the northeast corner of Lake and Brainerd. Getting there required demolishing what was already on the site: two of the four single-family homes fronting Lake Street. The apartment phase covers roughly 67,600 square feet of the property. A second, smaller parcel, the one that includes the former Birdy's space, is being held for a future phase that hasn't been designed yet.
This is the part worth sitting with if you're evaluating a downtown listing. The homes that came down weren't blighted or vacant. They were ordinary single-family houses on a residential street within the village's transit-oriented redevelopment area.
Two Years of Public Hearings Over Height and Parking
The project didn't move quickly, and the friction along the way tells you how this corridor actually works. Libertyville Land LLC first sought village feedback in April 2024 and presented to the Plan Commission in January 2025. The proposal needed the village to approve deviations from its own downtown zoning code on two fronts. Village code calls for a three-story, 45-foot building with commercial use only on the ground floor in this district. The developer asked for a four-story, 65-foot building with apartments on the first floor as well.
Parking was the other sticking point. Code called for 169 spaces for a building of this size and use. The developer's plan proposed 114. In February 2025, the village paused the review entirely and gave the developer until March 31 to come back with a revised plan, citing parking and density concerns. Opposition groups, including a Facebook page organized around "thoughtful, community-focused development" and a change.org petition, pushed back on the building's height, its unit count, and its effect on parking and traffic in the surrounding blocks.
The revised plan that eventually cleared the process landed on an interior garage with 85 parking spaces, a compromise still below the original code requirement but enough to satisfy the village's conditions. The Village Board gave preliminary approval on May 13, 2025. The Appearance Review Commission signed off on final plans that September. The Plan Commission recommended final approval in late October 2025. The Village Board accepted that recommendation on May 14, 2026, more than two years after the developer's first informal conversation with the village.
| Village code default | What was approved | |
|---|---|---|
| Building height | 3 stories, 45 feet | 4 stories, 65 feet |
| Ground floor use | Commercial only | Apartments included |
| Parking spaces | 169 required | 85 spaces |
That two-year timeline, contested at nearly every step, is the mechanism a buyer needs to understand. Density near this station isn't happening by accident or all at once. It's happening parcel by parcel, through a process that runs long enough that most house hunters never see it unless they're watching the specific corner.
The Suydam Site Sits Inside a Longer Village Plan
None of this was improvised. The Suydam site sits inside the footprint of Libertyville's Downtown Transit-Oriented Development Plan, the village's own framework for concentrating new housing near the train station rather than scattering it elsewhere. Village planning documents describe this parcel specifically as critical to that strategy. The project was approved after a review that included a pause, a petition, and a parking dispute.
This isn't the only place the village has pursued the same goal. Back in 2023, Libertyville adopted an attainable housing ordinance requiring any new residential development of 10 or more units to set aside at least 15 percent of those units at below-market rates. That policy had already shown up on the ground before the Suydam vote: a $20 million redevelopment at 500 Peterson Road replaced a long-vacant building with Eve B. Lee Place, 34 income-restricted rental apartments aimed at seniors and empty-nesters. In June 2026, the village adopted an updated Attainable Housing Plan and submitted it to the State of Illinois, formalizing the same posture toward future development.
Put together, these aren't disconnected news items. They're the same village policy showing up on different blocks: more housing units, concentrated near transit and along corridors the village has already identified, delivered through a slow but consistent approval process rather than sweeping rezoning all at once.
What This Means If You're Comparing Downtown Listings
If you're weighing a home a short walk from the Metra platform against something a half mile out, the Lake and Brainerd project gives you a concrete way to ask better questions instead of relying on a general sense that "walkable downtown" is simply worth more.
Ask what's zoned for change on the block, not just what's currently built. The homes that came down on Lake Street looked, until recently, like any other house on a residential street. Their zoning classification and location inside the village's TOD target area mattered more than their current use.
Ask about the timeline, not just the outcome. A parcel earmarked for redevelopment doesn't turn into a finished apartment building overnight. The Suydam project took over two years from first plans to final board action, with a formal pause in the middle. If a comparable listing sits next to an undeveloped or underused downtown parcel, that could mean years of construction noise and access changes before anything changes on your street, not months.
Ask what's still pending nearby. The Milwaukee Avenue frontage of the same Suydam property, including the former Birdy's building, is designated for a second phase that hasn't been designed yet. Anyone buying within a block or two of the Metra station should ask directly whether other parcels are similarly earmarked, since the village's own planning documents make its intentions for this corridor public record.
None of this makes a downtown Libertyville purchase a bad decision. It means the premium attached to "walk to the train" is being actively reshaped by the village's own policy, and a buyer who understands that mechanism is negotiating from better information than one who's just comparing listing photos.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Suydam apartment building mean home values near the Metra station will drop? The research doesn't support a price prediction either direction. What it does show is that new rental supply is arriving directly at the station, which changes the comparables and the daily experience of nearby streets during and after construction. That's a factor to weigh, not a verdict on value.
Are other downtown parcels likely to see similar proposals? The village's Downtown Transit-Oriented Development Plan and its 2026 Attainable Housing Plan both signal an ongoing preference for added density near transit and along identified corridors. The second phase of the Suydam property itself, along Milwaukee Avenue, is already earmarked for future development, though no specific plan has been submitted yet.
How long should I expect a nearby redevelopment to take if I buy close to a parcel like this? The Suydam project took roughly two years from the developer's first village conversation to final board approval, including a formal pause over parking concerns. That's a reasonable baseline for how long these processes run in Libertyville, though every parcel and proposal is different.
If you're comparing homes in downtown Libertyville and want a clearer read on what's approved, what's pending, and what a specific block's zoning actually allows, I'll walk through it with you parcel by parcel. Reach out to Ursula Bowes and let's talk about what you're looking at.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
