ETI Blog

The North Shore Redevelopment Cycle Reshaping Highland Park, Deerfield, and Northbrook in 2026

Our earlier piece on the North Shore development boom covered the broad picture across the corridor. This deeper dive focuses on the three specific North Shore cities producing the most concentrated multifamily and mixed-use activity in 2026. Highland Park, Deerfield, and Northbrook each have distinct project pipelines, and each is reshaping its downtown or corridor in specific ways that developers, PMs, and investors should understand.

For developers evaluating specific opportunities in these three cities, and for PMs and investors operating assets in the corridor, the specifics matter. Here is what is actually being built and what the construction realities look like.

Highland Park: The Bowery Anchors a Major Redevelopment Cycle

Highland Park's most significant current project is The Bowery of Highland Park, a joint venture between Habitat and M/I Homes to redevelop the former Solo Cup Company site at 1700 Old Deerfield Road. The plan calls for 227 for-sale townhomes on a 28-acre site, along with more than 9 acres of preserved open space, a resident clubhouse, new landscaping, and other traffic and infrastructure improvements. Of the 227 townhomes, 34 will be offered to qualifying individuals and families in compliance with Highland Park's inclusionary housing plan.

Construction is expected to begin in the second half of 2026. The scale of the project, the quality of the developers, and the transformation it represents for a large former industrial site make it one of the more significant residential projects in the North Shore corridor. The construction work on a site of this size, with the environmental considerations of a former manufacturing use, requires experienced site preparation and coordination.

Beyond The Bowery, downtown Highland Park continues to see smaller-scale reinvestment, restaurant activity, and residential development that keep the downtown character strong. The city's approach to development balances the demands of a demographic that values quality with the community expectations around scale and design.

Deerfield: Multiple Residential Projects Reshaping the Village

Deerfield has one of the most active residential pipelines in the North Shore right now, distributed across several distinct projects. Continental Properties is constructing Springs at Lake Cook Crossing, a 254-unit residential rental development on the rear 10.79 acres of the Deerbrook Shopping Center. Construction is expected to be complete by summer 2026. The project is a good example of the pattern of underutilized retail parcels being reactivated as residential across the North Shore.

Walgreens received approval to consolidate its Deerfield headquarters and sell the north third of its corporate campus property to Pulte Homes. The 18-acre parcel will be developed into a 42-lot subdivision called Leclair Estates. The project represents the kind of large corporate campus subdivision that produces meaningful new for-sale housing in a supply-constrained North Shore market.

Deerfield Supportive Living, at 1111 Lake Cook Road, is a redevelopment by Celedon Partners that demolished a one-story office building on a 4.65-acre property and is delivering a four-story supportive living facility with 147 affordable rental units. The project fills a specific gap in the Deerfield housing continuum and represents a distinctive product type for the North Shore.

Northbrook: Northbrook Court and the Villages Around It

Northbrook's most watched project is the Brookfield-led redevelopment of Northbrook Court, one of the largest suburban Chicago mall redevelopments in progress. The multifamily component of the project has been approved ahead of the retail overhaul, with earliest construction potentially starting in summer 2026. The full plan reimagines the more than 100-acre site as a mixed-use neighborhood combining apartments, row houses, townhomes, retail and dining destinations, parks, and community amenities.

Beyond Northbrook Court, M/I Homes has completed townhome developments at Sterling Place in Northbrook, along with related projects at The Villas at Link Crossing in Buffalo Grove and The Townes at Barclay in Lincolnshire. The pattern reflects the ongoing appetite for for-sale townhome product in the Northbrook and greater Lake County corridor.

The Village of Northbrook has continued to approve projects that balance residential density with the community character that has always defined Northbrook. Village board approvals move deliberately, and developers who come in with projects that respect the local context regularly produce better outcomes than developers who push aggressively on density.

The Common Patterns Across the Three Cities

Looking across Highland Park, Deerfield, and Northbrook, several patterns emerge. Former commercial and industrial sites are becoming the anchors for the largest residential projects. Solo Cup in Highland Park. Deerbrook Shopping Center in Deerfield. Northbrook Court in Northbrook. Walgreens corporate campus in Deerfield. The pattern reflects the reality that greenfield sites are largely gone in these communities, so meaningful new residential density has to come from repositioning existing parcels.

The residential product mix skews toward for-sale townhomes in some projects and rental multifamily in others, reflecting the specific demographic each project is targeting. The North Shore has a strong for-sale market for empty nesters, downsizing families, and first-time buyers priced out of the single-family market. Rental multifamily serves younger professionals, families waiting to buy, and older residents who prefer rental.

Public-private coordination is active across all three cities. Village boards, planning commissions, and community groups shape what gets built. Developers who engage the community process with care produce approvals faster than developers who treat the process as a hurdle.

Construction Realities Across the Corridor

Working on Highland Park, Deerfield, and Northbrook projects has specific dynamics that developers should understand. Each village has its own approval process, its own trade relationships, and its own community engagement expectations. Site conditions on former commercial and industrial parcels often include environmental considerations that need to be addressed early. Utility coordination with Lake County systems can require longer lead times than equivalent city work. Trade availability across the Lake County corridor is tighter than it was five years ago because of the volume of concurrent activity. Our multifamily construction workacross the North Shore benefits from familiarity with the specific municipal, trade, and community realities of each city.

What Property Managers Should Understand

For property managers taking over new North Shore multifamily assets or evaluating acquisitions, the operating picture varies by city. Highland Park has a demographic that values quality and expects a corresponding level of service. Deerfield tends toward slightly more workforce and family-oriented product mixes. Northbrook falls between the two but has its own community expectations.

PMs operating across all three cities benefit from understanding these local differences and adapting their operational playbooks accordingly. The same operational approach that works in Highland Park may over-invest in Deerfield or under-invest in Northbrook. Local knowledge produces better operating outcomes.

The Bigger Picture

Highland Park, Deerfield, and Northbrook are the three North Shore cities currently producing the most concentrated multifamily and mixed-use construction activity. The combination of major named projects, ongoing smaller residential and commercial development, and the reshaping of former commercial and industrial sites into residential communities produces a cumulative impact on the corridor that will play out over the next three to five years.

For developers, PMs, and investors watching the North Shore, these three cities are where the current cycle is most visible. Understanding what is being built and what the construction realities look like in each is central for anyone actively pursuing opportunities in the corridor.

Final Thought

The North Shore development cycle is not evenly distributed across the corridor. It is concentrated in specific cities that have the sites, the demographics, and the municipal willingness to support meaningful new construction. Highland Park, Deerfield, and Northbrook are producing more of that activity right now than most of the surrounding communities.

The construction partners who work across all three cities bring the local relationships, trade knowledge, and community awareness that make the difference between projects that hit their schedules and projects that struggle. That familiarity matters as much on the North Shore as anywhere in the Chicago region.

Planning a Highland Park, Deerfield, or Northbrook Project?

ETI Construction works across the North Shore, including Highland Park, Deerfield, and Northbrook, on multifamily, mixed-use, and townhome projects. Our team brings the municipal relationships, trade knowledge, and community awareness that these markets require.

If you are planning a project in any of these three cities or evaluating a site in the surrounding corridor, we can walk it with you.