ETI Blog

From Naperville to Geneva, Multifamily, Mixed-Use, and Restaurant Projects Are Reshaping the Suburban Landscape

While Chicago's downtown real estate market draws consistent headlines, a quieter but equally significant story is unfolding to the west. Across the western suburbs, a development cycle is gaining momentum that hasn't been seen in years -- and the activity is showing up in apartment towers, restaurant districts, and mixed-use reinventions that are changing the texture of these communities.

Block 59 is turning Naperville's Route 59 corridor into a dining destination. Oak Brook is building its first-ever rental apartments on the site of McDonald's former world headquarters. Geneva is filling retail space that sat below capacity and adding density along the Fox River. For developers, investors, architects, and property managers looking beyond the city, the western suburbs are actively building -- and the pipeline is growing.

Why the Western Suburbs Are Suddenly So Active

Several converging forces are driving the current pace of development:

• Post-pandemic household migration favoring well-located suburbs with space, quality schools, and walkable downtowns near Metra and I-88 employment centers
• Aging retail formats such as strip malls, single-story shopping centers, underperforming commercial parcels are creating large-scale redevelopment opportunities
• Municipal willingness to approve higher-density mixed-use projects in communities that were historically cautious about density
• Strong renter demand for Class A suburban product in a market where less than 0.5% of existing multifamily stock is under construction
• National restaurant and experiential retail operators choosing suburban corridors for expansion, citing demographics, parking, and lower occupancy costs than the city
• Institutional investors returning to suburban multifamily, with total sales volume up 56.9% in Q1 2026 compared to the same period in 2025

Naperville: Volume and Velocity

Naperville has always been one of Chicagoland's strongest suburban markets, but 2025 and 2026 look like a different gear. In his May 2026 State of the City address, Mayor Scott Wehrli declared 2025 a record year for new downtown businesses, with more than 15 opening along the downtown corridor -- restaurants, retail, and mixed-use concepts filling space at a pace the city had not seen in years.

The headline project is Block 59, a $53 million redevelopment of the former Westridge Court shopping center at Route 59 and Aurora Avenue. Roughly 90,000 square feet of outdated strip retail is being replaced by a dining and entertainment district built around a central plaza. The anchor lineup includes Yard House, Ruth's Chris Steak House, Cheesecake Factory, Shake Shack, Piccolo Buco by Cooper's Hawk, Crisp and Green, and Velvet Taco. The project is expected to complete by mid-2026.

On the residential side, the pipeline is moving. Hines broke ground on a 306-unit mixed-use project at 1200 Diehl Road. The Atlas Naperville -- 236 units at Audrey Avenue -- received city council approval in April 2026. The multifamily market here is tight: with vacancy edging down and less than 0.5% of existing stock under construction, every unit that comes online meets strong demand.

Mayor Wehrli also singled out the I-88 corridor as the largest and most significant redevelopment opportunity in Naperville's history, with a $150,000 planning study underway to establish a land use plan for the stretch. When that corridor plan is in place, the project activity it unlocks will be substantial.

Oak Brook: A Village Reinvents Itself

Oak Brook has always had strong commercial bones and Oakbrook Center is one of the most productive malls in the Midwest, but for most of its history it was a drive-to destination, not a live-there one. That is changing.

Hines is developing Oak Brook Commons, a 16.5-acre mixed-use master plan on the former McDonald's world headquarters site adjacent to Oakbrook Center. At the center of it is One Oak Brook Commons, a 17-story, 250-unit luxury apartment building is the first rental development in Oak Brook's history. Surrounding it are restaurant pads anchored by Gibson's Bar and Steakhouse and Fogo de Chao, 210,000 square feet of creative office space, 80,000 square feet of medical office, 52 condominiums, a 250-key hotel, and a half-acre public park called The Pitch.

High-profile restaurant concepts are choosing Oak Brook beyond the Commons project as well. The Purple Pig, one of Chicago's most recognized dining names, is opening a new location near Oakbrook Center. Overlook at Oakbrook, a 2023-built retail strip center directly across from the mall, sold for $44 million in March 2026 at 94% occupancy is a signal of strong investor confidence in this corridor.

An Amazon retail superstore is also proposed for the southeast corner of Butterfield and Meyers Roads, replacing seven mostly vacant office buildings, with demolition expected in fall 2026 and construction to follow in 2027. Oak Brook is becoming a place where people also live and gather, not just shop. That shift brings a long construction tail with it.

Geneva: Fox River Corridor, Steady and Strong

Geneva operates at a different scale than Naperville or Oak Brook, but the activity there is real and consistent. The Fox River corridor running through downtown Geneva has become one of the more sought-after mixed-use locations in Kane County.

Roosevelt West, a new mixed-use development on State Street near the river, broke ground in February 2024 and will deliver 14 luxury apartments above 8,680 square feet of ground-floor retail in November 2026. It is a smaller project by suburban standards, but it reflects the kind of density-appropriate development Geneva has been adding carefully along its historic commercial spine.

At Geneva Commons, the region's main retail center, new ownership signed 45,951 square feet of new retail and restaurant leases in under two years, pushing occupancy from 88% to 95%. New tenants include Lululemon, Warby Parker, Big Blue Swim School, Club Champion, and Vera Bradley -- a mix that reflects genuine consumer demand, not placeholder tenants filling space to hold a number.

Common Themes Across the Western Suburbs Pipeline

Several patterns emerge across the projects taking shape:

• Former retail sites,  shopping centers, strip malls, and underperforming commercial parcels,  are anchoring the largest redevelopment projects in every suburb
  

• Mixed-use formats are replacing single-use commercial, with residential on upper floors and restaurant or retail at grade

• National restaurant operators are actively choosing western suburb locations for new concepts, citing strong demographics and parking that city sites cannot offer

• Institutional developers like Hines are bringing city-quality product to suburban settings for the first time in many of these communities

• Public-private coordination is active, with mayors and village boards taking visible roles in shaping what gets built and where

What Developers and Investors Should Know

Working in western suburban municipalities is meaningfully different from city development work, even for teams with extensive Chicago experience.

A few realities are worth understanding:

• Each municipality has its own zoning code, design standards, and review process -- Naperville's city council track differs from Oak Brook's village board in both pace and political dynamics
  

• Approval timelines vary considerably and often involve multiple rounds of public comment and board review before a vote

• Community character carries real weight; proposals that feel out of scale with surrounding neighborhoods face resistance even when zoning allows them

• Construction staging is more constrained along active commercial corridors and near retail, requiring tighter logistics planning than many city sites

• Local subcontractor relationships matter; the trade base in DuPage and Kane Counties is not always the same pool used for city work

• Metra access and I-88 proximity both shape project feasibility and market positioning in ways specific to this region

Construction Realities Specific to Western Suburbs Projects

Several considerations come up consistently on western suburb construction projects. Older commercial parcels, former strip malls, surface lots, and single-story shopping centers often carry soil conditions, underground utilities, or environmental factors from prior uses that are not reflected in initial surveys. Utility coordination with DuPage and Kane County municipal systems can require longer lead times than equivalent work in the city.

Restaurant and retail tenant improvement timelines are tight in this market. When a national concept signs a lease on a corridor like Route 59 or at a center like Geneva Commons, it has a specific opening window tied to its own marketing calendar. Construction teams that understand how to compress schedules without cutting corners are in high demand and the developers and landlords who know which contractors can deliver consistently are not starting from scratch with each project.

Working with contractors who know the western suburbs, their municipal contacts, subcontractor networks, and the community sensitivities that shape how projects get built, consistently produces better outcomes than treating these as scaled-down city jobs.

Final Thought

Chicago's western suburbs are in the middle of a development cycle that has been building quietly for several years and is now producing visible results on the ground. The combination of strong household demographics, aging commercial formats ready for reinvention, municipal openness to density, and institutional investor confidence has created a pipeline that is broad, varied, and not likely to slow down soon.

For developers, architects, investors, and property managers paying attention, the western suburbs are no longer the secondary market. They are an active market with real projects, real demand, and real construction underway.

Working on a Western Suburbs Project?

ETI Construction works with developers and owners across the Chicago region, including projects in Naperville, Oak Brook, Geneva, and the broader western suburbs. Our team supports preconstruction analysis, cost modeling, and construction execution from the ground up.

If you are evaluating a site or pricing a project in the western suburbs, our team is ready to talk through what successful execution looks like in these markets.

Start the conversation: https://eticonstruction.net/contact-us