So I recently came across a new investment opportunity by the lake. Waukegan, Illinois has been a depressed little city for the past 40 years. However, the city has been planting some seeds over the past 5 years that are really beginning to bear some fruit.

If you go to the Waukegan Vision web page below you'll see that the city has invested and will continue to invest several million dollars into bringing the city back to life. The city went out and hired the very best architecture & planning firm in the country in Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) to help them put together a master plan for the next 20 years. After reading through the master plan and doing some of my own investigation, I've put together some of my thoughts on why I see so much opportunity in Waukegan.

History

Waukegan is home to the late great radio comedian Jack Benny. It's here where he grew up and went to school. Waukegan is also home to the newly renovated ($23Mil) Genesee Theatre , which has played host to many great acts including Jack Benny and Jerry Seinfeld.

Location, Location, Location

Waukegan has a perfect location right on Lake Michigan between Chicago, IL to the south and Milwaukee, WI to the north. Waukegan has some of the most beautiful beaches in Illinois and sits on the south border of Illinois Beach State Park. Home to one of the few public yachting clubs in Illinois, Waukegan also has a nice sized harbor with very reasonable rates on boat slips. The harbor is planning a complete renovation of the harbor starting in 2007. The harbor will be dredged and new floating docks will be installed to support the larger boats coming into the harbor. The city also plans to invest in protecting and reestablishing the northern wetlands just south of the state park. They will achieve this by installing raised wooden pathways designed to support pedestrian and bike traffic and protect the fragile ecosystems there.

Transportation

The Metrarail stops in downtown Waukegan and can get you to downtown Chicago in just over an hour. This is a very nice convenience for those who are already doing the commute to downtown. If they lived in Waukegan they hop on the train instead of dealing with the aggravation of traffic.

Business

Companies like Abbott Labs, Cardinal Health, US Navy, Grainger, Hewitt Associates, Motorola, Six Flags Great America, and Baxter Healthcare are all within minutes of downtown Waukegan. These companies represent over 70,000 jobs in Lake County.

Current Investment

The city is planning to upgrade and move the transportation center underground and create a park district directly above it. The new park district will run from Genesee Street all the way down to the lakefront. The city will be able to host festivals, art shows, and other mixed-use activities here. This will allow easier access to the lake by pedestrians and bikes. The city also has a new baseball stadium planned to attract more people to the downtown area.

The city has sold at least four different sites on or near the lakeshore to developers who will be building condos, town homes, and single family residences. Marquette Place http://www.marquetteplace.biz/ is the first development that is currently for sale with very reasonable prices starting at $219,500.

I grew up in Southwest Michigan and I personally saw towns like South Haven and St. Joseph, MI reinvent themselves. I've heard of others like Racine and Kenosha, WI doing the same thing here in the past 10-15 years. Because of this, I see the same thing happening in Waukegan in the very near future. I think the opportunities are tremendous and investors and home-owners looking for a home that will appreciate rapidly can look to Waukegan.

Websites of Interest
http://www.waukeganvision.com
http://www.geneseetheatre.com
http://www.marquetteplace.biz

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