Last Nov. 11 was seen as a day that would forever alter the Southland landscape, one celebrated with parades, community events, civic speeches, and a horde of bikers and runners commanding a roadway then-untouched by commuters.
Optimism ruled the day. However, that optimism quickly acquiesced to reality and a focus on patience.
When the I-355 extension opened last year, many thought it would jumpstart a then-sagging real estate market. Towns long limited by few major access routes and blanketed by two-lane roads, particularly the four communities with exits - Lemont, Lockport, Homer Glen, and New Lenox - welcomed the roadway with open arms, championing its future prospects.
The immediate thought was that the 12.5-mile toll road, which runs south from Interstate 55 to Interstate 80, would help the four towns emerge from Chicagoland's shadows and offer a hearty boost to the local housing market. Well, the unveiling has been anticlimactic to say the least.
"Sometimes the anticipation gets ahead of itself," said Lockport Mayor Tim Murphy, himself a former real estate broker. "Realistically, the development is probably where it should be, but those grander thoughts will come with time, population and as land becomes scarce."
When work began on the extension in 2004, the Southland market saw an upswing in interest that persisted for years. Land prices increased, business entered, and a wider ranging tax base established roots.
In Lockport, for instance, a $100 million commercial development project anchored by Home Depot and Target and two medical facilities offered widespread hope. Conventional thought held that the momentum would continue and that the new roadway would help the four communities - as well as their immediate neighbors - avoid the sluggish real estate numbers that handcuffed other towns.
"The common thinking was that when the roadway was completed it would 'superspark' the area, but much of the massive growth has slowed," said veteran real estate agent Dan Hardy of Re/Max All Properties in New Lenox.
While the Veterans Memorial Tollway's presence has earned high marks for its ease of travel and its ability to connect the Southland to the greater Chicagoland region, it has failed to deliver the housing boom many anticipated. There's been an impact, both real estate agents and builders insist, just not the one many had foreseen, though some contend that the roadway has helped insulate the area from even greater depths.
"It hasn't been the big immediate boom so many thought it would be, but it's coming in dribs and drabs," said Lockport-based real estate agent Sue Dufault of Coldwell Banker Honig-Bell. "But we would certainly be worse off if we didn't have this connection; [the presence of I-355 has] helped absorb some of the hit."
To be fair, I-355's immediate inability to lure a strong number of homebuyers to the Southland is just that: an immediate struggle and one significantly impacted by a greater housing market in turmoil and financial fear. Long-term prospects are far more positive.
"The impact will come and the market will turn itself around," Hardy said."People are spreading the word about these communities and whenever you have easier access to a community, it's going to spur the growth rate."
In fact, Lemont, Lockport, Homer Glen, and New Lenox boast many of the same features that make for an attractive housing destination: homes giving more bang-for-the-buck value than in other Chicagoland towns, highly rated schools, and increased shopping, dining and recreational amenities.
In spite of the rapid growth that characterized the tail end of the 1990s and the opening years of the millennium, many prospective homebuyers rejected the idea of settling in one of the communities, often citing transportation access as one of their chief concerns. With the extension of I-355, however, that lingering objection has wilted.
The issue now, one year after I-355's celebrated opening, is when will the roadway deliver on its potential as it relates to a recovering real estate market? One year ago the talk was "Once I-355 is here ..." Today, the talk is "Once this market gets going again ..." After all, it's always something; it's never nothing. Some industry folks see a rebound coming within a year; others suggest the housing crunch could continue for another three to five years.
Whenever the real estate renaissance begins, local agents all agree that Lemont, Lockport, Homer Glen and New Lenox will inherit a unique ability to capitalize on better economic times and witness the roadway deliver on its still-mounting potential.
"We'll see a major influx of people when they're not afraid to move and believe they can sell their home," Dufault said.
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