Wilmette's downtown Green Bay Road corridor is getting a bigger building than originally planned.
The Village Board on Tuesday, Aug. 25, approved an amendment to its planned unit development agreement with Optima, raising the unit cap for the Optima Lumina project at 721-739 Green Bay Road from 128 to 133 condominiums. The change also adds 10 parking spaces.
The five new units are ground-floor dwellings that incorporate a portion of the building's lower level as accessory living area. Each unit connects to its lower-level space via a private internal staircase, according to a letter from Optima President David Hovey Jr. submitted to the village.
Wilmette Director of Community Development Emily Egan wrote in a village memo that the changes are entirely internal to the building and do not alter the previously approved exterior footprint or elevations. Egan characterized the amendment as a result of further market analysis by Optima.
Optima also expects some buyers will combine adjacent condominiums into larger homes. Hovey wrote that the company has "already prepared multiple combination plans" and believes the final delivered unit count will be 128 or fewer after those mergers.
No construction permits filed
As of Aug. 25, Optima had not applied for village construction permits for the Lumina building, according to The Record North Shore. A recent Optima timeline suggests construction could begin later in 2026. If that holds, residents could start moving in by summer 2028.
The seven-story building is planned for the former Imperial Motors dealership site, directly across from the Wilmette Metra station at Green Bay Road and Washington Avenue. Optima acquired the site in August 2023 and won final Village Board approval in October 2024 by a 6-1 vote.
Sales underway
Condominium sales launched in late July. Pricing starts in the $595,000s for one-bedroom units and climbs to $4.59 million for four-bedroom homes, according to Patch. Two-bedroom units start in the $895,000s and three-bedrooms in the $1.99 million range.
The building will include about 5,718 square feet of ground-floor retail space. The Starbucks currently at 739 Green Bay Road plans to relocate into the development when it opens.
Optima Lumina sits next to the company's existing Verdana building at 1210 Central Ave., a six-story, 100-unit rental complex completed in 2023 that is now fully leased with a waitlist. The construction timeline remains Optima's own projection, with no village-confirmed groundbreaking date set.
