North Cook News

Trustees in the Village of Wheeling were recently presented with a request for a special use permit for a new summer market event at the Wheeling Town Center.

The Lynmark Group, the developer for the Wheeling Town Center, asked council for the permit during the trustees' April 3 meeting to host a farmer's market at 375 W. Dundee Road.

"We have 30 [vendors] actually, and I can’t take credit for that. We have a marketing team; they’re the ones reaching out to a lot of the vendors that participate in the neighboring markets, whether it's Buffalo Grove, Arlington Heights, Deerfield or anything along those lines. I told them to reach out to all those vendors and see if they might be interested," Brad Friedman, a Lynmark Group representative, said. "We originally wanted to do a Friday afternoon market because we knew we couldn’t do a Saturday or Sunday market and compete with the existing markets because all those vendors are committed and they don’t want to give up their spot for something that’s unproven."

The open-air artisan market would take place during the second Tuesday of the month from May to September. It would be held in the late afternoon, starting at 4:30 p.m. and ending at 8:30 p.m. The planning commission recommended approval of the proposed plan to the city council. 

Friedman spoke to the council about the concept. Organizers plan to start with the market once a month, having five total dates throughout the summer as a first-year test of the event to see how it goes, adding more dates if it is easy and popular with the community. Friedman said it’s not a traditional farmer’s market, since there would be fewer farmers and more speciality food items like homemade breads, cookies, honey, and jams. 

He said Tuesday night would compliment the vilage's Thursday Night Live events in the area, which run from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. each week in the Town Center, and won’t cause any unnecessary competition with the weekend events. 

Trustees were all very excited about the idea and joked around with Friedman, asking him to look into more vendors who could sell alcohol. Friedman told the trustees he said they actually were reaching out to local wineries and breweries. Trustees are happy to have more use of the Town Center, which the community can use free of charge for local events, and are also talking about having pet fairs with local shelters and other such occasions in the public space.