Buyers Claim Half of Glenview Custom Home Lots

Buyers have already claimed more than half of the lots in a large new development site in Glenview, where demolition is underway to make way for 60 new single-family homes.

Developers broke ground on the 19.4-acre site of the project called The Foresman on Thursday. The site is at the former headquarters of textbook publisher Scott Foresman, which has been vacant since 2020. Demolition on the vacant Scott Foresman building began this week, said Compass’ KC Kaage, whose team Kaage Homes is handling the sales.

The project, at 1900 East Lake Avenue in Glenview, is one of the largest new developments in Glenview since The Glen, a transformation of a naval air base two decades ago. Home prices in Glenview, along with the broader North Shore area, have risen significantly amid low inventory and few new developments coming to market. More than 600 potential buyers have reached out to Kaage Homes to ask about the development, Kaage said.

“With inventory so limited right now in Glenview, so many people have reached out just inquiring about it,” Kaage said.

Thirty-one of the 60 lots have sold as of Thursday, Kaage said. The sales process is now in phase 2, where prices are higher for the remaining lots.

The remaining lots start at $399,900, with an average cost of about $540,000, Kaage said. Lot sizes range from 7,500 square feet to 21,000 square feet.

The site’s developers are Highland Park-based Generation 4, led by Keith Jacobs, and Red Seal Homes, a Nashville-based firm with an office in Northbrook.

For most of the lots, buyers are able to work with any builder and architect they choose, Jacobs said. The result will be a neighborhood that doesn’t feel like a planned development, he said.

“Once all these homes are built, they’re all going to have the individual homeowners’ personality to them, not just the developers’,” Jacobs said.

Generation 4 will build spec homes on a few of the lots, and some buyers have opted to work with them on their homes, Jacobs said. KC Homes will lead the interior design on the prebuilt homes. One such spec offering will be a six-bedroom home that’s listed at $2.85 million on the private market and will be going public next week, Grace Kaage of Kaage Homes said.

After demolition, the developers will begin preparing utilities and roads for the development, and the lots are planned to be ready for construction this summer or fall, KC Kaage said.

One condition of village approval for the subdivision was to cater to empty nesters with home layouts, to lower the number of school-aged children moving into the development. The developers had to ensure that 75 percent of the homes have a first-floor primary bedroom, and 15 percent were ranch style homes, Jacobs said.

“Empty nesters is a different term now because people are in their 50s, they’re younger,” Jacobs said. “This is geared for that step from your big house to the next level down.”

The site was originally bought out of foreclosure in 2022 by a joint venture of Chicago-based R2 and Wheaton-based T2 Capital Management, The Real Deal previously reported. R2 and T2 purchased the $16.7 million loan note on the property, property records show, though the price they paid is unclear. They sold the site to the current developers for $14 million in December, property records show.

One mystery still remains as the vacant building on the campus comes down: when the building went up in 1966, a time capsule was placed in the cornerstone. The developers plan to open the time capsule and give its contents to the Glenview Historical Society and the former Scott Foresman CEO’s son, Jacobs said.

There’s a rumor that the capsule contains a first printing copy of the original “Curious George” book, Jacobs said — but no one knows for sure.

“We’ll find out when we get in, and open it up and see what’s in it,” Jacobs said. “It’s going to be one of those moments that we either have something great in here, or we have Al Capone’s vault.”