Centennial, Elder Beach Properties Issue Goes To Winnetka Residents

WINNETKA, IL — After two years of uncertainty and negotiating with a billionaire who has purchased beachfront property along the Lake Michigan shoreline, Winnetka Park District officials are hoping to move one step closer to a plan to settle the issue of a land swap on Thursday night once and for all.

The Park District will host a workshop at 6 p.m. Thursday night to present plans for nine options for the beaches at Elder and Centennial parks to residents. Officials with the park district are hoping that the public can reach a consensus on which plan to move ahead with before the park board takes the plan back to Chicago resident and business executive Justin Ishbia, who has purchased four homes in Winnetka.

Ishbia purchased homes, three of which are built next to one another while the fourth is separated from the other three by Centennial Park. What started as a cut and dry land swap deal in 2020 between Ishbia and the park district has turned into nearly two years of contentious negotiations that have walked the park board up to the brink of litigation.

The deal was to provide Ishbia with a southern strip to Centennial park in exchange for the land where one of the homes, located at 261 Sheridan Road, sits. By doing so, the park district would be able to pick up the property where Elder Park sits and create a large site that would include a park and beach, officials said.

But since then, details of how everything would come together have caused the initial deal to break down, leaving both sides frustrated. Park District approved the nine options at its meeting last week and will now go to residents, hoping to finally get some closure in a situation that Park District President Warren James said needs to be resolved.

The options that will be presented at Thursday’s workshop session include three designs for the Elder Park property and six for Centennial, James said this week. The session is also expected to include 1-2 citizen-submitted proposals all in the name of finally getting a deal done.

James said the park district ultimately wants to settle on a design that is most consistent with the village’s Lakefront Master Plan, which was developed in 2015 and formally adopted in 2016. While that’s the plan of attack for the board, which James told Patch, plans to move ahead with the land exchange deal with Ishbia, the final design plans for both of the beaches should not be influenced by one person.

But getting to that point has created a lot of angst for local residents and a series of negotiations between the park district and Ishbia. Crain's Chicago reported last month that Ishbia — the founding partner of Chicago-based Shore Capital Partners private equity firm — and his wife spent $24 million on lakefront property in Winnetka before spending another $16 million for the additional home.

Ishbia — who is worth an estimated $1.3 billion according to Forbes — told Crain's in July that he and his wife plan to move ahead with their building plans to construct a home on a more than 3-acre plot of land that covers 195, 203, and 205 Sheridan Road.

He added: "I wanted to do something good for Winnetka", but he also told Crain's that he was not going to allow the park district to create a "crown jewel" of a beach that would bring hundreds of visitors each day and impede on his family's privacy.

James said this week that like Ishbia, the board wants to move ahead with the deal.

“Our objective is to move ahead with these plans and complete the (land) exchange,” James told Patch on Tuesday. “But to complete the exchange in accordance with the original terms of the agreement, which was a very clean, simple land swap with no strings attached.”

He added: “(But) I’m disappointed it has gotten this complicated. It should have been a simple exchange.”

James said that once Winnetka residents approve one of the design plans, it will be up to Ishbia to determine if he wants to move ahead with the deal.

Thursday’s workshop comes more than a year after the Park District Board voted to pursue litigation. Those plans were met, James said, with Ishbia countering with an ultimatum, to which the board essentially said, “no deal.”

Ishbia did not terminate the agreement which has led to what James characterizes as a protractive negotiation ever since. The negotiations began after the seven-member park district board decided it was not in their best interest to sue to billionaire, which would lead to a lengthy and costly legal battle over a deal that the park district is now seeking to close.

Ultimately, it will be up to Ishbia if he wishes to proceed after the public has its chance to weigh in on the matter.

The design options include a minimalist design that would limit the work completed at the site and then others that James said are more in keeping with the Lakefront Master Plan. That plan included a scenario in which the two beaches would be combined and another where the two beaches would remain separate sites.

The combined beach site would include availability for activities such as swimming and paddleboarding, James said. One of the plans that will be up for public discussion on Thursday is an option that incorporates a dog beach at the far south end of Centennial Park.

Heading into the workshop, James said the park district remains “ready, willing, and able” to move ahead with the land swap if Ishbia is able to live with public opinion on the property.

“I think the board is looking to find consensus around one of these options — one for Elder and one for Centennial,” James told Patch. “The board is eager to find consensus (but) I do not feel like we will be able to satisfy everyone because there are too many (different) views.

“But I’m looking to find the greatest good for the most people …knowing inherently that not everyone is going to be satisfied.”