Cicero Town Center Master Plan

Cicero, Illinois

The Cicero Town Center Master Plan is a 70-acre redevelopment of a former racetrack in the center of the community of Cicero, Illinois, located just Southwest of Chicago.  The Town has a strong industrial base and was considered the “first suburb” of the City of Chicago.  This community has historically been the home to Eastern Europeans immigrants, and is now the largest Hispanic communities in the United States.  Cicero has seen tremendous population growth in the last ten years and the Town Center Master Plan Development is a response to this growth by addressing the need for revenue generating facilities as well as establishing a social, cultural, recreational and entertainment center for both this community and the entire region. 

The Development is organized around the Central Complex consisting of a Public Park and indoor Winter Garden to emphasize the importance of this pedestrian oriented destination.  It is flanked by over 500,000 gsf of retail, an Entertainment Complex, a 14-screen movie theater, and a 500,000-gsf Convention Facility.  This becomes the center for shopping, entertainment, festival, and social activities for the Cicero community that will be active year round.

East of the Central Complex across Cicero Avenue is a regional destination Sports and Entertainment complex containing music clubs, conferencing and dining, and a fixed-seat amphitheater for sporting and cultural events, indoor soccer leagues and other sports-related indoor events.  Supporting this complex will be a hotel, water park, and a garage for 1,500 cars. 

West of the Central Complex will be a combination of Senior Residential Housing with retail at the base in addition to a Cultural Center that will house a History, Art and Children’s Museum and host cultural events for the Town of Cicero.

This complex replaces an underutilized car racing venue, Sportsman Park, and returns this strategic and vital site back to the community serving the social, cultural, recreational and economic goals for this development.

Client: Private

Design Principal: Christopher Groesbeck&Nan Zhou

Work prior with VOA Associates Inc Executive Architect

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Situation: Cicero, Illinois