Plaza del Lago driving Wilmette revenue boost and other Village financial updates

What does the revitalization of one of the village’s biggest potential economic drivers look like?

In Wilmette, it’s upward of six figures in additional revenue across just six months.

The redevelopment of Plaza del Lago reportedly is already paying big dividends for Wilmette, as village officials said the historic shopping center’s resurgence has so far generated approximately $152,000 more in home-rule and regular sales tax revenue across a six-month period (October 2025-March 2026).

Wilmette’s Finance Director Melinda Molloy presented during the Village Board’s Tuesday, July 28 meeting a detailed breakdown of the town’s year-to-date financial findings.

As part of her report, Molloy highlighted the village’s strong performance this year in sales tax revenue, which in part is attributed to the many new businesses of Plaza del Lago.

According to Molloy, the village would typically receive approximately $102,000 of both the general sales tax and home-rule sales tax revenue from Plaza del Lago businesses across a six-month period. During the most recent half-year stretch, however, Wilmette took in $254,000, a 149% boost, leading to an added $152,000 in revenue for the village. Projected across a full year, that sum would exceed $300,000.

Because there is a delay in how the state of Illinois remits the money back to Wilmette, Molloy noted the figures do not yet include some of Plaza del Lago’s latest openings, including the headlining full-service restaurant, The Henry.

As reported extensively by The Record, Plaza del Lago — a historic property that asserts it is the second oldest shopping center in the country and features an open-air concept around an indoor galleria — has seen significant changes since WS Development purchased the shopping center in 2022.

Among those changes are many new businesses, including SPACE 519, rag & bone, Jenni Kayne, Thom Browne, Veronica Beard, LoveShackFancy and several others, that began opening in 2025.

As a whole throughout the village, both sales tax and home rule sales tax are performing above expectations, per Molloy. Those revenues have generated a combined $4.73 million, up 16% compared to 2025 and 11% compared to budget projections.

Grocery tax revenue update

Early returns from Wilmette’s newly established grocery tax appear to be in line with the village’s year-long projections but could come in just under anticipated.

Molloy told the board that Wilmette officials had anticipated receiving about $600,000 from the grocery tax, which went into effect Jan. 1 of this year.

So far, per the first three months of data the village has from the state, Wilmette has received approximately $127,000. Based on that rate, officials are projecting 2026 actuals will look closer to $550,000, 8% below the original goal.

The number of remitters on the grocery tax thus far is over 600, Molloy said, but she added that of that number, about 50 have remitted more than $50.

Wilmette in September of 2025 joined many Chicagoland municipalities in adopting a grocery tax in replacement of the state’s canceled 1% grocery tax, which had existed since 1990 and expired at year’s end.

Nearly all of Wilmette’s neighbors — including Glenview, Winnetka, Kenilworth, Northfield, Glencoe and Highland Park — had already approved the new 1% grocery tax prior.

Real estate sales are down — but prices continue to exceed new heights

Prospective home buyers looking to purchase in Wilmette are once again staring down a sharp increase in price.

The average sale price of homes in Wilmette right now is about $1.23 million, according to village officials. That number is up from the $1.18 million officials shared last summer. And, since 2024, home prices are up nearly 8% in the village.

Wilmette’s revenue performance in real estate transfer taxes this year is not unlike what the village has experienced in the prior two: Inventory and the overall number of transactions are down, but prices are yet again noticeably up.

“We had expected that to happen in 2026 and we are in fact seeing that,” Molloy said.

With that, revenues garnered from real estate transactions to this point are up 10% from the village’s projections.

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