"Not a warehouse." That's how Amazon's attorney, Katie Jahnke Dale, described the company's Oak Brook plan at the spring public hearing, according to the Daily Herald. She said the main focus would be groceries and that there would be no blue vans on site.
Three months later, the Village Board turned that description into a set of conditions. When trustees approved the project on August 11, they banned Amazon's usual blue-van and drone deliveries outright. They also limited the site to retail sales that generate sales tax in Oak Brook. Both conditions follow from how Oak Brook pays its bills, and nearly every term in the approval weighs the sales tax the Village gains against the traffic it takes on.
A village that sends no property tax bill
Oak Brook's 2026 Budget in Brief states the arrangement plainly: the sales tax generated by Village businesses "allows the Village to operate without a real estate tax levy." In the 2026 budget, sales tax and non-home rule sales tax make up about 53% of the Village's total revenue. The general sales tax line alone is budgeted at $18.5 million, and nearly half of that comes from Oakbrook Center.
Measured against that budget, the Amazon project carries real weight. The Village's Fall 2026 newsletter estimates the store will produce about $3 million to $4 million a year in sales tax revenue. That's roughly 16% to 22% of the entire 2026 general sales tax line, from one building on Butterfield Road. Trustee Michael Manzo called the project "a huge win" at the July board meeting and estimated $2 million to $4 million in annual Village revenue, the Daily Herald reported.
The arithmetic also explains the delivery ban. The Daily Herald's August report describes the building with shoppers buying groceries and general merchandise in the front and an order fulfillment center in the back half. The Village wants the front of the building working at full volume. A fleet of vans carrying orders out of the back would bring the traffic of a distribution hub without the revenue logic that justified the rezoning. So the approval allows only retail sales taxable in Oak Brook and prohibits the vans and drones.
What replaces the office park at 2901 Butterfield
The site is 2901 Butterfield Road, on the south side of Butterfield just east of Meyers Road. Seven three-story office buildings put up in the 1970s will be demolished to make room. Together they hold about 600,000 square feet, and the Daily Herald identifies the owner as Inland. They'll be replaced by a single one-story building of 225,000 square feet on about 27 acres. The board rezoned the land from office to retail and merged seven parcels into one.
The early plan also included a 101,000-square-foot furniture store, which was later dropped. That leaves one retail building where seven office buildings stood, and less than half their combined floor space.
The Village has framed the rest of the site around that smaller footprint. Each condition in the Fall 2026 newsletter does at least one of three things: protects the sales tax, limits traffic, or deals with water.
| Condition in the approval | What it addresses |
|---|---|
| Only retail sales generating Oak Brook sales tax | Keeps the store a revenue source for a village without a property tax levy |
| No blue-van or drone deliveries | Keeps the back of the building from working as a delivery hub |
| New stoplight at the store entrance, paid for by Amazon | Store traffic entering and leaving Butterfield |
| Southbound Meyers Road exit eliminated | Store traffic heading south toward homes |
| 3.5 more acres of open space and fewer parking spaces than today | Less pavement than the current office park |
| 33% lower stormwater runoff rate, plus water-quality features | Water leaving the site and flowing downstream |
| Nearly four times the current stormwater compensatory storage | Water held on site during storms |
The Village also points out that it landed the project without offering incentives. Amazon instead agreed to pay into Village projects. Village President Laurence Herman told the Daily Herald that Amazon is paying $1 million to replace a water main near the site and $125,000 for public-safety projects. The Village newsletter puts the Butterfield Road water main replacement at an estimated $1.25 million project. Amazon will also grant an easement for, and build, an Oak Brook gateway sign at Butterfield and Meyers, to go with gateway signs the Village plans at Route 83 and 22nd Street.
The street rule written for Ginger Creek
The condition with the most direct effect on daily routines covers a residential street, not the store site. Ginger Creek residents raised traffic and stormwater concerns at the July board meeting, and Herman said Amazon had changed its plans to address them, per the Daily Herald.
In August the board went further and prohibited through traffic on Baybrook Lane, the Daily Herald reported. The street runs through Ginger Creek between Meyers and Midwest Roads, and residents had worried that shoppers would use it to get around Butterfield. Police Chief Brian Strockis said he didn't expect through traffic to be a problem. Herman explained the practical reason for the designation anyway: once Baybrook is marked local traffic only, the Village can notify Waze and other navigation apps so they change how they route drivers.
A Village planning for 2028 shoppers is working with an app's routing algorithm as much as with a traffic sign. Together with closing the southbound Meyers exit and adding a signal at the entrance, the Baybrook rule sends store traffic toward Butterfield Road and away from the neighborhood to the south.
How the vote came together
The project took several votes and most of 2026 to reach approval, according to the Daily Herald's coverage in May, July and August:
- May 13: The Planning and Zoning Commission heard 22 speakers. Some backed the economic case, and others raised noise, light and traffic. The commission voted 7-1 to recommend approval.
- July 14: Trustees voted 4-1 to draft the final approval ordinance.
- August 11: The board approved the project 4-0. Trustees Naveen Jain, Edward Tiesenga and Suresh Reddy were absent, so Herman cast a vote. He thanked Amazon "for having been very good partners in a very lengthy process."
Amazon's proposed schedule called for demolition to begin in October and construction to finish by the end of October 2028. The Village newsletter describes construction running through 2027 and an opening expected in late 2028.
Orland Park gets the format first
Oak Brook's store will be Amazon's second of this kind. The first is being built in Orland Park. The Village of Orland Park puts that store at the southwest corner of 159th Street and LaGrange Road, about 230,000 square feet, selling groceries, household essentials and general merchandise, with a projected opening in 2027. Orland Park's approving ordinance bars warehouse or distribution use on the site.
So two Chicago-area villages, months apart, approved nearly identical buildings and both wrote their approvals to keep the use retail. If Orland Park opens on schedule, Oak Brook residents will have a working version of the same format about a year before their own store opens on Butterfield.
For more on how the Village has handled other big sites recently, see our look at what replaced the Oak Brook Polo Club on its field, or browse our Oak Brook neighborhood page.
This post reports on Village budget documents and board actions as general information. It isn't legal, tax or financial advice, so check your own situation with the right professional.
If you own a home near Butterfield and Meyers or in Ginger Creek and want to know how a 2028 Amazon opening might figure into your plans, Loncar Realty can walk you through what's changing on your corner. Start with our instant home valuation, and we'll add the local context.
