The southwest corner of 159th Street and La Grange Road is bare dirt this fall. For 55 years it was Petey's II. The restaurant's owners announced it had closed for good in January 2024, and the lot stayed empty for about two years. This September, a photo in The Regional News showed the ground along 159th being cleared for an Amazon retail store.
Just west of it, crews are building a roundabout on Ravinia Avenue at the Costco entrance. South of that, Ravinia is being extended toward 161st Street. Drivers get detours and lane shifts.
These look like three separate jobs. They're one traffic plan with two sources of money. Costco is paying for the work on its own site. The Village says revenue from the Amazon store is what makes the public road work possible.
One Plan, Two Checkbooks
In September 2025 the Village Board approved Costco's expansion at 9915 W. 159th Street. Costco agreed to fully fund a new roundabout on Ravinia Avenue at the entrance to its parking lot. The vote was 7–0. Trustee Dina Lawrence praised Costco for paying for the roundabout and for landscaping around the new layout.
The road improvements beyond Costco's property have a different funding story. When the board approved the Amazon store on January 19, 2026, the Village's press release tied a list of traffic fixes directly to the store's future sales and property tax revenue. Mayor Jim Dodge put it plainly.
"The traffic issues and corresponding solutions have been known for many years. Because of previous spending priorities and previous debt commitments that this new Village Board is now working to address, the Village would not have been able to fund these improvements without the new revenue generated by Amazon's retail store."
That's why the work is happening in this order. Much of what's under construction now is the infrastructure that goes with a store opening next year.
What Costco Is Changing on Its Own Lot
Costco's part is about getting gas traffic out of the parking lot. The store opened in 2006 with 763 parking spaces and six fuel pumps, according to Costco real estate manager Larry Dziurdzik in his presentation to the Village Board. He said membership and sales have grown a lot since then.
"I think most of us know who are Costco members know how bad traffic can be on a Saturday or Sunday or during holiday events. It can get a little confusing currently there with the long queues. It mixes in with the parking."
The fix is to move the gas station across Ravinia Avenue onto about six acres of vacant land Costco owns east of the road. The old fuel area on the northwest side of the property becomes parking, and a new entrance and exit is being added on the northwest side of the building.
| When the store opened in 2006 | After the approved expansion | |
|---|---|---|
| Parking | 763 spaces | Room for 102 more |
| Fuel, as Costco described it to the board | 6 pumps | 14 more pumps |
| Fuel, as the Village describes it | 12 pumps | 40 pumps |
| Gas station location | Northwest corner of the Costco lot | East side of Ravinia Avenue |
| Who pays for the roundabout | Costco, fully |
The fuel numbers depend on who's counting. The Village says 12 pumps become 40. Costco's figures, reported by the Tribune, start at six pumps and add 14, and The Regional News reported 20 pumps on the new parcel. None of the published sources explain how their counts relate to each other. All of them describe a station more than three times the size of the current one.
Costco matters to Village finances beyond this project. Trustee Lawrence said the Orland Park Costco is the Village's largest source of grocery tax revenue, and the Village voted to keep its 1% municipal grocery tax after the state tax ends.
The Road Being Built Ahead of the Store
The public road work links Costco, the Amazon site and the land south of them into a new street grid. The Village's January list includes:
- Extending Ravinia Avenue to La Grange Road
- New traffic signals at 161st Street and La Grange Road
- Dual left-turn lanes from northbound La Grange onto Ravinia Avenue at 161st Street
- Longer dual left-turn lanes from eastbound 159th Street onto La Grange Road, which means closing the median across from Lake View Plaza
- New deceleration lanes on 159th Street and La Grange Road, plus an acceleration lane on La Grange
- Possibly burying the utility lines along 159th Street from La Grange Road to just west of Costco
The Village's September 8, 2026 update describes the Ravinia extension as five lanes, with a new signal at 161st Street, dual left-turn lanes and upgraded truck access. It says the work supports three projects: Amazon Retail, Costco and Pulte Homes. The Pulte project, Estates at Ravinia Meadow, is planned as 132 detached homes southwest of 159th and La Grange. Its north entrance would be off Ravinia Avenue and its south entrance off 165th Street.
The median closure across from Lake View Plaza will likely change how some drivers get in and out along that stretch of 159th. The Village's materials don't say which turns go away or how each plaza driveway will work afterward, so it's worth watching once the lanes are restriped.
As for the store: the Village describes it as a one-story building of about 230,000 square feet selling groceries, household essentials and general merchandise, open to the public. Officials stressed that it isn't a warehouse. It will have seven loading docks, compared with six at the Orland Hills Walmart Supercenter. Amazon's fulfillment center in Matteson covers about 3 million square feet and has 67 docks. The zoning for the Orland Park site specifically bans warehouse and distribution uses. The Village estimated about 200 construction jobs and about 500 permanent jobs once the store opens.
The September Tax Vote
The January release also said the Village was "not providing any financial incentives to Amazon." In September, the Village Board voted 5–2 to consent to a Cook County Class 7(b) property tax designation for the site at 15901 S. 92nd Avenue and 9600 W. 159th Street. Trustees Cindy Nelson Katsenes and William Healy voted no. Under the designation, the property is assessed at 10% of market value for the first 10 years instead of 25%. The rate rises to 15% in year 11 and 20% in year 12. The two statements aren't necessarily in conflict. The Village isn't writing Amazon a check. The 7(b) break is a Cook County assessment classification that needs the Village's consent. It still lowers the store's property tax bill.
Katsenes argued that longtime local businesses don't get the same treatment. Trustee John Lawler said that without the break, Amazon might have built in Will County, and that it puts the store on more even footing with Costco down the road. Mayor Dodge blamed the county's tax system for making incentives like this necessary. He also said he believes past incentives probably helped bring in "Costco and just about every other big development including most of the auto dealers on 159th Street."
That ties back to the roads. The Village has said Amazon's revenue will pay for the Ravinia extension and the new turn lanes. How much revenue there is depends on this tax arrangement, and the reduced rate lasts 10 years.
When the Cones Come Down
The Village's target dates for the corridor:
- End of 2026: Ravinia Avenue extension to La Grange Road
- End of 2026: Costco fuel station and the Ravinia Avenue roundabout
- 2027: Amazon store opens
- Later: more development on the outlots
The September 8 update still said "later this year" for the roundabout and warned of more detours and lane shifts. That leaves about three months to hit the year-end goal. None of the sources say whether the current Costco gas station stays open while the new one is built.
Elsewhere in town, the Village's September 17 road update gives these dates:
- 80th Avenue, 151st to 170th Street: manhole repairs, with all work expected to wrap up by October 2
- West Avenue, El Cameno Re'al Drive and 80th Avenue: resurfacing expected done by October 23
- 153rd Street, Wolf Road to West Avenue: striping and signal-sensor work, with major work wrapping up by October 30
- 108th Avenue, 143rd to 153rd, and 179th Street, Wolf to La Grange: patching expected done by November 1
It also helps to know who owns which road. The state manages La Grange Road and 159th Street, so the lane work at the Amazon corner happens on state roads. Cook County handles 80th, 104th and 108th Avenues. The Village maintains neighborhood streets. Southwest Highway between 131st and 135th Streets remains closed because of IDOT contractor delays, and The Regional News reported in July that the work might not be finished until 2027.
Big projects like the Amazon store and the Costco expansion can affect home values nearby, and it helps to know how. If you own near the 159th Street corridor and want to know how this work fits into your home's value, Aaron Gaines will go through it with you. Get Your Free Home Valuation.
