Palm trees to pine trees

In 2014, when the Sun Day published its initial history of Sun City, an important part of the story was inadvertently left out. This is an unusual Chapter two, going backwards a long time before Del Webb came to Illinois. It’s about the beginning of Del Webb’s first active adult community outside of the Sun Belt. And it’s about a determined, persistent woman from Schaumburg who played a special role in it.

By the mid-1980s, Del Webb had become famous for building active adult communities throughout the Sun Belt in several states. They invited seniors to come to Arizona, California, and South Carolina and enjoy a retirement of resort, leisure living in warm climates. Many came to these “Getaways,” and were favorably impressed by what they saw.

There was only one problem, but it was a big one to many Midwesterners: The resorts were too far way from home. Folks from Illinois and surrounding states did not want to leave their children and grandchildren behind to live in these nice retirement communities. They gave Del Webb a two-part message: Your resorts are beautiful and the lifestyle sounds wonderful, but why do we have to travel so far to come to them? Why don’t you build something closer to us?

Enter Joanie and Carter Berg into the conversation. They were both born and raised in Chicago and lived for 38 years in Schaumburg. There they raised two sons and today they have four grandchildren, all midwestern-area residents.

Joanie combines a bubbly, warm personality with determined, persistent powers of persuasion. As she and Carter began planning their retirement, Joanie was not afraid to take on a large corporation to get something done.

The Bergs were part of the initial reaction to Del Webb’s marketing, but Joanie took the discussion to another, higher, level. She grabbed her phone and started to call the Del Webb office In Arizona to plead her case.

Sometime in 1986 or 87, Joanie said she started to contact the Del Webb corporate office in Arizona directly, and go straight to the top.

“I called their home office many times and asked if they would be interested in coming to Illinois. They initially said it’s cold here and it snows. I told them we all have our children and grandchildren here and we grew up with the cold and snowy weather.’”

“They (Del Webb) got tired of hearing from me all the time and they had an assistant to take all my phone calls,” Joanie said. “I offered to give them many names and addresses of friends that they could contact. Eventually, they used this information when they had their first meeting in Arlington Heights by the Arlington Park Race Track,” she said.

By this time, Del Webb had checked out several possible midwestern sites. Locations in states surrounding Illinois were briefly considered, then the Chicago suburban area became the focus. Property in Harvard and Woodstock was inspected and rejected.

Joanie kept her phone handy and monitored Del Webb’s search. Finally, after a 10-year campaign, she learned that Huntley was being seriously considered, primarily because of its location next to the Interstate 90 highway.

“With that information we went to see Huntley Mayor James Dahmer and he said Del Webb was very interested in building here. We said ‘Hooray,’ With route 90 so close to most of our families that’s a bonus,” said Joanie.

Elaine Kelly, who was one of the early sales representatives when Del Webb opened in Huntley, offered her opinion.

“Huntley also was viewed positively because it offered the largest amount of land,” she said.

Kelly still lives on Stonewater Crossing in Neighborhood 10. Sun City is now one of the largest subdivisions in the northwest Chicago suburbs, with more than 5,400 homes occupying more than 2,300 acres.

“We all heard a lot about the comments that visitors made at their Sun Belt trips,” Kelly added. “Their efforts led to our job opportunities here.”

By 1997, Del Webb, which had signed agreements to come to Huntley, contacted the Bergs and invited them to photo shoots before home-building started.

“The Tribune had us out here on a very cold and snowy day and took our pictures in a beautiful gazebo which was the first structure built here,” Joanie related. “We were sorry later to hear that during a bad windy winter day, the gazebo was destroyed and never rebuilt. It was supposed to be located just outside Prairie Lodge.”

The Bergs immediately plunged into Sun City’s many activities and volunteered to work with Cynthia O’Connor, the community’s first lifestyles director, and take visitors on tours of Prairie Lodge while it was still under construction early in 2000. Before retiring to Sun City, Carter spent 28 years as a repair technician for a major Chicago area Chevrolet auto dealership. Joanie worked many years as a secretary in Schaumburg School District 54.

The Bergs received a package of cookies from Del Webb for their efforts.

“Our son is a builder, and we remember him saying to us that he could build us a bigger home for less money, but he couldn’t match the great lifestyle Del Webb was offering,” Joanie said. “What a wonderful life we have in Sun City.”

The Bergs bought a Nicolet model in Neighborhood 3 and occupied it in early June, 1999. That was just a few weeks after Del Webb started selling homes in April of that year.

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