WALLED LAKE FLOWS TO HIGHLAND PARK

New Diamond, Jade, Green Panda.

Highland Park denizens remember the restaurants well. Each stood, for various time spans, at 600 Elm Place. The Green Panda closed in 2017. For years the eatery sat dormant, each table inside set with white tablecloths, dinner plates, silverware, glasses, and even an old bottle of wine, all awaiting a new destiny.

Its lack of use caused the property to appear neglected and darker and darker, as each season passed.

Then Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management, a boutique-style financial planning firm located in Winnetka, was looking to move its offices to a property it would own. Partners Howard Klieger and Noel Cooper, both residents of Highland Park, visited this prime spot across the street from the new Albion luxury apartment complex and developed a vision of possibilities.

They built a team of Robert Rowe, developer and broker, and Rick Goldman of REthink: Project Management and devised a redevelopment plan after buying the building in January 2022.

The Elm Place redevelopment team tasked Product Architecture with creating an open space that fused function and fashion; a design similar to the firm’s magnificent revisioning of the Highland Park library. The plan required taking the building down to the bricks—as well as replacing all systems and the facade, including opening the roof for a glorious skylight. After adding very contemporary technology to the plan, they were off to the races.

Nearly a year later, their grand vision was realized.

“From old to new … we’re excited to be a part of adding to the revitalization and vibrancy of downtown Highland Park,” says Klieger, a New York native who moved to Highland Park a year and a half ago after residing in Wilmette for 30 years. “We want our clients to feel a sense of comfort and confidence with the leading technologies of financial planning and the investment world. We also recognize that our employees spend much of their day here, and they deserve to take pride in their surroundings. We want anyone who visits us to look around and say, ‘Wow.’”

“We also respect,” he adds, “the nature and history of the property. This building was built by the Yee family more than 60 years ago. It was a part of the family’s history and we want the current Yee generation to be proud of its transformation.”

Walled Lake has six employees and manages approximately $500 million for roughly 150 families. In addition to Klieger and Cooper, the Walled Lake team includes Chief Investment Officer Zach Walters, Head of Client Experiences Louis Klieger, Administrative Manager Shelton Smith, and Senior Client Associate Sarah Grayer.

Although this new building offers room to expand personnel, Walled Lake is content to maintain its current headcount while providing invaluable services for its clients in a family-centric atmosphere.

“Hiring someone new is not in our short-term plans,” Klieger says. “We like who we are. We like what we do and how we do it. We like managing clients.”

Their clients’ financial peace of mind is of the utmost importance to Klieger and Cooper; an importance reflected by the firm’s name. Cooper spent his childhood summers in Walled Lake, a city in Michigan, where he fed ducks, swam with friends, and grilled with his family (before becoming a vegetarian). His time there, dawn to dusk was comfortable and carefree.

Worries disappeared.

His needs were taken care of at Walled Lake.

Walled Lake, as advisor and financial planner, aims to deliver the same to its clients.

“We exist,” its website declares, “so you can focus on your life, instead of your finances.”

Dicky Yee, of Huntington Beach, California, ranks as one of the biggest fans of Walled Lake’s move. A 1968 Highland Park High School graduate and descendent of the family who built and owned 600 Elm Place, Yee knows “every nook and cranny” of Highland Park, including the corners and crevices that existed when New Diamond, Jade, and Green Panda welcomed diners.

Yee, whose late father, Gim Sing Yee, arrived in Highland Park from China in the 1940s and opened and operated Sam Woo Hand Laundry on Saint Johns Avenue. The Yee children grew up walking to and from Elm Place School and eventually Highland Park High School. Dicky Yee and his family (Gim, mother Rose, and three sisters) lived above the dry cleaners and tailor in the adjacent building on Elm Place. Their small five-bedroom, twobath home has now been redesigned into a luxury, three-bedroom rental apartment as part of the redevelopment project.

Life was good.

Life was convenient.

“I have a lot of fond memories of Highland Park—my hometown roots,” says Yee. “I’ll always consider it a special place.”

For that reason, Yee is especially excited about Elm Place’s next chapter. “I think it’s great, what Howard and his team did. I’m glad it’s not another restaurant. Howard shared the redesign plans and spent a lot of money to fix it up. Impressive. There’s even a gym in the basement for employees. It’s in a great location, in a space that was vacant for far too long.”

“Retail has taken a hard hit in Highland Park and elsewhere,” he continues. “I’m happy (Walled Lake) bought the building. It’s a showpiece.”

What Klieger—an avid tennis and paddle player, and a serial Ravinia Festival attendee—plans to offer at Walled Lake’s shiny new digs mirrors what the firm tendered to clients when it was moored in Winnetka: confidence and security.

No wonder Walled Lake’s emblem features a shield.

“Money is not just money,” says Klieger’s son, Louis, head of client experiences at Walled Lake. “People want to know that we are paying attention to their financial picture. They want to know that our combined experience navigating the investment world will help them meet their financial needs. We provide the confidence and recommendations to deliver appropriate safety for families who are looking for that service. We are not everything for everybody, but for those who need this type of guidance, we are very well received.

“Do you know,” he continues, “in surveys of people nearing retirement, one of their leading fears is running out of money? We’re planners. We do not understand how an advisor could invest a client’s savings without knowing in detail who they really are? That is why we think planning is so important. Over the years we have helped hundreds of people retire successfully. If someone has a goal of retirement and believes they can develop and execute a plan successfully themselves, we wish them the best of luck. Given our decades of experience, I would say we likely have a far greater chance of success than they do alone.”

“A goal without a plan,” Howard Klieger adds, “is really only a wish.”

For decades, 600 Elm Place was a place where Highland Park families gathered to savor delicious bowls of Chinese food while dreaming of bright futures. So, Walled Lake, a company dedicated to helping families secure their future and achieve their dreams, could not have chosen a more fitting location.

For more information, visit walledlakewealth.com.