West Dundee’s Clearwater Theater for sale
A popular West Dundee entertainment venue is now on the market.
The owner of Clearwater Theater has put the building up for sale. West Dundee officials noticed “for sale” signs on the theater’s marquee and doors over the weekend. Records show the property is also behind on its taxes.
According to Susan Ericson, director of tax extension and vital records for the Kane County Treasurer’s Office, the owners, listed as E & G Capital LLC, owe a total of $13,269.34 on the property from 2009 and 2010.
Those amounts will increase every six months — 12 percent on the portion owed in 2010 amount and 4 percent on the amount from 2009, Ericson said.
Decatur-based Vista Securities Inc. paid the $13,269.34 in two tax sales, one last Thursday and the other on Oct. 25, 2010.
But E & G still has to pay the county clerk what it owes. If it doesn’t do it by May 24, 2013, Vista Securities could take ownership of the property, Ericson said.
Records show that the theater went through two other tax sales in 2008 and 2007, but that E & G eventually paid the taxes it owed.
The building’s for-sale status comes three weeks after village trustees revoked the its business and local liquor license for its failure to obtain a state liquor license, moves that closed the theater down. Authorities said employees had been serving alcohol without a state liquor license; the business had last applied for one in March 2010.
The village’s three-member liquor control commission refused to reinstate the local liquor license until owner Eric Isibue secured one from the state. Isibue did not return messages left on his cellular phone.
The theater featured local, national and regional musicians, as well as comedians and other entertainers. Its remaining performances in September were all canceled.
Juliann Salinas, lead singer of the Sleepy Hollow-based band, Somersault Factory, had been looking forward to performing at the theater before the Sept. 10 show was axed.
Salinas, of Cary, said the band plays smaller venues, primarily in Chicago and occasionally in the suburbs. Clearwater, she said, was a haven for acts that played original music.
“We were really excited because this was our first opportunity to play that caliber theater in the suburbs,” Salinas said. “We were really looking forward to it because it gets old having to go to the city.”
The venue had been around for about 10 years. Before that, it was the Dundee Theater, Village Manager Joe Cavallaro said. It stood vacant for five years before Clearwater moved in.
And its closure leaves downtown West Dundee with yet another vacant edifice.
“It’s never a good thing,” Cavallaro said, adding that the theater sits next door to M.T. Barrels Restaurant and Brewery, which also is empty.