Arlington Heights company finds new home in East Dundee
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It was built to showcase the latest Buicks back in the 1920s, but the now abandoned building in downtown East Dundee will have new life as a corporate headquarters for an Arlington Heights-based company.
Made to Measure, a quality control company that makes measurements for manufacturers, plans to renovate and restore the building at 302 Main St. to look the same way it did back then. Interior demolition work began Monday.
But the problem is, East Dundee authorities don’t have any photographs of the building from way back when to give Made to Measure a blueprint of how to proceed with construction.
Sven Bley is using photographs of similarly shaped buildings elsewhere in the country to give him a rough idea, but he would prefer pictures of the original.
“In due time, we’ll come up with something,” Bley said. “Somebody’s got it in their house.”
Interim Village Administrator Bob Skurla asks that anyone with photographs of the building from the 1920s or ‘30s to call him at (847) 426-2822.
Meanwhile, the company of 14 employees will relocate to East Dundee by Halloween and officials have plans to hire at least two more workers.
The company is moving because its lease is not being renewed in Arlington Heights. A deal to move to Schaumburg fell through and company officials selected the old East Dundee building after a search on the Internet, Bley said.
“I just like to have that old style and with our high-techie, engineering quality control environment in an old place I think it’ll be a really cool mix,” Bley said.
Made to Measure purchased the building for $310,000 and is spending $750,000 on renovations.
And East Dundee is pulling out all the stops to give Made to Measure a warm welcome. After all, in exchange for all of Bley’s work, East Dundee not only gets a building reoccupied, but will also have a historic building returned to an area in which 60,000 vehicles pass each day — the building’s last tenant was Craft Metal Spin, a metal processing facility that left several years ago.
The building is in the downtown tax increment finance district, so the village has agreed to let Made to Measure recapture a portion of a property tax increase if its taxes go up as a result of the investment.
Bley will also receive another $75,000 to apply to the building as part of the village’s new facade restoration program. Finally, village officials will work with him to see whether the company qualifies for federal tax credits and a place on Kane County’s registry of historic places.
“This is a perfect use of our TIF funds and our facade program,” Skurla said. “We’re trying to keep him from getting sticker shock because he’s putting in a lot of money out of his own pocket.”
Bley is expected to submit his final design plan in March.
