Deal could save historic West Chicago home

A deal to prevent a 144-year-old West Chicago house from being demolished is expected to be approved next week.

The city council on Monday night is scheduled to authorize Mayor Ruben Pineda to enter into an agreement with the West Chicago Community Center, which will work to restore the exterior of the Joel Wiant House at 151 W. Washington St.

If the nonprofit group can resolve a list of exterior building code violations by April 30, the city will sell the historic structure to the organization for a dollar.

“We’re anxious to get to work,” said David Sabathne, president of the West Chicago Community Center. “We’re also very anxious to show people that when the private sector and a city come together with a common goal and objective, there can be tremendous results.”

The group got involved as officials were considering the possibility of razing the house, which has been vacant for years and is in disrepair. After buying the brick structure in 2011, the city made two unsuccessful attempts to find a buyer capable of rehabilitating it.

The future was so uncertain for the Wiant House that it was named one of the state’s 10 most endangered historic places by the preservationist group Landmarks Illinois.

“The city was discouraged that there was no viable player (to restore the building),” Sabathne said.

So when the community center group got involved, Sabathne said both parties were motivated to draft a proposal. He said he expects work on the house to begin less than a week after Monday night’s vote.

The group has about $400,000 of available cash to spend on the project. It doesn’t plan to borrow any money.

While estimates the city received show it would cost at least $550,000 to repair the exterior and interior of the structure, Sabathne said the group estimates its project will cost about $300,000.

As part of the project, nine building code violations will be eliminated. Crews also will install new windows in the building and repair the roof.

Sabathne said the main goal is to preserve the house, which was constructed around 1869 for local businessman Joel Wiant and later occupied by John W. Leedle, West Chicago’s first city attorney.

The group also plans to restore the house to a useful purpose with office and commercial space on the first floor and a two-bedroom apartment on the second floor.

“Our intention is to improve it to the point where it really becomes a desirable property and somebody wants to buy it,” Sabathne said.

With the group spending its own money, it has an incentive to complete the project. Sabathne said he’s confident the work will get done.

“We’ve already had contractors look at it,” he said. “So we just need to be able to pull the switch.”

Sabathne is predicting there will be “a tremendous response” from the community once the work begins.

“And when the people see how it’s completed,” he said, “I think they are going to be blown away.”