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Historic downtown Bartlett building could get new life after sale

The sidewalks are shoveled, and a sign still christens the downtown Bartlett building as “Lucky Jacks.”

Those are about the only signs of life in a former tavern that closed in 2012. Some of the windows are still boarded up after critters invaded.

All of that could change with the buyer who's acquiring the nearly 6,000-square-foot building out of foreclosure. Gary Danno's Downtown Bartlett Inc. wants to refurbish it into another restaurant-bar, village officials say.

“We're hoping that it can be renovated and fixed up not only for its historic importance, but it's also kind of a key location in the downtown,” said Community Development Director Jim Plonczynski, who has talked with the company's representative only on the phone.

Danno, who has developed restaurants in Roselle and Wheaton, did not return messages for comment. In Bartlett, he has a stake in the building's Railroad Avenue neighbor, Papa Pacino's.

Rosie Danno, who could not be reached either, and her business partners were the previous owners when the property fell into foreclosure, according to Cook County property records. Lucky Jacks officially closed its doors in April 2012, about a month after the bar's Illinois liquor license expired and wasn't renewed. Trustees followed suit and revoked the village's liquor license. Last month, a Cook County judge called for a sheriff's sale of the vacant property.

Village planners expect a smoother working relationship with a property owner than the bank that took over the site.

“It's always good to have something in ownership rather than bank-held,” Plonczynski said. “You can deal with property owners a lot better for redevelopment than you can with a bank.”

The building falls in a proposed tax increment financing district downtown. The buyer is interested in getting a TIF district incentive but hasn't pitched any renovation projects, Plonczynski said.

But the old Lucky Jacks would be a good candidate for a program made available to business owners in the last TIF district downtown, Plonczynski said. If they updated their facades, retailers and restaurateurs could get back up to $30,000 in TIF district money. All together, the village shelled out more than $850,000 in rebates.

Lucky Jacks' interior needs “some considerable work on it,” Plonczynski said.

First used as a general store, the building's roots in Bartlett date back to the 1870s. It doubled as a post office with August C. Schick as the postmaster until 1908, Bartlett History Museum notes in its guided walking tour of the downtown.

Some residents still know the building as the “Eck,” a popular spot for Friday night fish frys. It kept the German name (translation: corner), playing off its prominent location at Oak and Railroad avenues, from 1944 to the late 1980s.

Modern-day downtown fixture Banbury Fair debuted there in 1983 before moving to its current location, one of the many retailers that shuffled in and out of the second floor.

When told of the new deal, Pam Rohleder, the museum's director, said she hopes the structure is restored.

“The building has just a wonderful history to our community,” she said.

  The former Lucky Jacks closed its doors in downtown Bartlett in 2012. Bob Chwedyk/bchwedyk@dailyherald.com
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