After delay, Hoffman Montessori school moves ahead on expansion

Montessori School of North Hoffman finally will fulfill its long-held expansion plans this fall when it occupies two buildings on Freeman Road in Hoffman Estates.

The school this week received a village permit to reoccupy its former home at 1200 Freeman Road. The school left the building at the end of 2013, when administrators were unable to reach a new lease agreement with its owner, but has since purchased the property itself.

In the interim, the school was operating out of a former retail building across Mumford Drive, at 1250 Freeman Road. Officials initially intended for that site to be merely an ancillary building back in 2012.

Under the expansion plan, the original campus will serve elementary students while adolescents will be housed at 1250 Freeman Road, Executive Director Molood Naghibzadeh said.

While the main campus requires some renovation to make up for the 18 months it was vacated, Naghibzadeh said it's expected to be ready before the start of the coming academic year.

The Montessori school first opened in 1989 after taking over the space previously occupied by a day care center. The school built a 4,000-square-foot addition onto the back of the building in 1996.

It was in 2012 that the school received permission to remodel and move into the vacant retail building across the street. But after failing to come to new terms with the landlord of the original building, the expansion site served as the full campus for the past year and a half.

In addition to these two neighboring sites, Montessori School of North Hoffman also operates the nearby Lotus Montessori School at 3805 Huntington Blvd. in Hoffman Estates.