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'I'm not a philanthropist' says the man who's poured millions into three Fox River towns

Tom Roeser would drive through downtown East Dundee daily — past the vacant storefronts, the mismatched and decrepit buildings and the biggest eyesore of all: an abandoned, weed-infested junkyard that served as a lumberyard before it burned down.

It desperately needed to be cleaned up. So in April 2012, Roeser bought it.

The first time he walked onto his lot, two strangers approached.

“Can we help you?” they asked.

Roeser thought this was odd. They were on his lot. Shouldn't he be questioning them? But he gave his name and told them he owned the property.

The two men introduced themselves: Bob Skurla, village administrator, and Doug Bergren, economic development director. What, they asked again, could they do to help the new owner?

Roeser was taken aback, but soon he realized the offer was legitimate.

“Those guys had a vision for East Dundee,” he said. “They had a plan.”

That was the beginning of a partnership that would make Roeser the most prominent investor in the village of about 3,200 along the Fox River.

But he didn't stop there. Roeser has invested tens of millions of dollars into East Dundee, Carpentersville and West Dundee. He has purchased and remodeled hundreds of properties — houses, townhouses, commercial space, industrial buildings.

And more is in the offing.

“Our goal is to continue to clean up these towns,” Roeser said.

But the 63-year-old president of Otto Engineering is quick to note he didn't become an investor to be a good citizen; he did it to help his business.

“I'm not a philanthropist. I'm a capitalist,” he said. “I do it to help myself, and if it helps other people, that's even better.”

Best partner

Roeser lives by two lessons that he learned from his father Jack Roeser, who died last year: 1. Business and life are intertwined. 2. If you die for your employees, they will die for you.

The success of the Roeser name began when Jack left his steady, well-paying job to start Otto Engineering — a company that specializes in control panels, switches and joysticks — out of the basement of his home in Park Ridge, much to his wife's dismay.

In fact, Tom said, she had so little confidence in his new entrepreneurial lifestyle that she filed for divorce, a split that left a rift between his father and Tom and his mother and two siblings.

But out of that divorce stemmed a strong bond between Jack and Tom, 9 years old at the time.

Several years later, Jack moved Otto to an old, worn down building in Carpentersville.

“That was all he could afford,” Tom said, but Jack started making progress. He invested in his building, his business and his employees, and over time, Otto grew. Today, it has about 500 employees and annual revenue of about $100 million.

“There's a lie that we tell people: If you work hard, you can do anything you want,” Tom said. “My father would say the real truth is, if you work hard, you will surprise yourself at how much you can achieve.”

More than a businessman, Jack became a conservative political activist, crusading against tax increases, organized labor and abortion. He even ran against then-Gov. Jim Edgar in the 1994 Republican primary. After that effort fell short, he financially backed conservative candidates.

Jack was a strong-willed man, Tom said, one he looked up to very much.

In 1987, Tom and his wife, Betty, were expecting their first child. Recently out of a job at Baxter Laboratories in Deerfield, Roeser decided to join his dad — his best friend — at Otto.

“He was the best business partner a guy could have,” Tom said. “And the rest is history.”

Carpentersville first

Despite Otto's success, the area surrounding it was in bad shape. With abandoned buildings and gang signs littering the town, Roeser said, the village had a reputation that made it undesirable, even unsafe, for employees.

“From a business perspective, I could not afford for Carpentersville to become Detroit, and it really was going that way,” he said. “If the government isn't going to stop it, who is?”

He was. Roeser bought and fixed up 150 homes, most of which he has since sold.

It wasn't long before Roeser's renovations had a ripple effect, Village President Ed Ritter said.

“He had the idea that if you plant the seed, it will grow. What he was doing inspired a lot of other people,” he said. “It was like a renaissance over there.”

Roeser then moved his efforts to the Morningside subdivision, a crime-ridden neighborhood where he tagged townhouse after townhouse with “Homes by Otto” signs.

Nearly 10 years later, Roeser owns 75 of the 134 townhouses in Morningside, in addition to 30 homes near Otto that are mostly rented out to his employees. It's still a work in progress.

“That's a social experiment over there,” he said. “It took almost 10 years to get this far, and it might take another 10 years to get it all, but once we get it all, we'll fix it all.”

A parochial interest

Revitalizing East Dundee is also somewhat of a social experiment, Roeser said, and it's one that stemmed from personal intrigue.

“Capitalism starts with great parochial interest,” he said. “I have a parochial interest to clean these towns up.”

He heard once that a successful downtown needs a grocery store, a bank and a post office.

“Now that sounds a little romantic,” he said, but he admitted that it held some truth. Decades ago, a village's downtown was a place for residents to live, work, shop and eat.

“Now, you don't really have towns like that where people go and mingle,” Roeser said, adding East Dundee had that potential.

Village officials also saw the potential of creating a thriving downtown. “But we had to work harder at it because we're off the beaten path,” Skurla said, noting that the main square isn't visible from main roads.

The village started working toward a downtown redevelopment project, which aligned with Roeser's vision.

“I could see that I could make a major contribution to implementing that plan,” Roeser said.

After buying the lumberyard and turning it into a park, he started eyeing the buildings along River Street.

He bought three of them. He renovated them. He looked for the right tenants. As other vacant buildings went up for sale, he would buy those, too.

Roeser is the first to admit that he is picky in selecting the business that would occupy his space. He wanted novelty shops and specialty restaurants that would contrast East Dundee's plentiful bar scene.

He chose family-friendly eateries like Blues BBQ & Grill and the soon-to-be LaTavola Ristorante & Pizzeria, over other businesses, such as taverns and a medical marijuana dispensary. He wanted niche businesses like Scoo-B-Do's pet grooming and the recently closed Sweet Pop Fizz, which Roeser hopes to replace with a similar store.

He started searching for companies to occupy office space, hoping their employees would visit the surrounding shops during lunch or after work.

The time it took to find a business didn't matter as much as finding the right fit.

“If they're not going to be good for East Dundee but they're good for me, that's not good for anybody, including me,” he said.

Residents winning

Since purchasing the lumberyard three years ago, Roeser estimates that he has invested $10 million into East Dundee. He has owned and restored 13 downtown properties, two of which have been sold to other investors.

He has also started working across the river in West Dundee, which recently adopted a downtown revitalization plan of its own. He owns five buildings there and is in talks with the village about other properties.

The plan, he said, is to eventually sell his properties to the right buyers — but not necessarily for a profit.

“Developers have a tendency to want to make money,” Roeser said. “But this is where we all live. We don't have to make a lot of money. We have an investment in ourselves.”

Redevelopment is a work in progress, but West Dundee Village President Chris Nelson said Roeser is helping the villages get there.

“(Roeser) has the resources, but he also has the will,” he said. “His heart is always in the right place.”

But Roeser insists that he's simply a businessman with the ability to ignite change.

“The people in these towns feel like they are winning, and they are,” Roeser said. “That's the fun part.”

Investor: ‘Our goal is to continue to clean up these towns'

  WATCH VIDEO AT DAILYHERALD.COM/MORE: Meet Tom Roeser, president of Otto Engineering, who recently renovated this East Dundee building to be used as office space. Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com
  Tom Roeser has purchased several buildings alongside the town square in downtown East Dundee. John Starks/jstarks@dailyherald.com
  Tom Roeser has purchased dozens of buildings in East Dundee, West Dundee and Carpentersville, including the historic building that houses the Anvil Club in downtown East Dundee. John Starks/jstarks@dailyherald.com
  Tom Roeser, president of Otto Engineering in Carpentersville, has gone to great lengths to keep up the Otto complex and properties surrounding it. John Starks/jstarks@dailyherald.com
  The first property Tom Roeser purchased in East Dundee was a former lumberyard, which he turned into a park on the north end of downtown. John Starks/jstarks@dailyherald.com
  Tom Roeser has purchased several buildings alongside the town square in downtown East Dundee. John Starks/jstarks@dailyherald.com
  Tom Roeser bought and fixed up homes such as these in Carpentersville to rent to his employees at Otto Engineering. Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com
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