Elk Grove Village buys closed motel, plans to demolish it

Elk Grove Village is spending $5.6 million to purchase and demolish a shuttered motel in an area officials believe to be primed for future development.

The village inked a real estate contract with Elk Grove Holdings Inc., which owns the Elk Grove Hotel at 1600 E. Oakton St., near the Elmhurst Road Interstate 90 interchange and a half-mile from the planned $1 billion Elk Grove Technology Park.

Officials plan to tear down the motel, plant grass, and market the 318,000-square-foot lot to commercial developers.

"We realize this will be a centerpiece for that whole corridor, especially what's going to be happening down at Busse Farm," said Mayor Craig Johnson, referencing the 85-acre property between Oakton Street and Higgins Road where crews broke ground last month on the technology park.

"This gives us the flexibility to make sure whatever occurs (at the motel property) ties into to what is being done on the Busse corridor and Elk Grove Technology Park," Johnson added.

The mayor indicated the village may not be done buying and flipping properties in the area. Village officials view it as an entry corridor to the planned tech park and Elk Grove's already-established business park to the south.

"We are looking at many opportunities," Johnson said.

The purchase is being funded with money from the Busse-Elmhurst Tax Increment Financing District, which the village set up in 2014 to revitalize the sprawling business park. While property taxes paid to local governments were frozen, taxes collected above those levels have been funneled into a special village fund to pay for public and private economic development projects.

The motel, which started as the Midway Motor Lodge, has undergone several transitions, but recently closed for remodeling.