Group looks to make its home in Bloomingdale

The Scottish Rite Cathedral Association plans to construct their headquarters in Bloomingdale.

Village leaders gave the association preliminary approval on Monday night to build a 62,000-square-foot, two-story building and a parking lot with up to 191 parking spaces at the intersection of Medinah Road and Lake Street.

If given final approval in coming months, the facility will consist of an auditorium, performance and learning center, theatrical performance center, a learning center for children, administrative offices, meeting rooms, a museum for the Scottish Rite Fraternal Order, a restaurant and banquet center.

Leaders of the Masonic fraternity are hoping to get final approval and break ground before 2009. The entire project would take about 16 months to complete, officials said.

John Phillips, Member of the Supreme Council for the Valley of Chicago, a group that oversees the Scottish Rite Cathedral Association said the project has been a lot of work so far.

The group searched for a perfect site for more than a year.

After checking out more than 100 sites, a piece of land in Bloomingdale, at 383 E. Lake St. was their favorite.

"The site is absolutely gorgeous," Phillips said. "The site is just about at the geographic center of our membership, and it has wonderful visibility."

Bloomingdale Village Administrator Dan Wennerholm said the facility will be in a visible corner.

"We're certainly pleased that they've chosen to locate in Bloomingdale, and it should be a nice facility," he said. "They just have to get through the planning process.

Phillips hopes the site and location will be unsurpassed.

"We would like to be the gateway into the village of Bloomingdale," he said.