Lombard buys long-vacant Hammerschmidt property

Lombard trustees have reacquired the long-vacant Hammerschmidt Fuel and Lumber property along St. Charles Road for a price tag of $750,000.

The village opted to buy the property to control its destiny rather than risk an undesirable development.

"You don't know what you're going to get," Village Manager David Hulseberg said.

Lombard first intervened with the property in 1997 when it paid a firm $140,000 to raze nine unsightly silos and other buildings that had become an eyesore just east of Main Street between the Union Pacific Railroad tracks and St. Charles Road.

In return, landowner at the time was expected to redevelop the 1-acre property within three years. But plans for a combination of condos, townhouses and retail fell through in 2000. The property owner eventually repaid the village for the demolition bill.

A second similar development, pitched in January 2002, also never materialized.

Lombard first acquired the entire Hammerschmidt property in 2004 during a land swap with Elmhurst Hospital. The village then sold part of the land in 2006 to New Urban Lombard.

The Arlington Heights-based developer had planned to construct a four-story building with retail on the ground floor, indoor parking and condos upstairs.

But recently, the developer walked away from the project. On Oct. 16, the village board voted 4-2 to repurchase the property before it goes into foreclosure.

Trustees Laura Fitzpatrick and Dana Moreau objected to the purchase.

"We have to be a little more prudent with our purchases," Fitzpatrick said.

The majority of trustees disagreed, preferring to get it for a "discounted" price rather than risk losing control of it in foreclosure to a developer with potentially undesirable plans for the land.

"It gives us the flexibility and control to use it as we see fit for downtown," Village President William Mueller said. "We should control it rather than let someone else."

"The village of Lombard has to take a lead role with the downtown," Trustee Greg Gron said. "Things could start popping."