Wheeling's empty Wickes building to be demolished

Wheeling's empty Wickes building will be demolished before the village's Fourth of July fireworks, which are set to go off near the site.

On Monday, the Wheeling village board unanimously voted to pay Langos Corporation, of Barrington Hills, $227,385 to level the building at Northgate Parkway and Dundee Road. Work will begin in mid-April after Wheeling's police and fire departments are done using the site for training, said Mark Janeck, Wheeling's director of community development.

It will take 40 days to tear the building down, he said.

Wheeling has been trying to redevelop the site since Wickes declared bankruptcy in 2008 and eventually went into liquidation for failure to find a buyer or an investor. That same year, Wheeling took control of the development by buying the empty building with a $3.775 million bid that was accepted when a bankruptcy court judge approved the sale. More than two years prior, when the property was up for sale, offers ranged as high as $12 million, according to village officials.

The money for the sale came from tax increment financing reserves; since 2003, the property has been part of a TIF district, where tax revenue for government bodies is frozen and revenue from increasing property values is put toward development.

Trustee Ken Brady asked on Monday what the site would look like once the demolition work was complete.

Langos would leave the building's foundation in case a developer wanted to use parts of it. Dirt and grass would cover the rest of the site, Janeck said.

Last month, Wheeling's village board approved a $100 redevelopment plan for the site that could comprise 170,000 square feet, including a 70,000-square-foot national retailer to anchor the site. The smaller boutiques could include specialty shops, a gourmet food store, a bakery and restaurants. Plans also call for two 12-story residential buildings, a parking garage and a redone Metra station.

The developer, Urban R2, also wants to relocate parts of Northgate Parkway to make room for a green-space area that could be closed off for art fairs, pottery classes and jewelry exhibitions, according to the project's master plan.

Urban R2 has until Dec. 1 to get a final plan approved by the village, said Peter Vadopalas, Wheeling's director of economic development.