New owner in line for long vacant Rolling Meadows Dominick’s

A Chicago company has purchased the note for the long-vacant Dominick’s property on Kirchoff Road in Rolling Meadows and is working toward becoming the property owner so it can redevelop the site, which is in foreclosure, in the future.

Clark Street Development, which has recently redeveloped Orland Park Place, The Century Shopping Centre in Chicago and several other projects in the city, bought the note, or outstanding debt, on the Rolling Meadows property two weeks ago and addressed the city’s economic development meeting on Tuesday about its plans.

Peter Eisenberg and Fritz Duda of Clark Street Development said they have examined the study done by the city in February and agree that the site would be good for retail locations, most likely anchored by a large grocer.

The study suggested a grocer would make a good large anchor and other major users could include a hardware or home improvement store, a fitness center, cafes, restaurants, home décor or independent clothing shops.

“We are very excited about becoming involved in this community and think that it’s a fantastic retail society,” Eisenberg said.

He added that the company has already started reaching out to major regional and national grocers and has had interest in the site.

The property is, however, still going through the foreclosure process, and although Clark Street Development bought the note for the property, the company does not yet hold the deed.

A concrete timeline on when planning and construction could begin is difficult, Duda said, because the foreclosure process in Cook County can take more than a year.

However, Duda said his company is already moving forward through its lawyers and the firm will take over leasing, modify the signage and begin looking at environmental cleanup. In part because a dry cleaners used to be on the site, some portions need to be demolished and rebuilt as part of the cleanup, Fritz said.

At the Nov. 22 committee of the whole meeting, the city council approved allowing the more than $600,000 left in tax increment finance district funds for the area be spent to help with that environmental cleanup, which can start any time now that Clark Street is moving forward on the project.

Although plans are still in very early stages, members of the economic development committee said they were very excited to have good news about the property, which has been vacant since 2004. The 11-acre site has about 132,000 square feet of retail space.

City Manager Barry Krumstok said the developer is aggressive and that he is confident and excited about the project so far.

“I cannot promise anything at this point except that we are going to be completely transparent and that we are going to be involved,” Eisenberg said. “This project is a priority for us.”