Proposed development to replace pink house in East Dundee

For 19 years, neighbors, nearby business owners and village officials witnessed Brad Giertz turn his East Dundee property into his dream house.

Year after year, they watched him fix it up, add to it, renovate it. Giertz would spend hours on the roof in the sweltering heat or the bitter cold, neighbor Joan Pearson recalls.

A talented artist and a skilled craftsman, Giertz did all the work himself, Village President Lael Miller said. He put endless time and effort into perfecting and customizing the details of the pink house at 110 River St.

But in 2013, Giertz passed away, leaving the downtown property vacant and unfinished.

"He had a dream and didn't live long enough to make it happen," Pearson said.

Pearson was among the several neighbors and passers-by who watched Thursday morning as contractors demolished the house to make room for a new proposed development.

"It's bittersweet," Miller said. "I wish (Giertz) had been here to finish it."

Earlier this summer, developers proposed that the house be torn down and replaced with a three-story building. The plan is to have retail stores and restaurants on the first floor with residential units on top, Miller said, though developers are still finalizing the details.

"The more people that live and work downtown, the more successful it is," he said, noting that there's a demand for apartments and townhouses in small, urban towns like East Dundee.

After the house is entirely demolished Thursday, Miller said, it will take about three additional days to clean up the property. He estimates developers will break ground on the new building early next year.

Jim Keller, who owns a business next door, is "all on board" with the new development.

"I don't think (the house) fits in with the architecture of the neighborhood," he said. "It's out of place."

Having watched the house change and progress since Jim Keller Kitchen, Bath & Home opened on River Street in 2001, Keller described his feelings about the demolition as a "glad sadness."

"A lot of effort, hard work and time was put into the house by this man," he said. "But I'm glad it's coming down."