Restaurant razed to make way for new Rolling Meadows fire station

Demolition began this week on a former restaurant on Algonquin Road to make way for a new Rolling Meadows fire station.

The former Woo Lae Oak Korean restaurant, vacant for four years, is being torn down at 3201 Algonquin Road. The city bought the 77,195-square-foot site from Judicial Drive Property Holdings LLC last September for $1.3 million, in a 4-2 vote of the city council.

The city plans to close the aging downtown Station 15 at 3111 Meadow Drive and build a new one on the Algonquin Road site, while replacing Station 16 at 2455 S. Plum Grove Road with a new one at 2320-2350 Hicks Road. The fire department's estimated $9 million relocation plan is aimed at improving response times and reducing fire risk throughout town.

Construction of the new stations could take 18 months.