Hertz adding to business development in Palatine's Dundee Road corridor
Hertz Corp. has received Palatine village council permission to renovate a dilapidated building for a new car rental facility in the Dundee Road corridor, just east of Rand Road.
Village council members this week approved a special-use permit allowing Hertz to operate the car rental business at 1110 E. Dundee Road.
Hertz's new office will continue an upward trend on westbound Dundee approaching Rand, where a T-Mobile store, Cousins Subs, Aspen Dental and Palatine Bank & Trust are in the works. Already open closest to the intersection are a relatively new Panera Bread Co., a Verizon shop and Mattress Firm.
Palatine's director of building and zoning, Ben Vyverberg, said Hertz will renovate the roughly 1,500-square-foot building. Plans call for offices, a sales area and a car washing bay strictly for Hertz's vehicles at the facility.
Scott Evans, a Des Plaines-based general manager for Hertz, said in a letter to Palatine officials the company's "local edition" operation will cater to business and leisure travelers. With its connections to insurance companies, Evans said, the Palatine office also will assist customers who need a rental while their car is being repaired after a crash or other unforeseen circumstance.
"Having an enhanced local rental network is beneficial to all," Evans said.
Hertz plans to have five employees at the office, which will be open 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays. The company expects to have about 150 cars for its available fleet, with up to 20 stored on the Dundee Road site.
U.S. Cellular moved from the building in 2014 after it stopped serving the Chicago area, according to testimony from Hertz representatives at a recent Palatine zoning board of appeals session. The structure's front door still sports a "condemned" notice the village's community services department issued in 2017.