Mount Prospect honing in on developer for Chase Bank building; 1 hopeful leapfrogs the process

Mount Prospect is interviewing four potential candidates to develop the former Chase Bank building.

Village Manager Michael Cassady said one development team was interviewed Wednesday. Three more are scheduled next week.

The village also is answering questions after conceptual plans from one of the proposals were shared on social media.

That post has since been removed, a village trustee said.

The village bought the vacant six-story office building at 111 E. Busse Ave. for $5 million in May 2025. It sits on 2.18 acres at a prime downtown location.

In August, the village solicited statements of qualifications from experienced development teams.

Cassady said there are reasons the interviews are private. The development teams have proprietary plans and financial information they do not wish to disclose. Also, because the village owns the property, the board can discuss setting a sale price in closed session.

The Facebook post showed drawings for 24 townhouses on Maple Street, a town center in what is now a parking lot, a six-story, 24-unit condo building and underground parking for 450 cars.

Cassady said he had no idea how elevations for one of the development proposals went on social media.

“We (village staff) hadn’t even seen those elevations yet,” he said.

The post rubbed some village trustees the wrong way.

“I’m very upset,” Trustee William Grossi said.

Trustee Vince Dante said the post created an unfair advantage in the process.

“All of those posts were taken down, so clearly somehow or other whoever admins those pages must have been contacted to take the stuff down,” Dante said.

But Mayor Paul Hoefert said he thinks what was posted was inadvertent.

“I think it was just somebody who was excited and maybe a little zealous,” he said.

szalusky@dailyherald.com