Kane County OKs condemnation to move clerk building plans forward

With the goal of moving negotiations forward more quickly, the Kane County Board on Tuesday authorized using condemnation to purchase the circuit clerk's building.

Kane County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay said moving forward with eminent domain proceedings should strengthen the county's bargaining power.

"The negotiations have been going on longer than we would like," McConnaughay said. "We had hoped to be done by the end of (last) year."

The county has leased the 109,000-square-foot building, located on Randall Road in St. Charles, since 2001. It is a former Montgomery Ward's store.

Under the terms of its lease, the county was required to maintain the property and pay its taxes. Its lease and property taxes cost $250,000 annually, of which about $150,000 is taxes. The lease contained an option to buy.

The board voted in September to authorize purchase negotiations. Since then, each side has sought several appraisals but has yet to agree on a price.

County officials had considered vacating the building and committing to another five-year lease but decided purchasing the space would be the best long-term investment.

The building houses the circuit clerk's office and records storage space, uses that McConnaughay said eventually will move to the Kane County Judicial Center campus less than a mile away in St. Charles Township.

The circuit clerk's office occupies 54,000 square feet of the building and records storage another 10,600 square feet.

The rest of the building is empty, but officials have considered moving other departments -- including the Regional Office of Education -- to the unoccupied space. It would cost $2 million to build out the space.

The county moved into the building after signing a lease/purchase agreement in 2001 for $3.4 million. The county also spent $1.9 million to build out and furnish the circuit clerk's office.