District 214 puts prime Arlington Heights Road real estate up for sale, again
Northwest Suburban High School District 214 will again try to sell a property it owns in the middle of the redeveloping South Arlington Heights Road corridor.
The school district is seeking a minimum of $5.5 million for the nearly 6.5-acre parcel at 2123 S. Arlington Heights Road in Arlington Heights. The site contains a two-story, 24,000-square-foot building — the former Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59 headquarters — where District 214 administrative offices relocated during renovations to its Forest View Educational Center just a few blocks away.
Staff returned to Forest View more than a year ago, and the former District 59 building has been vacant ever since.
At the same time, District 214 is facing nearly $900 million in projected renovation costs across its six aging high schools and has been making preparations for a possible referendum to help pay for it.
“With our large list of things that we want to accomplish in the near term within the district, we should not be sitting on an asset when we have a need for those funds and we have projects that are ready to go and that we would use that money for immediately,” school board member Joe Sagerer said. “We are not in the real estate investment business, and so holding onto that — hoping to get a higher rate in the future when we have investments to do now — is sort of a delayed opportunity.”
Sagerer is one of three new board members who joined the elected panel in April and is now faced with the disposition of the property. Like the old board did last September, the new board late last week authorized the sale of the land by sealed bid.
But under peculiarities of state law — requiring a two-thirds majority of a full board of education to authorize the sale of any school district property — there weren’t enough votes to accept Chicago developer Bradford Allen’s $5.45 million bid last November.
At the time, board members Bill Dussling and Mark Hineman voted “no,” and former board member Andrea Rauch was absent.
Dussling remains opposed to a sale, arguing the site’s value only stands to increase as Bradford Allen redevelops properties along the corridor. He thinks the asking price should be about $2 million higher, factoring in the district’s previous renovation and relocation costs.
“It’s prime property,” said Dussling, noting its access to Arlington Heights Road and Tonne Drive. “In a larger scale of our total budget, we can hang onto it for a while to see what happens.”
But other board members, including Alva Kreutzer, Frank Fiarito and Vicki Chung, argued the district is wasting $90,000 a year on utilities and maintenance for an empty building.
“I don’t see it adding any value to our school district and our student population,” Fiarito said.
Bradford Allen is developing the eight-story, 301-unit apartment building that has quickly taken shape on the southeast corner of Arlington Heights and Algonquin roads. The company has laid out a multiphased vision of more apartments, retail and medical offices at the intersection.
Across the street, Bradford Allen has the four-acre former Yanni’s Greek Restaurant site under contract. And just north of District 214’s property, the developer paid $3.35 million for an eight-acre plot at Arlington Heights and Seegers roads, where an office complex was demolished in early 2024.
The district must conduct the sale within 60 days and provide official public notice for three consecutive weeks. The board could approve the winning bid as early as its Aug. 21 meeting.
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