Developer pulls plans for downtown East Dundee project

Plans to transform a lumberyard in East Dundee into a mixed-use development featuring townhouses, apartments, boutique lodging and retail are on hold for now.

Citing economic concerns, West Dundee-based developer Sightwell informed East Dundee officials in late April that they can no longer pursue plans to redevelop the two-acre property at 110 Railroad Street in the heart of the village’s downtown district.

“This was not an easy conclusion to reach,” Sightwell owner Andy Burns said in a written statement. “We have spent more than a year imagining what this important block in downtown East Dundee could become, and walking away from that vision is not something we take lightly.”

While village officials were disappointed about the news, they remain optimistic for the property’s future, which still includes the construction of a satellite performing arts center by Crystal Lake’s Raue Center for the Arts.

“The performing arts center is still moving forward, and is enthusiastically on track,” East Dundee Village Administrator Erika Storlie wrote in a memo to trustees.

Storlie said the Raue Center hopes to start construction as early as 2027 on the satellite performing arts center that has yet to be named. The center, which is expected to take approximately 18 months to complete, could open as early as 2029.

On Monday, East Dundee trustees agreed to delay the construction of a planned soundstage at 120 S. Railroad St., south of The Depot, until spring 2027 to better match construction timing with the performing arts center.

The soundstage, which is expected to cost more than $1.5 million, would be ready for East Dundee’s lineup of summer events in 2027. The stage could also be used by the Raue Center for its performances.

The village will also make street improvements in the area, including converting Meier Street into a one-way street for improved traffic flow in the downtown district, Storlie said. The village will seek bids for those road improvements in the spring, officials said.

In 2025, the village sought plans to redevelop the lumberyard property with a project anchored by the performing arts center. Sightwell was the only developer to submit plans.

Storlie and trustees are hopeful that they can draw increased interest after initial improvements — such as demolition of existing buildings — are made to the property.

“Once we get it site-ready, it’s going to be a lot more attractive, and we’ll probably get a lot more bids,” Storlie told trustees Monday.

Sightwell presented concept plans in August 2025 for a mixed-use development that included 8,000 square feet for the performing arts center, 6,000 square feet for retail shops with five or six rental apartments, 10 boutique lodging suites above the shops and nine to 12 townhouses on the property.

The village, which bought the property in 2023 for $800,000, planned to sell the property to Sightwell for $10.

In his statement, Burns said while the village discussed using $2.5 million in special tax funding for the project, nearly all that money would have to be spent just to “get the site to a blank canvas.” He also noted that construction costs, estimated at roughly $400 per square foot, far exceeded real estate values of about $200 a square foot.

“We were not willing to build something lesser just to make the math work,” Burns said.

He said Sightwell supports the village’s vision for its downtown district and wishes the village success.

Meanwhile, East Dundee officials remained hopeful they could still bring some version of the plans to reality.

“I appreciate that the developer was honest with us,” Storlie said of Sightwell’s decision. “It’s unfortunate that it’s not going to come to fruition, but I do think this whole space is really incredibly viable and has some great attributes to it. Maybe it’s not going to sequence out initially as we had hoped, but I think the whole vision can be realized in phases.”