Harvest Bible Chapel plans to move Elgin campus to West Dundee

Harvest Bible Chapel is moving its campus on Randall Road in Elgin to the Route 72 strip mall building currently occupied by LifeZone 360 and Adrenaline Monkey Indoor Adventure Park in West Dundee, church officials have announced.

“Our plans are to continue using (LifeZone 360), Lord willing, for a lot of the sports ministry and sports work that’s already being done,” lead pastor Jeff Bucknam told Elgin congregation members in a videotaped address posted online Sunday, July 26.

“We’re not going to change it massively, that side of (the building). But there is an entire other side of it currently called Adrenaline Monkey that’s large enough for us to turn into a worship center that will hopefully seat 1,200 people or so.”

Elgin campus minister Jeff Thompson said in the July 26 presentation that the site will be a great location for Harvest Bible because it’s directly across the street from the former Spring Hill Mall property, he said.

“There’s tons of new development going on there really soon, lots of homes that are going to be built, and we’re really, really excited about the opportunity,” Thompson said.

Bucknam said money from rent Harvest has been paying in Elgin and for a couple of other places has been freed up recently, giving them what they need to pay a mortgage on the West Dundee building.

“We’re going to ask you for money. Just so you know,” he told the congregation. “But not too much. By no means by amounts we have asked in the past.”

Bucknam also stressed that the process will take some time.

“We’re trusting that the Lord has provided this for us and we’ll move forward into it,” he said.

The church opened its current location in 2003 after a trust associated with craft store chain Hobby Lobby bought the 85-acre Safety-Kleen campus and turned it over to Harvest, according to articles published by The (Elgin) Courier-News at the time. Over the years, the Elgin operation grew to include a school and an auditorium that can seat 2,200 people.

However, Harvest Bible Chapel — with its main campus in Rolling Meadows and satellites in Elgin, Aurora, Crystal Lake and Highland Park — was financially hurt during the 2008 recession and the aftermath of the firing of founding pastor James MacDonald in 2019, Bucknam said.

Its financial situation improved in 2025 when California-based college ministry Acts2 Training Center purchased the Elgin property for $29.5 million, according to Kane County property records.

“We’ve been very happy to share the property with them. They made a great deal for us to be here,” Bucknam said. “But one of the things (we said) when we first sold it was it’s really healthy for a church to have its own place for a long term.”

Harvest began looking for other locations within a 10-minute drive from its Elgin location and found the site — once a Target store — that it plans to buy, he said.

“We still have some details to work out there, but we finally got to the point after a lot of due diligence that we decided to enter into a purchase and sale agreement with (owners 1660 Daniels Road LLC, according to property records) this week,” Bucknam said.

West Dundee Village Manager Joe Cavallaro confirmed that in recent weeks village staffers have spoken to representatives from Harvest Bible about the congregation’s plans.

“It’s our understanding that a letter of intent has been executed,” Cavallaro said.

West Dundee has been told that some of the property, most likely LifeZone 360, could remain in business, leaving it on the tax rolls, he said. Any renovation plans will need to be reviewed by the village’s Planning and Zoning Commission and approved by the village board, Cavallaro said.

That would include granting a special-use permit for a church to open on property zoned for commercial and retail use and for any additions or construction plans Harvest might have for the space.

Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The (Elgin) Courier-News.