Lake County Forest Preserve OKs $4.1 mil building purchase

Calling the $4.1 million price tag a real-estate bargain, the Lake County Forest Preserve District board on Tuesday approved the purchase of a Libertyville office building that will serve as its future headquarters, and eventually as the home of the Lake County Discovery Museum.

The building, on the southeast corner of Winchester Road and Technology Way, has been vacant since 2008. It previously was occupied by Motorola.

The deal will allow district leaders to consolidate eight offices now located throughout the county and provide more space for the museum, which it operates in a former farmhouse within the Lakewood Forest Preserve near Wauconda.

The district's main office now is in a 1920s-era house in the Independence Grove Forest Preserve near Libertyville.

The deal was celebrated by Marci Jumisko, president of a community group that supports the museum. She was thrilled the new site will have more than double the exhibition space of the current facility.

"We will be able to share more of what we have with the public," Jumisko said.

The $4.1 million price equates to about $40 per square foot. Renting office space of that type typically costs two to three times that amount, officials have said.

"(It's) a tremendous opportunity," said commissioner Pat Carey, a Grayslake Democrat.

Alternatively, building a new headquarters could cost more than $20 million, said Tom Hahn, the district's executive director.

Proponents say the purchase will save the district money in repairs and renovations the district's current office buildings need. It also will save an estimated 4,000 hours in staff driving time annually, Hahn said.

The board voted 20-3 to buy the 103,000-square-foot, three-story building. The opposing votes were cast by Republicans Diana O'Kelly of Mundelein and Suzi Schmidt of Lake Villa, and Democrat Michelle Feldman of Deerfield.

Feldman liked the Libertyville site as a location for a headquarters, but not for the museum. She said the board should have looked at more options, such as a traveling museum.

O'Kelly, whose district contains the current museum site, said she knows a new building for the museum is needed but explained she's heard from constituents who don't want the museum to move.

"Who knew people loved it so much there," she said. "I wish more people would attend it."

Schmidt did not explain her vote.

Forest board President Bonnie Thomson Carter said she believes the local populace will support the move.

"I think the people understand how important this move is," she said.

According to a timeline unveiled at the meeting, if plans are approved by Libertyville officials, forest district staffers could move in by January 2011 and the museum could relocate in 2012.

The museum move is expected to cost $2.6 million. It will be privately funded and won't happen until all the money is raised, officials insisted. About $1.3 million already is saved for the project, they said.

The money for the purchase will come from district savings and not the loans voters approved in 2008, officials said.