OTB coming next week to Glendale Hts., Prospect Hts.

Hawthorne Race Course is closing its off-track betting parlor at Adam's Roadhouse in Buffalo Grove this weekend, but it plans to open new locations in Glendale Heights and Prospect Heights next week, officials said Friday.

The Prospect Heights City Council last week approved an OTB at Players Bar and Grill, 1250 S. River Road near Milwaukee Avenue, while the Glendale Heights board Thursday night approved an OTB at the Shark City sports bar, 2240 Bloomingdale Road.

Hawthorne expects to get approval of licenses for the new locations at the Illinois Racing Board meeting Tuesday, said Jeff Kras, Hawthorne chief financial officer. To get licenses that it could transfer to the new locations, Hawthorne closed an underperforming OTB in Yorkville and the Buffalo Grove location, which was hurt when Adam's Roadhouse, 301 N. Milwaukee Ave., went into receivership and discontinued its restaurant operations last summer.

“We plan a soft opening Wednesday,” Kras said of the Prospect Heights location. “We are going into a temporary venue. We are building an addition that will be open in late summer, but until such time, we are moving into one of the dining rooms near the bar.”

Hawthorne still would like a Buffalo Grove location, Kras said, but the site it is considering at the village owned Village Bar & Grill may be too close to Arlington Park. A distance of 5 miles is required by law, but how the distance should be computed isn't clear, and Hawthorne needs a ruling from the racing board on the point, he said.

If the location is approved, Hawthorne could open an OTB there as soon as the second half of the year, but it would be required to move a license from an underperforming site, he said. He wouldn't specify which sites might be on the bubble.

“Obviously we would like to retain them in the village,” village Manager Dane Bragg said Friday.