Interest in Menards site encourages Palatine

Palatine sees movement toward developing a piece of property on Rand Road that the village has owned since 2009.

The village and a potential developer have discussed retail use for the nine acres, which includes a 52,000-square-foot building that once housed a Menards on the northeast corner of Rand and Old Hicks roads.

“We’ve had some discussions with a developer who’s got other commercial property in the Northwest suburbs and Illinois,” said Michael Jacobs, deputy village manager. “There are end users they would like to pursue, but they want to formalize the agreement first.”

The potential developer came to the village through a real estate broker, he said.

The village recently issued a “notice of development opportunity” about the property, a requirement before any agreement for an exclusive developer is reached because the land is in a tax increment finance district. The Rand Corridor TIF stretches from Arlington Toyota at 2095 N. Rand to Walmart at 155 N. Rand.

Proposals are due by Friday, Nov. 22, after which they will be made public, and the village council will decide whether to pursue one.

“The village intends to select a developer/use and negotiate a redevelopment agreement with them,” says the notice on the village’s website, palatine.il.us.

“The property has challenges,” said Jacobs. “It wraps around Knupper Nursery, but some, not all of it, is visible from Rand Road. And there is access to a traffic light on a side street.”

The village purchased the property in 2009 with $8 million in bonds backed by TIF funds, and it has been for sale ever since.

“I think in general the economy’s picking up has increased interest again in development and in that corridor,” said Jacobs.

Wolff’s Flea Market rents the property for $10,000 a month, but that is recognized as an interim use, and both sides can terminate that agreement with notice, said Jacobs.