Wheaton hopes to sell Main Street building to developer

For roughly two decades, the two-story brick building at 111-113 N. Main St. in Wheaton has sat vacant.

City officials hope that will change this year when they sell the building to someone who promises to convert the ground floor into a retail use and the second floor into an office or residential unit.

Jim Kozik, the city's director of planning, said prospective buyers are welcome to visit the 3,200-square-foot property at 10 a.m. Thursday or at 3 p.m. May 21.

The city gained ownership of the building in 2006 after six years of condemnation proceedings. Kozik said the process began because the city was upset with the previous owner's failure to develop the property.

Around the same time, the city also gained ownership of a building at 109 N. Main St. through condemnation. It was sold for $200,000 in February 2012 and a salon opened in the space last year, Kozik said.

The building at 111-113 N. Main St. contains about 1,300 square feet of retail space on the ground floor and a two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment on the second floor.

Kozik said the city hopes to sell the building "as-is" to someone who would immediately renovate the structure and use the ground floor for retail and the upper floor for an office or residential unit.

"We're not interested in selling it to someone who would buy it as an investment and sit on for it for 10 years," he said. "That's exactly what we don't want."

He said having the space upstairs is appealing because it could be rented out, giving the owner some additional money to start a business on the lower level.

"There's been a lot of interest so far," he said. "It's a great location. It's a nice looking building from the outside."

The city is now accepting mixed-use proposals for the building. They must be submitted by 5 p.m. Friday, May 30, to the city's Planning and Economic Development Department. The proposals will then be reviewed by the city council in June.

The council will select a proposal based off the requirements in a "request for proposal packet" that is available on the city's website. Some of the criteria for the proposals include a purchase price, a timetable for expected occupancy and financial capability.

For information, visit www.wheaton.il.us or contact Kozik at (630) 260-2008.