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Mount Prospect moves ahead on strip mall demolition

The Mount Prospect village board has hired a company to demolish a strip shopping center often called a blight on the downtown.

The board on Tuesday night awarded a contract for $296,500 to Albrecht Enterprises to tear down Central Plaza at the northwest corner of Central and Elmhurst roads.

Long dormant and often limping along with one tenant, the strip mall has been abandoned by its owners. No one has stepped up to claim the center, which last seems to have been owned by Midwest Bank and Trust. After that bank's assets were acquired by FirstMerit Bank, FirstMerit assumed the burden of the property taxes but would not claim ownership.

"This has been a long time coming," Community Development Director William Cooney said.

Albrecht was one of four bidders for the work. Demolition should be completed by Labor Day, he said. The 5,400-square-foot basement will be filled with 3-inch stones, he said.

"It stabilizes the site better, and it also provides material that can be re-used in the hopeful new construction that will be taking place in 2016," Cooney said.

The next step will be addressing environmental issues facing the site, including residue from a dry cleaner, heating oil tanks and asbestos.

Cooney said the village will hire an environmental firm to remove contaminated soils and obtain a letter verifying the site is safe from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

"The goal is really to have that group come right after this group," Cooney said.

Once all of the work has been completed, the village will put a lien on the property to recover its costs. With cleanup costs and legal fees, he said, "We could be up north certainly of $500,000."

Trustees raised various questions at the meeting, including whether the village would be saddled with the property.

"It does go through a public auction," Cooney said. In the public auction, he said, the village would have the first bid. "Someone has to bid above us. If they don't, we get the property."

If the village receives the property, it can then sell it to a developer.

"Either way we will recoup our costs," said Trustee Michael Zadel.

"On the face of it, it looks like a lot of money," Mayor Arlene Juracek said. "But it is money that has to be spent in order to make the site safe and usable and salable."

Trustee Steven Polit wondered what would happen if the owner showed up to reclaim his property. Cooney said a default order injunction for demolition the village has obtained in Cook County circuit court would protect the village.

"As a resident of that neighborhood, I'm very excited to see us moving forward," said Trustee Colleen Saccotelli. "I'm excited to see what will be there in the future. I think it's going to be a great part of the downtown and really enhance it."

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