Are Palatine's big-box vacancies the next to be filled?
For the first time since the Great Recession, more than 100 new licensed businesses opened in Palatine last year, and more may be coming to fill some of the village's largest vacancies, Mayor Jim Schwantz said Wednesday in his annual State of the Village address.
"We see the business community as a partner. Every dollar we can bring in sales tax dollars is one less dollar we have to levy through property taxes," Schwantz said in the address to the Palatine Area Chamber of Commerce.
According to the village, Palatine added 102 licensed businesses in 2015 and lost 100, marking the first time since 2007 there was a net gain.
Village officials shared updates on what may be coming at the two vacant Dominick's stores and the vacant Menards.
Assistant Village Manager Michael Jacobs said the Hobby Lobby at 223 E. Northwest Highway will move in to the former Dominick's in the Deer Grove Crossing Shopping Center. 615 E. Dundee Road. Jacobs said the move will not require village action and the Hobby Lobby will not occupy all of the former Dominick's.
A call to confirm the move with Hobby Lobby's corporate office in Oklahoma City was not returned.
The move will create a vacancy at the Palatine Plaza strip mall, but Jacobs said the occupancy rate at that center is high.
Jacobs said village officials met last month with representatives from Jewel, who are leasing the other vacant Dominick's, in the Regency Plaza shopping center at 720 W. Euclid Ave.
"The location down there unfortunately from a financial perspective doesn't make sense for (Jewel) to do that (move in) but they haven't totally ruled it out." he said. "Those that have been to that Dominick's store know that it needed a lot of updating."
Jewel representatives are looking for tenants they can sublease the store to and have received interest from businesses they declined to name, Jacobs added.
The village continues to search for a buyer for the former Menards store at 1775 N. Rand Road, which has been owned by Palatine since 2009.
In 2014, the village struck a deal that gave a developer one year to find a tenant for the space. But no tenants were found and the deal has expired.
"People in the commercial real estate world knows that space is available," Jacobs said. "If we can't generate some interest on our own we can get a broker later in 2016."
The village bought the property for $8 million after Menards opened a new store in Long Grove and closed the Palatine location. Since then, the property has been used by Wolff's Flea Market, which pays the village $120,000 a year. Wolff's also pays about $100,000 in yearly property taxes on the building.
The mayor's slideshow from his state of the village presentation is available on the village website, www.palatine.il.us.