Carol Stream recycling plant up for sale or lease
The owner of a Carol Stream property containing a shuttered recycling plant is offering the 11-acre site for sale or lease.
The DuPage County Recycling Center operated in the village for more than 25 years until Waste Management closed the plant in December. At the time, a company spokeswoman said a "business decision" led to the closing of the center along Center Avenue, west of Schmale Road and near the village's border with Glendale Heights.
The Texas-based company leased the 40,000-square-foot plant from a real estate firm. The former tenant moved out of the building about two weeks ago, said Irv Gilner, who is representing a "large national developer" who owns the property personally.
Gilner said the owner is willing to accept inquires from prospective tenants who would reuse the center or developers who would demolish the plant and construct a new building.
"It's a great location," said Gilner, executive vice president of tenant advisory services at Transwestern, a Texas-based real estate company with offices in Chicago.
DuPage County opened the recycling center in an industrial park in 1991. County board members approved the sale of the plant in 2002 for $3.25 million to a company that was then called Ridge Realty Group.
Property tax bills on the building were addressed last year to Ridge Carol Stream LLC in Chicago, according to county records.
Wetland on the western portion of the property falls under the jurisdiction of the Army Corps of Engineers and could influence plans for a redevelopment project, village planners say.
"That will kind of determine or dictate what would be done if they were to go the redevelopment route," said Tom Farace, Carol Stream's planning and economic development manager. "They would have to maintain the wetland or potentially do some mitigating of the wetland even if they were to redevelop the property."
Flood Brothers, a waste hauler that provides curbside refuse and recycling collection for residents, used the center, said Tia Messino, assistant to Carol Stream's village manager. The company is now taking items to other facilities, including Dukane Transfer in West Chicago and Midwest Compost in Elgin.
Waste Management also spread its service needs across its other locations.
"For residents in unincorporated areas that were dropping off their recyclables, there has not been a convenient replacement option," Messino said in an email.
Some residents have started to take their items to drop-off bins in Elgin or Naperville, Messino said. For recycling specialty items, the village is recommending that residents consult a DuPage County recycling guide to look for alternative centers.