A 60-year, family-run business is for sale. It's a key part of downtown Libertyville
The pieces of a family-run business that evolved over 60 years in downtown Libertyville have been packaged for sale at $7.2 million.
With frontage on Milwaukee Avenue, Lake Street and Brainerd Avenue abutting the Metra rail commuter rail line, the offering is described by the listing agents as a rare opportunity in a thriving business district.
The four children of the late John Suydam have put the business and residential rental spaces that comprise Liberty Plaza on the market. Two family-owned homes on Lake Street and two neighboring homes with different owners also are part of the 2.14-acre, L-shaped package — making five parcels and three owners in all.
“They really want to make sure whoever buys the property does something good for Libertyville with it, because it's their dad's legacy,” said Meg Pucino, a broker with Baird & Warner, which is listing the property.
Sisters Cheryl Suydam-Monken and Sandy Miller said their late father, John Suydam, was a Libertyville native who grew up in a house his father built on Johnson Avenue across the railroad tracks from the property now for sale.
He was a jack of all trades and an entrepreneur involved in a number of ventures. But what became Liberty Plaza was the focus.
“It was my mom and dad's everything,” said Miller, who has been managing the holdings, which include 19 commercial rental spaces, for the last 12 years. But at 73, she was looking for a change.
Their mother, Sara, died years earlier, and John died in 2020 at age 89.
A family meeting was called.
“I said, 'Who's going to take my job?' and no one answered,” Miller said.
All four kids still live in the area, and the decision to sell was “extremely difficult,” she said.
The children feel the property could be the cornerstone of a major renovation that would benefit the area and fulfill the unrealized dreams of their parents, Miller said.
A new three-story development with ground-floor commercial space and office or residential space above are among the concepts in the village comprehensive plan.
“What we're asking for, it is substantial because it's for redevelopment,” Sandy Miller said. “We never thought it would be what it is.”
After serving in Korea, John Suydam worked odd jobs a few years before leasing the former Nantz Oil service station with his brother, Tom, in about 1955. John bought the gas station in the late '50s and began a series of acquisitions and projects.
Four cement block buildings behind the gas station were remodeled into 1,200-square-foot commercial rentals. Suydam built the first automatic car wash in town behind the gas station but replaced it three years later with another commercial building.
The two homes on Lake Street and a six-unit commercial building followed.
The last endeavor was the modification of Nantz Oil into the Whistle Stop Coffee Shop. In later years, it became a Caribou coffee shop and now houses Birdy's Coffee House & Little Kitchen.