Mundelein flips car wash site to owners of proposed brewery and restaurant

Just weeks after finalizing a deal to buy a former car wash in town, Mundelein officials on Monday agreed to sell the land to a company planning to operate a restaurant and brewery nearby.

The Tonality Brewing Co. will buy the land at 167 N. Seymour Ave. for about $138,075 - the same sum the village spent on the property in May. Tonality plans to operate in the former village fire station just to the north at 169 N. Seymour.

Tonality intends to raze the six-bay car wash building and turn the half-acre site into a parking lot.

The business that once operated there was called the Watertower Car Wash. It has been closed since at least 2015.

In addition to being south of the old fire station and a water tower, the parcel is west of the village-owned Archer Business Center, where the Tighthead Brewing Co. and other businesses now operate, and it isn't far from village hall and the village's Metra station.

Mundelein officials have been working for years to encourage private redevelopment in that area.

Tonality representatives announced last year that they plan to purchase the old fire station, which most recently had served as a public works maintenance garage, and operate a business there. The two-story structure was built in the 1940s.

Officials agreed to sell the old station to Tonality for about $340,000, and they offered tax rebates and other financial incentives to make it happen.

Tonality has until Sept. 15 to close the purchases of the car wash and fire station properties.