Donation renews Buffalo Grove's hopes for shuttered car dealership
The site of a long-dormant Rohrman auto dealership in Buffalo Grove has been donated to a Purdue University foundation, which is now looking for a buyer, village officials said.
That's good news for the village, which would like to see new commercial development on the property, officials said.
The approximately 16-acre former auto dealership site at 915-935 W. Dundee Road and 332 N. Arlington Heights Road is being marketed by the CBRE Group.
"We believe that their intent is to try and sell the property as quickly as they can," said Deputy Village Manager Christopher Stilling.
"It's one of the larger sites that we have remaining that can accommodate a redevelopment," he said.
The village has been trying to spark interest from developers. However, feedback indicated the previous owner's expectations were unrealistic, Stilling said.
The property was last used in about 2015, when it was a Rohr Max used car facility.
"We would love to see a retail sales tax-generating type of use of the property," Stilling said. "Over the years, we have actively approached just about every car dealership that we can imagine to see if there was any interest. There hadn't been much at the time, but we do get inquiries every now and then.
"The car dealership industry is fickle, in the sense that there are certain rights to certain dealers and locations," he said.
Village Manager Dane Bragg said officials know the brokers representing the site, having worked with them on other projects.
"Right now the broker is looking at potential prospects for the site and has been communicating with our team about on a weekly basis in terms of what's out there. It could happen fast. it could happen slow. It just depends on the market, and obviously the market is very peculiar right now for commercial development," he said.
The property is slated for commercial in Buffalo Grove's strategic plan. But Bragg said if there were potential for a mixed-use site, the planning and zoning commission and the village board would seriously entertain that.