Coworking space planned for former youth club site in downtown Grayslake

A concept catering to the new realities of how people work is being planned for an old municipal building in downtown Grayslake.

The village board recently approved the $272,000 sale of the former police station at 151 Hawley St. to Mundelein businessman Lawrence "Mac" Goodwin.

Goodwin, who opened The Office Clubhouse coworking space on Route 45 in Mundelein in 2018, was looking to expand when one of one of his customers suggested Grayslake.

"Remote work has become the norm, and if you talk to any millennial, it's the first question they ask in a job interview," said Goodwin, a former Citibank executive.

The village has owned the building since the late 1970s, according to Chris Sparkman, assistant village manager. It had been the Grayslake police station, was leased to the park district and for 11 years housed the The Oasis, a nonprofit youth center.

The Oasis closed in April 2019 and the village has been using the building for temporary storage to house the Grayslake Historical Society's artifact collection.

In Mundelein, Goodwin converted a former hair salon to a 1,900-square-foot workplace for rent, offering individual spaces, conference rooms and more features.

"We're pay-as-you-go," he told a potential customer Friday who had called seeking information. "We're not like a gym membership - you're not locked into anything."

The Office Clubhouse is located on the northern edge of downtown Mundelein. Goodwin said business was going "pretty well" in 2019 but the coronavirus pandemic nearly forced him to close.

The need for remote workspace has doubled the past two years, Goodwin said, and he has been exploring options to expand.

"They're incubators. They're accelerators," Goodwin said of workspace businesses.

Margot Lyon, a frequent customer and Grayslake resident of 18 years, told Goodwin about the shuttered Oasis building.

"Just on a whim, I reached out to the village and asked if they were interested in selling that facility," Goodwin said. "I have a deal in place to purchase the property."

Lyon, director of a nonprofit organization, said she's used The Office Clubhouse three days a week the past three years.

"Mac's business model really fills a niche," she said, adding the location away from Mundelein's center of activity is not optimum.

"I love this space, but I've got to get in my car to go anywhere," she said. That's not the case with the former Oasis building which is centrally located in downtown Grayslake.

"In two minutes, I think you can walk to 10 options for lunch," Lyon said.

At 4,700 square feet, the Grayslake building is more than twice the size of The Office Clubhouse.

"They want to be able to walk out the door into some kind of vibrant space," Goodwin said of customers.

Will he be moving the business from Mundelein?

"That's a wonderful question, I can't answer right now," Goodwin said. "I've got so much blood, sweat and tears (invested), it would be like losing a child."

Sparkman said the transaction hasn't officially closed, but all the documents have been signed by both parties.

No planning or zoning public hearing would be required to convert the space, but permits would be needed for any major work done to remodel/update the existing building, he added.