Schaumburg reaches $700,000 deal to buy hot dog stand, billboard on village border
Schaumburg officials took a major step Wednesday toward fixing what they see as an eyesore at the village's northeast entrance - an abandoned, dilapidated hot dog stand and the highway-style billboard above it.
The property's owner has accepted the village's $700,000 offer for the ⅓-acre site at 1580 E. Algonquin Road, officials confirmed.
Located in unincorporated Cook County, the land is home to a Frankly Yours hot dog stand that's been vacant for seven years, as well as the advertising billboard.
A closing date is still unscheduled, but the contract calls for one within 30 days of signing.
"I'm excited," Mayor Tom Dailly said. "This is great. For all the things that have been happening in 2022, this is a great thing to look forward to in 2023."
Schaumburg Economic Development Director Matt Frank said he considers it realistic to get the land annexed by the village and made development-ready during the year ahead.
That will include the removal of the hot dog stand and the billboard, as well as the grass-seeding of the vacant land, he added.
Billboards are prohibited in Schaumburg, and this one has been considered as much a blight to that entrance to the village as the unmaintained building in front of it.
Apart from this site, the profile of Schaumburg's northeast corner has been steadily rising throughout the past two decades. That is expected to continue with the ongoing redevelopment of the former Motorola campus and the imminent start of an entertainment district around the village's 16-year-old convention center and adjoining Renaissance Hotel.
Dailly said he thinks it would be good to include a gateway sign on the site to let westbound motorists know the redevelopment they're about to see is in the village of Schaumburg.
Negotiating a deal for the site wasn't made any easier by the fact that even Cook County officials had been unable to locate its owner as recently as last summer to serve notice of code violations.
The Daily Herald also was unable to make contact with the property owner at that time, despite reaching out to the most recent attorney to represent it for tax purposes, the leasing agency for the billboard, and a lingering phone number to lease the now crumbling hot dog stand.
Many of the public improvements in that area of the village are being funded through a village-created tax increment financing district. But that money wouldn't be automatically eligible to pay for improvements at the northwest corner of Algonquin and Thorntree Lane, even if the village annexes the land, Frank said.
The TIF district could be amended to include the property, but it would require all the same procedures and notifications that were needed to establish the TIF district in the first place. Officials are considering whether that effort would be worthwhile, Frank added.