Canlan Sports exercises option for $3.75 million purchase of Libertyville indoor sports complex
Editor's note: The proposed purchase and sale agreement for the Libertyville Indoor Sports Complex does not include roof replacement as a credit. In the appraisal, the purchase price was adjusted to account for the roof condition but any replacement that may or may not be needed in the future is the responsibility of subsequent owners and not the village.
A yearslong effort to unload the main attraction of the Libertyville Sports Complex is in the final stage.
The village board will vote Tuesday on a purchase and sale agreement of the cavernous indoor complex at Route 45 just north of Peterson Road to Canlan Sports for $3.75 million. Minus credits, the village would net $3.125 million.
The Canadian firm secured a two-year lease with the village on April 30, 2021, with an option to buy. The firm was eager to revive the spacious facility and strengthen its brand in the suburbs.
After nearly a 16-month closure due to the coronavirus pandemic, the facility reopened July 1, 2021, as Canlan Sports.
Last October, the village agreed to reimburse Canlan the fronted cost to expand and reconfigure the parking lot if the property was sold, and half the cost if it was not. That project is about 80% complete with the final surface to be installed in spring.
Canlan in early December gave notice it would exercise the option per the lease agreement, and the parties have been negotiating since. Closing is anticipated by the end of March, according to the village. Canlan's purchase option expires June 30.
The purchase is proceeding, according to Michael Gellard, Canlan executive vice president.
"We think there is great potential for this facility to increase utilization, in many different areas, and we very much like the community," he said Monday.
Gellard added that Libertyville will fit nicely with Canlan's other Chicago-area facilities in Lake Barrington, West Dundee and Romeoville and make for efficient site visits from the corporate team.
Per the proposed agreement, $500,000 will be paid as a credit for the parking lot improvements against the purchase price. The cost exterior painting and transformer service repair also will be credited.
Approval of the purchase and sale agreement requires a two-thirds village board majority, but that is expected as it long has been a stated goal.
The 169,000-square-foot Indoor Sports Complex had been one of three elements of the collective 48-acre Libertyville Sports Complex, which opened in 2002.
A driving range/golf learning center was sold last year for development of two warehouse/industrial buildings. A village-owned parcel that had been leased for years as a mini-golf course still is available.
While the indoor facility broke even, the other elements have been a perennial drain on finances, requiring about a $1 million per year from general funds to pay the debt on the original loan.
What the village will do with the sale proceeds is to be determined, according to Finance Director Nick Mostardo. The outstanding bonds for the sports complex have interest rates of less than 2%, and it is unlikely those rates again will be available, he said.
Village officials will have to determine whether to use the sale proceeds to pay off the bonds, use it for other projects rather than borrow at a higher interest rate, or let the money sit and earn interest, which was 4.2% as of Monday, Mostardo said.
"All good options to have," he said.