HUNTLEY, IL – After more than 25 years as a major retail site, the former Huntley Outlet Center property may now be changed to an industrial location.
The village’s seven-member Plan Commission was divided on the issue of retail vs. industrial on this site at a meeting on March 11. But they did vote 4-3 in favor an creating an industrial-warehousing activity at the former retail-commercial site. It was an advisory decision, the village board is the final authority on what happens to this property.
Buildings in beige show warehouse locations.
Since the outlet center closed in 2017, the village and a couple of area developers have been discussing what to do with the property, which is now vacant land located along the north side of the I-90 interstate, south of Freeman Road, and a quarter-mile east of Route 47. About 60 of the original 74 acres occupied by the mall remain vacant for redevelopment. General RV has bought 14 acres of former mall property on the far west side of the former mall site. It is converting it into additional maintenance and parking space for its recreational vehicle sales and service operations.
At the same time, discussions have centered on whether the remaining acreage should be redeveloped as retail or changed to industrial. There has been some disagreement among the parties, and it surfaced at the Plan Commission meeting on Mar. 11. The Prime Group Inc. has owned the property since before the mall was built in the 1980s. Now the lead organization in a development group called the Capital Companies LLC, Prime wants to redevelop the site for industrial warehouse distribution.
Prime has made six requests, and they are: 1) Amend the village I-90/IL 47 Gateway Plan, announced last year, to change the designation of the property from Mixed Commercial to Light Industrial; 2) Remove the property from the Gateway Planned Development District; 3) Rezone the subject site to ORI Office/Research /Industrial-Light Manufacturing; 4) Grant a special use permit for warehousing, storage and distribution; 5) Grant another special use for Preliminary Planned Unit Development; 6) Approve a preliminary plat of Subdivision.
After a lengthy discussion at the March 11 meeting, voting in favor of all six requests were commission chairman Tom Kibort, and commissioners Darci Chandler, Robert Chandler, and Ron Hahn. Voting no were Commission vice chair Dawn Ellison and commissioners Terra De Baltz and Lori Nichols. The recommendation now goes to the village board for final consideration at a date to be announced.
ORI zoning already exists on property immediately to the east of the former mall site, where Weber Grill recently constructed a 750,000-square-foot industrial warehouse facility.
Prime is proposing to construct three warehouse distribution buildings – two with 245,000 square feet of space, and one small structure with 177,000 square feet.
Village documents say the three buildings are proposed to be built as speculative structures, meaning that no arrangements have been made yet with any firms to occupy the spaces. The buildings would contain truck dock high doors on two sides with office space located at the four corners of each building.
In a report prepared for the March 11 meeting, the village development staff said, “This site is included as part of the I-90/IL 47 Gateway Plan that was approved by the village board in December, 2017. The plan identifies the future land use for the property as Mixed Commercial. The designation states that the area should target a mix of commercial development that serves as a regional draw, such as general retailers, sporting goods stores, restaurants, and service uses.
“The Planned Development district was created as a result of the Prime Group Annexation Agreement of 1992, which annexed property that is now Sun City, the Village Green retail center (Jewel Store anchor), the auto mall, Huntley Corporate Park, and the former Huntley Outlet Center. The annexation agreement expired in 2012; however, the Planned Development District and the zoning districts and regulations that were created by the annexation agreement were previously incorporated into the village’s Zoning Ordinance. The ORI zoning district is not included within the planned Development District, which necessitates the need to remove the subject site from the Planned Development District to allow for rezoning from C-2 Regional Retail to Office/Research/Industrial.”
