Northwest Suburban High School District 214 is preparing to sell the former Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59 headquarters property it acquired — once envisioned for a District 214 performing arts center — on the south side of Arlington Heights.
District 214 relocated its administrative offices to the two-story, 24,000-square-foot office building at 2123 S. Arlington Heights Road in 2022 during renovations of the district’s Forest View Educational Center just a few blocks away. All office staff returned to Forest View last May.
The district exercised a lease-to-purchase option in November 2022, paying a subsidiary of Mount Prospect-based developer Nicholas & Associates $5.245 million for the 6.5-acre site on South Arlington Heights Road. The developer paid District 59 $5 million for the property in 2016, just as the K-8 district was preparing to build its new administration center at 1001 Leicester Road in Elk Grove Village.
District 214 officials had a “grand vision” for the Arlington Heights Road site to be used for a new district office or community fine arts center with auditorium available to all district schools.
But it may come down to dollars and cents for the district, whose school board is set to vote Thursday to authorize Superintendent Scott Rowe to list the property for sale.
Northwest Suburban High School District 214 officials had a “grand vision” to build a district performing arts center on the site of the former Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59 headquarters. But amid financial concerns, District 214 may end up selling the property.
Christopher Placek/cplacek@dailyherald.com
“That would be wonderful,” Rowe said of the prospect of an arts building.
But he noted a growing list of $875 million in renovations to complete over the next decade at the district’s six aging schools.
“I won’t make a recommendation that we build or spend any resources on that property until we take care of the buildings that we currently have,” Rowe said. “I think that’s our priority right now.”
At a committee meeting last week, most board members favored a sale.
President Alva Kreutzer said talk of building a performing arts center goes back decades, but in light of the needed fixes to existing buildings, “to me, that’s more important.”
Vice President Lenny Walker said keeping the building is “pulling money away” from the district, to the tune of $90,000 a year for water and utilities.
But Bill Dussling said the district should hang onto it, hoping the value rises with current and future redevelopment along Arlington Heights Road. To the south is Bradford Allen and Moceri + Rozsak’s forthcoming gateway redevelopment of apartments and retail. To the north is an eight-acre plot of land where a 1970s-era office complex was torn down.
“We have a large piece of property that will fit into Arlington Heights’ future development in the southern corridor,” Dussling said. “(It) could be very advantageous.”
An office building owned by Northwest Suburban High School District 214 is along the South Arlington Heights Road corridor, where redevelopment is planned.
Christopher Placek/cplacek@dailyherald.com
If two-thirds of the board votes to adopt the resolution Thursday, the district will have 60 days to accept sealed bids. If the minimum asking price isn’t met, the board has a range of options: members could hire a real estate broker, lower the price, independently enter into negotiations with a potential buyer, or take it off the market.
A recent appraisal by MaRous & Company put the value of the old brick building and five adjoining parcels — including land that once contained Wellington banquets — at $3.6 million.
But Rowe said the board shouldn’t take anything less than what the district originally paid.