Kane County told to vacate old Montgomery Ward property

By James Fuller
7/17/2009

A strong-arm maneuver to buy the old Montgomery Ward site in St. Charles has gotten Kane County an eviction notice from the site's owner.

The Kane County Circuit Court Clerk has used the 109,000-square-foot building as an office since the county began leasing the property back in 2001. The county has always had an eye on buying the property.

County board attorney Ken Shepro said New York-based Rockward Associates currently owns the site. The county pays the lease and the taxes on the site.

That's a total cost of about $250,000 a year as of February 2008 - about $100,000 in rent and $150,000 in property taxes. The county also spent about $2 million in furniture and building improvements on the site when it moved in.

That lease agreement began to unravel as the county's frustration grew with slow negotiations to purchase the site. In February 2008, the county initiated condemnation proceedings on the site, a tactic to force the sale.

In response, the owners have now sent the county an eviction notice. It demands that the county begin paying rent on the property at a rate of $9.50 per square foot ­per year - or get out by Aug. 31. That's about $1.04 million a year.

The notice is only the first step in any eviction. Only if the county doesn't vacate by Aug. 31 is there a potential for the eviction to move to the court system, Shepro said.

Shepro also said the idea that the county will pay the rent or vacate the property is laughable.

"If they want rent, then we could say, 'OK, we'll go,'" Shepro said. "What do they really think is going to happen? Then they'll have no rent, and we wouldn't be paying the real estate taxes, either. This is definitely kind of a your-mother-wears-army-boots move on their part."

Meanwhile, the condemnation is still only in the discovery phase and awaits a judge to place a value on the site.

No matter what happens, St. Charles Mayor Don DeWitte said, city officials have kept an eye on the property in the hopes of returning it to retail use if it ever becomes available.

"We have had ongoing and numerous discussions with the county regarding the possibility of putting that property back into a sales tax-generating status," DeWitte said Thursday. "Clearly, because of its proximity to Randall Road, we believe its location would be best served generating sales taxes."

Rockward Associates could not be reached for comment.