ROCHELLE — The City of Rochelle hasn’t seen any recent developer interest in the former site of Hickory Grove at 1127 N. 7th St., City Manager Jeff Fiegenschuh said May 15.

The Hickory Grove building demolition was completed in early 2021 and the land has been vacant since. The city assumed ownership of the deteriorating building in early 2020 for $1 with the intention of demolishing it and seeing development of the property. The building was previously owned by the Ogle County Civic Center Authority (OCCCA) board, which was under the Ogle County Board umbrella. The city decided to purchase the site so it could control it and likely would’ve had to deal with it later if it was abandoned due to OCCCA being in financial trouble. 

Since the demolition and site clearing, the city has seen limited interest in the site and the city council did reject a formal proposal from one developer for a mixed-use development. The city also saw informal interest from a grocery store in the property, which did not materialize.

Work is still ongoing on a land swap agreement between the city, the Comfort Inn & Suites hotel next door and the Concord Towers condo association. There are four parking spaces that the hotel owns that are on the Hickory Grove property that the city wants. The condos want access to a new garbage corral so their residents can get their garbage removed. The hotel operator wants property for an outdoor pool. 

Fiegenschuh said he wants to see that land swap resolved before the property is sold and developed.

“We want to have those parking spaces because it squares the property off,” Fiegenschuh said. “And the hotel needs some additional space for a swimming pool and the condo association wants to make sure it has access to its garbage. There's kind of three different issues going on. It's out of our hands and those entities need to come to an agreement. I think they're close, and the condo board has to vote on it. We're taking a wait-and-see approach. I think right now what we've talked about is maybe allowing food truck vendors and maybe having that be a location for public events.”

The city hasn’t had discussions on the Hickory Grove property in recent months due to other projects taking precedence, Fiegenschuh said. The property’s stable state has allowed the city to reprioritize after it was a large concern when the blighted Hickory Grove building stood on it. 

The city previously discussed engaging a marketing firm to find a developer for the site, but that has not yet taken place. 

“There was a grocer that was looking at that location at one point, but ultimately they decided it wasn't an appropriate area for it,” Fiegenschuh said. “The Hickory Grove property is not that large and there wasn't enough square footage for them. It was ALDI. They decided to remodel instead. There has not been any real interest. When we first took the building down, there were a couple of local developers that approached us. The council had a proposal that it decided not to approve. Since then, we haven't had any outreach. We've had developers reach out to us about other locations, specifically the Sullivan's building and some other areas, but not Hickory Grove.”

Fiegenschuh said the Hickory Grove property may be “a little small for something like a grocery store”, and a small amount of the frontage of the property will be lost to the state for right of way when a planned Illinois Route 251 reconstruction and widening project takes place in coming years.

The mayor and city council will decide what happens to the property in the future, and the city is content to keep the property in its current state until it finds something that works for the community, Fiegenschuh said.

“It's nice to have it in a stable state,” Fiegenschuh said. “We just have to keep it mowed and looking nice right now. We've heard good things from folks that live in the condos about liking the open green space and not having that old facility. So far I think everyone's been happy with, at a minimum, having the old facility demolished. But we'd like something there someday that the community and the city can be proud of and support. If something comes our way and the council doesn't think it's a good fit, then the property will remain vacant until something else comes up. That facility never paid property taxes, and the site looks a lot better than it did before. We removed a blight. We had a grant to demolish it. Taking it on didn't remove any money from the tax rolls, because it wasn't on the tax rolls to begin with.”