Two car dealerships moving from Arlington Heights to Palatine
Napleton's Automotive Group will move two dealerships from Arlington Heights to a long-vacant Rand Road property owned by the village of Palatine where Menards previously operated.
Palatine village council members Monday night voted to sell the roughly 9 acres and 52,000-square-foot building to Napleton for $2.5 million, along with granting approvals for the dealerships and a car wash to be built. Company Chairman Stephen Napleton said he hopes to open in late 2019 or early 2020.
Napleton and Palatine are to close on the deal in October. Village Manager Reid Ottesen said having the two new-car dealerships on the Menards site will be “huge” for Palatine.
“It'll be one of the top four, five sales-tax generators in the village,” Ottesen said after Monday night's council session. “It's tremendous revenue for us. I think the other dealerships in that (Rand Road) corridor — you take Toyota, you take the Hyundai that just opened — they've been very, very successful. So, this is just going to add to that success.”
Palatine officials said a desire to control future development is why the village agreed to buy the Menards property for $8 million after the store closed in favor of a new Long Grove location in 2009. Ottesen said sales projections indicate the village could break even on the purchase five or six years after the Napleton dealerships open.
Citing space woes in Arlington Heights and a desire by brands to be in separate structures, Napleton said he found the Palatine site and an adjoining property desirable for an operation that will have a 24,900-square-foot Subaru dealership, a 17,362-square-foot Mazda building and a stand-alone, 5,000-square-foot car wash.
Napleton bought Roto Subaru Mazda on Rand Road near Olive Street in Arlington Heights in 2017. Napleton, which is seeking a Cook County property tax break for the project, expects to generate in Palatine more than the $55 million in sales it had in Arlington Heights in 2017.
“It's too old and too small,” Napleton said of the Arlington Heights location. “It's a dated facility that we've outgrown. And the manufacturers want first-class representation that we plan on giving them.”
To accomplish the Palatine project, Napleton will demolish the former Menards structure and an adjacent greenhouse and sales building from the now-closed Knupper Nursery and Landscape. Napleton bought the Knupper business and its 5 acres for $2.9 million, giving it about 14 acres for the project when combined with the Menards site.
Wolff's Flea Market has leased the Menards from the village for $120,000 a year for weekend sales since 2009, plus paying property taxes, maintenance costs and other expenses. Cook County records show Wolff's property taxes have fluctuated, with $65,120 paid for 2016, $111,194 for 2015 and $80,531 for 2014.