'We weren't going to let it go': Industrial developer drops bid to buy Medinah subdivision

This story has been updated to correct the source of a June letter to Medinah residents.

For almost six months, Medinah neighbors have worked to block a developer's bid to buy out their homes.

They planted black-and-red protest signs around town, launched letter-writing campaigns and faced down a multibillion-dollar goliath.

In the end, their efforts prevailed.

Itasca officials say they've received a letter from Transwestern Development indicating that the company has "decided not to pursue acquisition and redevelopment" of the Medinah Terrace subdivision.

Transwestern executives were scheduled to give a presentation on the project to the village's community development committee Tuesday night. Instead, the meeting has been canceled, and Medinah residents who fought to preserve their unincorporated hamlet are breathing easier.

"The fact that we got Transwestern to pull out, Itasca has to understand that if they come after us with another developer, whether it's developer A, B or C, we're going to fight them again, and we're going to fight back even harder," Susie vander Nat said.

Transwestern had proposed tearing down her home and nearly 150 others to make way for an industrial park that was to be built over three phases. The Houston-based developer wanted to annex the 138-acre area into the village of Itasca.

Transwestern Vice President Ted Staszak did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. But in a letter to Itasca Village Administrator Carie Anne Ergo, Staszak explained why the company abandoned its bid.

"Transwestern Development Company has made the decision that, primarily due to changing market conditions, our pursuit of a potential redevelopment of Medinah Terrace is not economically feasible," Staszak and Darcie Fankhauser, a regional partner, wrote. "We will no longer pursue purchasing any of the homes in our Phase 1 area or any other homes in the Medinah Terrace location."

Transwestern has knocked down residential subdivisions in neighboring Wood Dale to build massive warehouses. But in Medinah, longtime residents are fiercely protective of the town's unique character and autonomy. The small community has no municipal leaders.

"We just kind of govern ourselves when we have problems like this," said Carol Kooken, 65, a retired teacher who grew up and still lives in Medinah. "We can come together, and everybody's voice counts the same."

Neighbors banded together this summer when Transwestern sent letters to some, but not all, of the residents in the subdivision, offering to pay each of them $22.50 per square foot for their properties.

Opponents, in turn, invited residents to sign letters stating that they would reject any buyout offers from Transwestern.

"I can tell you that from the beginning we had a majority of the entire project area on our side who were unwilling to sell, and we maintained that," vander Nat said. As she collected signatures, vander Nat said, she sent the letters to real estate brokers at Transwestern.

"We had a checkerboard effect, so the 'no's' that we had were evenly distributed throughout the project area," vander Nat said. "So that would make it very difficult, even if our numbers weren't as high as they were, for a developer to come in and kind of snake their way in and out."

Transwestern targeted homes in an area bound by Thorndale Avenue to the north, Hilltop Drive to the east, Medinah Road to the west and the Metra Milwaukee-West rail lines to the south.

Ergo, Itasca's administrator, said Tuesday "the village has no plans to pursue commercial development" in the area.

"From the outset, the village indicated that any unincorporated Transwestern development was in the hands of the residents who live in the area," Ergo said.

Still, some residents remain wary, but united. The village identified the unincorporated area "for future annexation and commercial development," according to a June letter from Transwestern.

"Unfortunately, sometimes history repeats itself, and I want to make sure that I'm ready if it does again," said Kooken, who on Tuesday felt elated, but "cautiously optimistic."

"A lot of friendships and bonds were formed through this," vander Nat said, "and I think that Itasca greatly underestimated that that would happen."

Built circa 1840, the vander Nat home originally belonged to a family of New Englanders, the Meachams, some of the first settlers in northeastern DuPage County. Along with her husband, Arnold, vander Nat spent almost four years restoring their historic farmhouse.

The couple didn't receive a formal offer from Transwestern, but their prominent Medinah Road home - painted "smoky purple" - fell within the footprint of a second phase of potential industrial development. Situated on an acre, the vander Nat house would fetch $980,100 at $22.50 per square foot.

But vander Nat and her husband were adamantly opposed to selling.

"We loved it from the beginning, and we just weren't going to let it go. It's as simple as that," vander Nat said. "We weren't going to let it go at any cost."