ST. CHARLES – A factory that for five decades manufactured products on the city's far west side has been razed.
And in its place, a developer hopes to soon build new offices for businesses seeking a new home in St. Charles.
Last week, contractors hired by Schaumburg-based developer JCF Real Estate began demolishing the factory formerly operated by Cardinal Industries. That work was completed this week.
Cardinal had produced laminate products at the factory north of Route 64 and west of Randall Road since the late 1940s. Cardinal has relocated its production operations to a facility on Wooley Road in Lily Lake.
JCF purchased the 50-acre site and last year and set to work redeveloping the former Cardinal property into the Corporate Reserve of St. Charles. When completed, that project would bring more than 500,000 square feet of new office space to the area. Plans also include space for new restaurants, new retail and possibly even a hotel.
But just what is built on the site – and when – will depend on who is willing to build, said Stephen Chrastka, vice president for leasing at JCF.
JCF has already erected two one-story office buildings on the site, building both on speculation to offer a demonstration of what tenants and buyers might expect.
Last December, JCF completed a deal with Gardner Publications, a Cincinnati-based publisher of trade magazines and industrial Web sites, for office space in one of its buildings. The deal marked the first such lease completed by JCF since beginning the project.
However, Chrastka said, JCF has been talking to a number of other organizations and is nearing completion of a deal with a large company. He would not identify the prospective tenant, saying a deal must be complete before that could happen. But the tenant would be a "full-building tenant."
Work on the site will continue through this year regardless of who signs on, Chrastka said.
"There will be a lot of dirt being moved," he said.
The next phase of that work began with the demolition of the former Cardinal buildings.
However, any construction on the site occupied by the Cardinal facilities would be "build-to-suit," meaning the work would not begin until JCF has a deal with a tenant in hand.
Chris Aiston, St. Charles' economic development director, said the project would rank as one of the largest of its kind ever developed in St. Charles.
"As far as a mixed use/office campus, undoubtedly, yes," Aiston said.
He said the city is watching progress on the site with great interest.
With Cardinal's industrial facility now removed from the site, Aiston said the city also envisions converting the rail spur that formerly delivered supplies to the factory to a bicycle trail or some other pedestrian use.
The rail spur runs from Tyler Road and across Randall Road to the Corporate Reserve site.
"That was the last industrial user that relied on that rail spur," Aiston said. "Since there will be no rail service west of Tyler, our plan calls for new uses for that old rail line."
