Lake in the Hills U-Haul plans to leave Dominick's space open for retail

The former Dominick’s store will remain open for a retailer to fill the space, and U-Haul International will use nearby suites as a self-storage area.

U-Haul International bought the shopping center that housed the former Dominick’s store for $5.05 million in March.

Lake in the Hills trustees heard a presentation Tuesday on U-Haul’s plans, and Trustee Bob Huckins said he was pleased.

“I’m excited for the use of it not going to be a storage facility but used for retail,” Huckins said. “The fact that they purchased it and are willing to work with us is exciting.”

U-Haul International representative Heather Skelton said the company is in talks with a retail company to take over the 72,000-square-foot space that housed Dominick’s.

“We have a solid tenant who is interested, and if that falls through for some reason, we would still market it as available,” Skelton said. “We do not have a signed lease agreement, but it’s a pretty solid lead we have.”

The south side of the building has 10,346 square feet of small shopping stores, including GNC, H&R Block and Miracle Ear. Skelton said U-Haul would like to occupy this space with a retail showroom, 60 indoor climate-controlled self-storage units and a truck-sharing space in the front parking lot.

“We would take these suites and make it one unit for our use,” Skelton said. “We would do a display in the front of cargo vans, pickup trucks [and] some of our smaller vehicles along Algonquin Road, and use the front-line area for a truck share.”

Zoning for the space would need to be changed for truck sharing and self-storage use, Skelton said.

Another building north on Randall Road has 16,720 square feet of space and was included in the sale. Its tenants include Einstein Bros. Bagels, Yumz Gourmet Frozen Yogurt and Jersey Mike’s Subs.

The tenants who would be displaced by U-Haul could be moved into the two suites available on the Randall Road property, Skelton said.

“Our intent is maybe to split the two suites and then move the three units completely over, but we’d work that out with them and have been in touch with all three,” Skelton said. “We are not just going to evict them.”

Skelton said she also has retail stores in West Dundee and Crystal Lake, and would be willing to work with the retailer so if he or she needed to shuffle customers, they have other locations nearby.

U-Haul next will be make its presentation to the Planning and Zoning Commission.

“If it’s retail, it’s certainly going to help us keep the revenue coming in and hopefully improve that intersection a lot,” Huckins said.