With hopes for a new industry in town, McHenry’s department of economic development has been working with the broker selling the former Brake Parts Inc. facility, director Doug Martin said.

“There is interest in it” from potential buyers, Martin said of the massive campus, adding that the way it’s being marketed, a buyer could purchase the corporate office building with one of the two warehouse facilities or all three together.

Brake Parts Inc. announced it was permanently closing its McHenry operations in early February, days after the owners of its parent company, First Brands, were indicted on fraud charges and months after its bankruptcy filing.

A total of 332 employees were informed they no longer had jobs, and another 57 were retained to wind down operations, according to a notice filed under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, Act with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

The last 12 remaining employees will be done on April 30, according to Martin. The city received an updated WARN Act notice recently with that information, and “the closing of the facility will be permanent,” according to Martin’s April 6 report to the McHenry City Council.

“Staff has been working with the broker and McHenry County Economic Development Corporation on the site, and there has been a lot of interest in the site, pending its full closure,” Martin said.

According to commercial brokerage website Colliers.com, interested parties can purchase – or lease – the corporate office building at 4400 Prime Parkway and 1380 Corporate Drive together, and 1100 Corporate Drive separately.

The office building has 41,703 square feet of space, and 1380 Corporate Drive is 246,297 square feet. The building at 1100 Corporate Drive has 376,110 square feet, according to the listing. Both warehouses have 28-foot ceilings.

The Corporate Drive buildings’ ceiling heights and loading docks with room for semi-trailer parking “are appealing” to companies in either warehouse, distribution or manufacturing, Martin said, calling it “a desirable piece of property.”

The Colliers listing also notes that the building is a designated foreign trade zone.