Crystal Lake Chemtool building appears to be for sale

Following Monday’s explosion at a chemical plant in Rockton, several residents’ thoughts turned to the company’s facility in unincorporated Crystal Lake.

But the Chemtool Inc. site at 8200 Ridgefield Road appears to be for sale.

At 7 a.m. Monday, the Associated Press reported, emergency crews rushed to the scene of a fire at Chemtool Inc., 1165 Prairie Hill Road in Rockton, that sent “flames and huge plumes of thick black smoke high into the air and debris raining onto the ground,” prompting evacuations. The fire is expected to burn for several days.

About 70 employees were evacuated safely from the plant, and one firefighter suffered a minor injury, the AP reported, citing Rockton Fire Department Chief Kirk Wilson.

Chemtool manufactures fluids, lubricants and grease worldwide, according to its website.

Citing the company, the AP said it is the largest manufacturer of grease in the Americas. While it has production facilities in Rockton, Tehachapi, California, and Rio de Janiero, Brazil, according to Chemtool’s website, its research laboratories are located in Rockton and Crystal Lake.

But as of Tuesday, there was a for sale sign in front of the building at 8200 Ridgefield Road in unincorporated Crystal Lake, which according to Chemtool’s website, is a facility location. Attempts to reach someone using the phone number listed for the Crystal Lake facility were unsuccessful.

JLL Chicago, which offers commercial real estate services across the Midwest, including in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas and Michigan, was listed as the seller of the site on the for sale sign. A voicemail sent to the real estate agent with JLL selling the Crystal Lake Chemtool location was not returned on Tuesday afternoon.

A former listing for the site, which is no longer online, advertises the property at Ridgefield road as a class “B” production and warehouse facility with a gross building area of about 133,529 square feet, consisting of 122,529 square feet of production and warehouse storage and 11,000 square feet of office and lab space. The property totals 45.84 acres.

McHenry County does not have any active operating permits from Chemtool at this time, said Dennis Sandquist, McHenry County’s director of planning and development. The county’s Recorder of Deeds does not have any recent transactions published on its public database.

Founded in 1963 by James Athans, Chemtool Inc. moved into its present Crystal Lake facility in 1979. Chemtool later was bought by Lubrizol on Aug. 30, 2013.

Sandquist said he was thinking about the Crystal Lake location Monday when he first heard about the fire.

“Thank God it didn’t end [up] here at a facility in McHenry County,” he said.

In a statement Tuesday morning, Lubrizol said it secured and activated US Fire Pump, a third-party, specialty emergency response team, to travel to Rockton for support in extinguishing the fire. Fire departments from across Illinois’ Mutual Aid Box Alarm System also were called in to help battle the blaze, like DeKalb County’s MABAS six strike team, which includes an ambulance from DeKalb and Sycamore fire departments, according to the Daily Chronicle.

“We regret the impact on our neighbors and also are committed to supporting the community,” Lubrizol said in the statement. “We are working to determine the best ways to support our neighbors who evacuated or were affected.”

The Associated Press and Northwest Herald editor Emily Coleman contributed to this report.