A huge former bank building in downtown McHenry still is vacant, and the city has gone back to the drawing board to get it redeveloped after a proposal to turn the parcel into a 7-Eleven convenience store and gas station was withdrawn.

Although the McHenry Planning and Zoning Commission gave a narrow recommendation to move the gas station plan forward in a 4-3 vote after a June 2020 meeting - despite many members of the public opposed - the property owners never took it to the McHenry City Council for a final green light, city officials said.

Now the city is again in talks with the property owners about how to boost the appeal of the former First Midwest Bank at 3510 W. Elm St.

McHenry County and Illinois Secretary of State records indicate the owners are limited liability companies associated with Mokena-based Location Finders International, also known as LFI.

Demolishing the abandoned commercial building in front of the former bank, which has been vacant for several years, is on the table as a way to raise the profile of the site, which sits at the intersection of Routes 120 and 31, McHenry Mayor Wayne Jett said.

The owners of the abandoned white store are the same as the bank building.

“We are in close contact with the property owner of the bank and the abandoned gas station on the corner,” Jett said. “We are working to have the gas station demolished to give more visibility of what this property could be.

“We are always reaching out to developers, and a few are interested, but the fact that this would cost so much to purchase and demo[lish] has scared many away.”

In a brief phone conversation Monday, Diane Menza of LFI, who participated in the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting last year, said 7-Eleven withdrew its proposal after the retailer’s “operations people” reviewed the plan.

After the initial 4-3 approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission, the City Council, which initially had some issues with the plan, had warmed up to an updated version of the 7-Eleven idea by last October.

“With how people are walking up and down Green Street, a new use in the bank building definitely could add to the positive atmosphere that is going on on Green Street,” 1st Ward Alderman Vic Santi said. “What they showed us in their planning, I was very positive with the development. I wanted it to move forward to a [new] Planning and Zoning meeting and come back to us for a vote.”

But the revamped plan was never brought before the commission again, with the item put on agendas twice last year but then tabled after the meetings started at the developer’s request, city meeting minutes show.

When asked whether the demolition of the smaller white building by the bank would enhance the site’s prospects for redevelopment, LFI’s Menza said no and referred further questions to city staff.

So far, the city hasn’t pushed too hard for the demolition of the smaller building, McHenry Economic Development Director Doug Martin said.

“Obviously that gas station on the corner is an eyesore. And it’s part of the property. But [demolition] would definitely open up the property some and give it some visibility,” Martin said. “At this point we haven’t looked into doing that, into moving in that direction. If that’s a direction that we decide to move in, we’ll certainly have discussions with the property owner.”

Attempts to reach other people associated with the stalled redevelopment of the site, including a representative of Chicago-based GW Properties who participated in a city meeting last year, were unsuccessful.

Earlier this year, 7-Eleven closed on a $21 billion acquisition of 3,800 Speedway stores, and city staff theorized the retailer may have paused expansions. 7-Eleven did not return an inquiry from the Northwest Herald into whether the McHenry project was shelved because of the acquisition.

Although the bank building may also have to be torn down for the site to be reused, it faces other challenges, too, McHenry officials said.

A big one is the site’s limited space for parking, which could prevent a successful residential development unless underground parking - which is expensive to construct - could be implemented, city staff said.

“We would love to see something really cool,” McHenry Community Development Director Ross Polerecky said. “There are many issues with the site, including parking. The building itself is just enormous. It’s 60,000 square feet. It’s being marketed. That’s all I can tell you. And nobody is picking up on it.”

The city is open to seeing a commercial or residential use of the property, Polerecky said.

Downtown McHenry, similar to commercial centers in other cities, has become more oriented toward retail, dining and entertainment businesses than office space, a trend some predict will be accelerated by the pandemic in many urban areas.

“We’ve had a lot of success in getting rid of some of our dilapidated structures in and around our downtown, so there are a lot of parcels that are available for development in the downtown right now,” Polerecky said. “This is one of those. Unfortunately, it has a massive structure sitting on it.”