School District U-46 plans to spend $2.4 million to buy the David C. Cook Publishing House property in Elgin for use as a new elementary school location.
School board members are expected to approve a deal April 22 to purchase the 850 N. Grove Ave. site as well as sell a vacant school building in Streamwood for $1.2 million.
Under the Cook proposal, the district would have a 120-day due diligence period before the sale is finalized and and the publishing company would be allowed to lease its building through Jan. 31, 2025, Deputy Superintendent of Operations Ann Williams told the school board Monday. The district will use the lease time to have the new school designed, she said.
The purchase is part of the Unite U-46 initiative under which the district’s oldest buildings are being retired and replaced with modern schools, sixth-grade students are being moved into the same middle school buildings as seventh- and eighth-graders, early learning programs are added being to some elementary schools, and all school buildings are being evaluated and improved.
The school to be built on the 9.2-acre Cook site will replace McKinley Elementary School at 258 Lovell St., about four blocks away from the new school property. McKinley, built in 1887 on a 2.4-acre lot, will close at the end of the 2026-27 school year and be demolished, Williams said.
Steve Fitzgerald, president of the Northeast Neighborhood Association, said U-46 staff have offered to meet with residents to discuss the project prior to the April 22 board vote.
“We are always excited by any projects with potential to enhance our neighborhood,” Fitzgerald said. “NENA has taken an active interest in the DC Cook property since before the main building was demolished and hoped for a suitable repurposing of the structure.”
The 120-year-old main building was empty for more than 25 years before being demolished in 2021 when no buyer could be found.
Cook currently operates a shipping warehouse on the property, the last vestige of what had been a large Christian publishing house headquartered in Elgin since 1882. The company relocated its main offices to Colorado in 1995.
The south end of the property is across from the Elgin Riverside Club on Lincoln Avenue, which could present a challenge for the district.
“Our understanding of the state law is that a school building shall not be located within 100 feet of an establishment with a liquor license,” U-46 spokeswoman Karla Jiménez said. “The district will take this into consideration as we work with our architectural partners on the conceptual design.”
As for the former Woodland Heights Elementary School at 900 S. Park Blvd. in Streamwood, the district is planning to publish a notice of intent to sell it for $1.2 million.
Chief of Staff Brian Lindholm told the school board Monday that Woodland Heights was built in 1958 and last used during the 2011-12 school year. For a time, Parkland Preparatory Academy leased the building.
“It has not been used for several years,” Lindholm said.
The district has been approached by a private investor who wants to open a therapeutic day school ther but the building cannot be sold until after the district advertises it as being for sale and what a purchase contract would include, he said. The plan would be to publish that notice on April 24, May 1, May 8 and May 13.
Lindholm and Williams said the building is no longer up to public school standards and would require a substantial investment to bring it into compliance with current codes.
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.