District 219 Spends Nearly $5.4 Million To Buy Menards Property

SKOKIE, IL — The Niles Township High School District 219 board has agreed to pay $5.375 million to purchase the former Menards store immediately west of Niles West High School. Board members last month voted unanimously to buy the site after more than a year of negotiations, Pioneer Press reported. The 5.6-acre site at 6001 Oakton Street has been shuttered since the Eau Claire, Wisconsin-based retailer opened up a store a block west across Lehigh Avenue into Morton Grove nearly 20 years ago.

In 2015, deciding the cost-effective option would be to buy its own fleet of school buses and hire an outside company to operate them, the district bought 75 buses for nearly $5 million, according to the Niles Herald-Spectator. It also spent $2.5 million to purchase a parcel 6119 Howard St. in Niles with plans to turn it into a bus terminal, but village officials restricted the district from parking its full fleet there.

This time, the district already had an inter-governmental agreement in place with Skokie to ensure it will be able to use the site as a bus terminal ahead of the adoption of the purchase and sale agreement.

The district aims to have the former Menards converted into a bus terminal by the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, the Skokie Review reported. Once the new terminal is approved, the district plans to put the Niles site back on the market.

Under the terms of a post-closing lease, Menards is able to pay $1 rent and use the property for another 180 days before vacating it. The deal also included a provision forbidding the land from being used for any kind of business that might compete with Menards for the next 20 years.

The district's assistant superintendent for business described the $5,375,000 closing price as a market rate, according to Pioneer Press. The Cook County Assessor's Office calculates the property's estimated fair market value at $3,557,224 for taxing purposes.

The acquisition of the Oakton Street property was adopted at a special board meeting on May 21. District 219 administrators do not produce audio or video recordings of such special board meetings. Other actions scheduled for the meeting that evening included the adoption of "confidential salary increases," approval of a separation agreement with an unspecified employee and a new contract for an assistant principal at Niles West.

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