Lake County Gazette

Fox River Grove is out to seize a popular longtime restaurant and nine other downtown properties "and repurpose it into some kind of commercial or mixed-use space," a Chicago-based think tank said in an article.

"No developers are currently vying for the project, so plans could change," Illinois Policy Institute (IPI) said.

Lack of a developer hasn't stopped village officials from approaching the property owners, including New China Restaurant owner William Gee, in the early stages of an eminent domain process. 

Eminent domain isn't the first threat New China Restaurant has faced since the eatery opened its doors in 1975 to serve Cary and Fox River Grove. Fox River Grove residents helped raise money to get the restaurant back open after fire struck in 2013.

"Good times, hard times, we went through it all," Gee was quoted in the article. "Everybody's brother and sister has worked for us locally. For most of them, it's their first job.”

Now something more devastating than fire threatens the restaurant and the rest of its block. Last summer, Fox River Grove began negotiating with 10 property owners in the area across the street from the Metra station. Gee told a local news outlet that the village offered him significantly less than his business is worth, an offer he referred to as “slap to the face.”

This attempt to buy up the properties bordered by Northwest Highway, Illinois Street, Lincoln Avenue and Opatrny Drive isn't the first time Fox River Grove made an attempt at urban renewal with no contractor in sight. In 2017, Fox River Grove trustees passed a $250 million downtown redevelopment plan that ultimately fell through when a developer failed to find funds for that four-phase project.

This time it'll work and the village is doing all it can to send out if-we-build-it-they-will-come vibes, Derek Soderholm, Fox River Grove's village administrator, told the Northwest Herald in July.

"Our experience with the development community is that they want to see land right in place before working with [us]," Soderholm was quoted in the Northwest Herald story. "The village feels it's time to make something happen, and we think it has a strong chance."

Meanwhile, Gee, of necessity, told IPI that he's considering where he might have to go next: a similar location with appropriate square footage to retrofit his kitchen equipment and not be in the path of further redevelopment efforts.

"I hope I would never have to deal with another [eminent domain proceeding] if I relocate," Gee told IPI. "But there’s no guarantee. If it’s happened here, it can happen anywhere."