Niles Township High School District 219 will sell an unused property in Niles through a bidding process in mid-December.
The district bought the building at 6119 Howard Street in Niles for $2.5 million in 2015 and intended to use it as a bus terminal for the district’s busses and those of several other school districts in the area, according to previous reporting. However, it was never able to get the property’s zoning changed to allow for bus storage and transportation.
District 219 will accept a minimum bid of $2.625 million for the property, according to an advertisement for the sale.
The Skokie-based party rental company House of Rental was identified as an interested buyer, and while the price was not publicly listed, the district still needs to comply with state law in putting the property up for bid before it accepts House of Rental’s bid.
“We have had extensive conversations about this in closed session. We’ve also had multiple conversations over the last years that this (property) has kind of gone on the market and off the market,” said Board Member Amber Wood. “We look forward to a member of the community having the opportunity to make use of the space where we’re not able to,” she said.
Ken Florey, an attorney from the law firm Robbins-Schwartz, told the Board that any member of the public will be able to participate in the bidding process when it begins on Dec. 6 at 1 p.m. The process ends Dec. 13 at 1 p.m.
“There could be other bidders (than House of Rental),” Florey said.
After the district bought the property in 2015, the district faced a prolonged approval process from the village of Niles to change the building’s zoning code to allow the property to be used as a bus terminal to serve District 219, Niles Elementary School District 71, Morton Grove School District 70 and Lincolnwood School District 74.
Four years after the district bought the property, the village’s planning and zoning board had still not approved the zoning change. Then-District 219 Assistant Superintendent of Business Eric Trimberger said, “we did not anticipate this (lengthy permit approval process); otherwise we would not have bought this property.”
Bruce Sylvester, then the village’s economic development department senior planner, said at the time that the village’s planning and zoning board was concerned about the increase in bus traffic in the area, per previous reporting. The site is very close to a railroad crossing at Howard Street and Lehigh Avenue, with trains often going through and forcing motor vehicle traffic to wait.
According to district documents, the district eventually bought a property along Oakton Street for its transportation needs.
