Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:
Once the location for fire trucks and ambulances — and maybe even firehouse chili — the shuttered downtown Rolling Meadows fire station could be converted into a food hall that developers hope could become a destination in the Northwest suburbs.
Coaction Corp. has proposed purchasing the 64-year-old former Station 15 at 3111 Meadow Drive from the city and turning it into The Firehall, an eatery with six booths that would be leased to independent vendors and restaurants, including local craft beer brewer Leaky Keg. Other tenants could include a Thai restaurant, a charcuterie booth, a cocktail bar and a bakery/coffee shop.
Coaction has submitted preliminary floor and site plans to city hall, and on Tuesday night, the company publicly unveiled the concept during a city council committee-of-the-whole meeting.
Under the preliminary plans, restaurants would rent booth spaces ranging in size from 100 to 500 square feet on the ground floor. Tables and chairs would be throughout the hall, along with picnic tables with umbrellas for dining outside the three firehouse garage doors.
A proposed phase two calls for the opening of a cocktail bar on the second floor owned and operated by Coaction called Hosed, which would serve mixed drinks, wine and liquor; and the relocation of Leaky Keg and doubling of the dining space.
The two-story, 5,400-square-foot brick building has been on the market for nearly two years. It was decommissioned in December 2019 when the new $5.8 million, 11,925-square-foot Station 15 opened along Algonquin Road.
The online real estate ad, which lists the property for sale at $549,000, makes reference to the city’s 2019 comprehensive plan that recommends a commercial adaptive reuse of the old firehouse with a possible restaurant. In fact, the planning document includes one such example of a former firehouse-turned-brew pub: The Firehouse Grill, which is inside a restored early 1900s firehouse in Evanston.
The owners would also offer vendors a centralized catering manager as a way to gain additional revenue.
thanks Drew
