Elgin Mall business owners form corporation to negotiate more time to vacate property – Chicago Tribune
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The sellers want nine months to vacate the Elgin Mall before it closes, and they hope they can reach a deal with the landlord, a spokesperson said.
Giving the approximately 80 business owners who rent space inside 308 S. Mclean Blvd. Building until the end of August to leave is not enough time, said Jose Manuel Verastegui, whose family owns a shop inside the mall.
The tenants have formed a new company, known as Elgin Mall, and they will be allowed to stay while they work out a deal.
“We hope for a contract. We are in negotiation,” Verastegui said.
The management company informed the businesses last week that the owner was repossessing the building and that they would have about four weeks to leave.
The owner, whose name has not been released, has not “indicated what his plans are for the property”, the letter to the owners of the company said. “Elgin Shopping Mall Inc. regrets the landlord’s decision as it not only affected the tenant, but many sub-tenants as well.”
Most of the tenants are technically sub-tenants who had leases for the commercial space with the management company. Forming the company allows everyone with businesses in the building to come together as one entity and negotiate a deal that gives them more time, Verastegui said.
“I’m very unhappy,” he said. “There are many lives on pause not knowing what to do or what is going to happen.”
Speaking at a meeting this week, Verastegui told the owners of the company: “We don’t work with management. We no longer have anyone in the middle.
They should continue to pay their rent and each will need to register their business with the state of Illinois and the city of Elgin, Verastegui said. They will also need to have a certificate of insurance, he said.
Representatives from the Illinois Latino Small Business Partnership and the Northwest Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and State Senator Cristina Castro, D-Elgin, were present at the meeting to help with the process.
“We will help as much as we can. If you have any questions, we’re here,” Castro said.
Verastegui stressed that they must be one, a message that was applauded.
“We have a lot to do,” he said. “We will legally be the new Elgin Mall after August 31. That’s all of us.”
Gloria Casas is a freelance journalist for The Courier-News.
