Developers’ plan to transform Huntley Outlet Center gets quashed

A plan by a group of developers to build three big spec industrial buildings on the former Huntley Outlet Center property have been rejected.

The developers — called Huntley Investment Partners LLC — bought the 279,000-square-foot outlet mall in 2016, and tore down the building last year.

The venture is comprised of Chicago-based The Prime Group, Elgin-based The Capital Companies and California-based Craig Realty Group.

They had proposed the three buildings ranging from 177,000 to 245,000 square feet on the 60-acre property at Interstate 90 and Illinois 47, according to the Daily Herald.

But Huntley village officials last week shot down the plans, saying the project isn’t the kind of development they, or their constituents, want to see on the land. Officials said they’d prefer to see a hotel or restaurants or other uses on the high-profile site right off the tollway.

Despite the demise of the Huntley outlet mall, some of its surviving competitors have been thriving. In Rosemont, Macerich plans a major expansion of the Fashion Outlets of Chicago complex.

Officials for Simon Property Group, which owns the Gurnee Mills outlet mall in the north suburbs and Chicago Premium Outlets in west suburban Aurora, have cited the REIT’s outlet centers as one of the reasons for its strong financial run recently. [Daily Herald] — John O’Brien