Schaumburg finds site near Woodfield for temporary community center and permanent police station

Schaumburg trustees plan to approve Tuesday the purchase of an office building near Woodfield Mall to serve as a temporary community center and later the site of a new police station.

The property at 1000 Woodfield Road will cost the village $5.45 million, with a purchase date set for July 31, said Allison Albrecht, Schaumburg’s communications director.

According to Mayor Tom Dailly, the conversion will remove around 100,000 square metres of largely vacant office space from the market.

Operations at the 51-year-old Robert O. Atcher Municipal Center, 101 Schaumburg Court, are scheduled to move to the office building in spring or summer 2025 to accommodate demolition of the municipal building.

Construction of a replacement at the same location is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, Albrecht said.

The office building will then be demolished to make way for construction of a new building for the 49-year-old police station at 1000 W. Schaumburg Road. A specific time frame for that construction has not yet been determined, Albrecht said.

“The investigation of both buildings revealed that the facilities are too small and inadequate for the needs of current and future village operations,” she said.

Although it was decided last September that the current site was the best location for a new community center, discussions about a new police station continued this year, Dailly said.

Three alternatives emerged: remain at the current location, move to the eastern edge of the current urban campus where it borders Plum Grove Road, or move to nearby Woodfield.

“We always felt it would be wise to move the police station closer to the center of Schaumburg, so to speak,” Dailly said. “I like the location. Of all the possible locations in the Woodfield area, this is a good one.”

Although the site is centrally located, it will not be overly noticeable in the business district, he added.

The trustees have already commissioned designs for new buildings from Itasca-based Williams Architects. The plans cost $3.7 million for the police station and $1.8 million for the community center.

Construction management for the two projects was contracted with Camosy Construction of Zion for a total value of $157,104.

It is not yet known whether the construction of the new community center would affect the traditional location of Schaumburg’s annual Septemberfest on the community grounds on Labor Day weekends in 2025 and 2026.

They hope to be able to hold the festival there, but for structural reasons some changes to the usual setup may be necessary, said Albrecht.

According to Dailly, one of the decisions still pending is whether the honorary names of the old buildings will be retained for the new buildings.

The Atcher Municipal Center is named for the village’s influential second mayor, who helped design it and personally worked there. Inside, Russ Parker Hall, where board and commission meetings are held, is dedicated to a longtime chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals.

The Martin J. Conroy Police Center’s namesake was the village’s first police chief, serving for six years after construction. The fate of the site after the police department moves is still uncertain, Dailly added.