Aiming to make way for a new restaurant and banquet hall, Huntley Chamber moves out of Old Village Hall

The Huntley Area Chamber of Commerce has moved from its location in the Old Village Hall to the Union Special building.

The village of Huntley has not operated out of the old Village Hall in almost two decades, but Wauconda-based True North Properties has proposed building a restaurant and a banquet facility in the space and presented renderings to the Village Board in August.

It’s not True North’s first foray into Huntley. The company redeveloped the old Catty building in downtown Huntley into apartments, which opened last month.

The Chamber of Commerce’s lease in the Old Village Hall was up in June, and the village of Huntley decided not to renew the Chamber’s lease, Nancy Binger, executive director of the Huntley chamber, wrote in an email.

She added the chamber supported the village’s decision not to renew the lease, but had a month-to-month lease for a few months while preparing space at the Union Special building. Binger wrote the Chamber’s last day in the old Village Hall was Sept. 30 and the first day in the Union Special building was Oct. 1.

“The Old Village Hall building is located in a prime location in downtown Huntley, and will be redeveloped into a restaurant site to further enhance Huntley’s Town Square offerings,” Binger wrote.

However, there is not yet a new restaurant lined up for the Old Village Hall space.

“The village is still working with the potential developer to secure a restaurant user,” Charlie Nordman, director of development services for Huntley, wrote in an email. He added the project does not yet have a finalized timeline.

Binger also wrote that the Chamber of Commerce was grateful for its “partnership” with Huntley and the location in the Old Village Hall was good for the chamber.

“Having the Chamber occupy the Old Village Hall for all these years has been an enormous benefit to the Chamber,” Binger wrote.

While the chamber was looking for a new home, Binger wrote, the Union Special building met a lot of the criteria they were looking for, including “an affordable contract in a place that allowed us to have office space, storage space and a large meeting room for our board meetings, new member orientation and for our members.”

Binger wrote that the Chamber of Commerce is eager to show off their new space and added they have completed renovations on the space and signed a three-year lease.

“Union Special is a charter member of the Chamber and working with the owners has been very smooth. We are very excited to have these fresh new space to showcase to our members,” Binger wrote.