Sale of former Harvard Motorola campus will take additional 2 months, officials say

The sale of Harvard’s 1.5-million-square-foot former Motorola campus has again been met with delays as U.S. Department of Justice officials now expect a July closing date.

Justice Department representative Mary Butler announced during a McHenry County hearing last month that a new buyer likely was to close on the 2001 N. Division St., Harvard, in mid-May. The potential May closure was a month-long delay from a previously expected April deadline. Now, Butler said she hopeful that the U.S. Marshals Service will have successfully sold the property by the next McHenry County court date on July 27, she said.

“We don’t expect this offer to fall through,” Butler said during a Zoom call Wednesday afternoon.

The potential buyer already has paid an undisclosed amount of earnest money – a non-refundable early payment – on the property, Butler said. The buyer also offered to pay an additional $54,000 to cover the next two months of property taxes as the sale is finalized, Butler said, who declined to say who the buyer is or how much money has been paid so far.

City and county officials have been eager to sell the campus since it failed as a Motorola plant and became vacant in 2003. Canadian businessman Xiao Hua “Edward” Gong later bought the property through an auction in 2016 for $9.3 million, but the $32 million smartphone manufacturing project that he proposed never came to fruition.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Harvard City Administrator Dave Nelson declined to say who the potential buyer might be but confirmed that city officials have been in communication with them. Nelson also declined to comment on details including what kind of business the potential buyer could bring to the area, only noting that they would be an “end-user” who would put the property to use.

“We’re excited over the fact that Mr. Gong is no longer going to be the owner of the building,” Nelson said.

Harvard Mayor Michael Kelly could not be reached for comment.

Orders tied to a Canadian criminal case against Gong previously prevented new businesses from moving into the 303-acre space. A Sept. 25 order from the Ontario Superior Court in Canada, however, allowed for the sale of the property through the U.S. Marshals Service. The order was good news for Harvard School District 50 and the city of Harvard, which stand to collect the most from the former campus’ property taxes.

Although a sale appeared to be imminent, attorney Peter Baugher, who represents an Ohio-based company that previously wished to buy the property, pressed Butler to disclose more details about the process Wednesday.

“I think this is a matter of public interest,” Baugher said.

Butler, however, claimed details including the potential buyer’s name and how much they’ve paid toward the property as of Wednesday is “sensitive information.” Without a formal request seeking to compel Butler to disclose those details in court Wednesday, Mchenry County Judge Thomas Meyer continued the case to July 27, at which point more information may be available.

“I think that brings us further than we’ve ever been with respect to this property,” Meyer said.