Haunted house helps revive long vacant nightclub space in West Chicago

A haunted house is helping bring a dormant building in West Chicago back to life.

5 Points Haunted House is a commercial offshoot of the Lehman Manor Halloween attraction, run for eight years by young entrepreneur Miles McCabe and his family outside their West Chicago home. It will open Oct. 4 in the former site of Club 38 and Synergy nightclubs, at 241 W. Roosevelt Road.

It’s part of the 45,000-square-foot Bowling Green complex that has been vacant since April 2018.

“It’s an amazing opportunity, I’m super-excited to actually see it coming to life. This is the career I want, so it’s definitely a dream come true seeing it all happen,” said McCabe, 18, a 2024 graduate of West Chicago Community High School.

Intending to offer special events year-round but now focusing on Halloween scares, McCabe and his family — parents Rachel and Jesse, and sister Mia — used funds from a $50,000 award after being named the “spookiest home in America” on ABC’s “The Great Halloween Fright Fight” in 2023 to lease about a third of the complex.

The entire property was purchased by LC Properties in April with the roughly 30,000-square-foot bowling center to be redeveloped into an entertainment center, according to West Chicago Economic Development Coordinator Kelley Chrisse.

“This is a great property that sat underutilized for many years, so we’re just super excited. It’s something that will not only attract our residents but people from throughout the region,” Chrisse said.

An investor in the property declined to elaborate on the entertainment center except to say plans are being developed, with a prospective opening in about a year.

Decorating the McCabe home and yard on the border of West Chicago and St. Charles, Lehman Manor traditionally thrilled seasonal crowds, estimated at up to 5,000 people, Miles McCabe said.

From humble beginnings — a 5-foot-tall animatronic witch McCabe received at age 9, of which only the head remains — he grew a collection of roughly 180 animatronic figures.

He said 5 Points Haunted House will have at least 50 of them, many “huge ones that are air-powered and just crazier.”

McCabe hopes to draw 10,000 paying customers to 5 Points Haunted House Thursday through Sunday from Oct. 4-27 plus the entire week of Halloween, into the first few days of November.

A calendar and tickets with a variety of pricing options (including RIP, for “really important people”) are available at 5pointshaunt.com.

“This is definitely very new for us. We did the home haunt for eight, 10 years now. It’s a big step up for sure. It’s two floors and it’s way larger than anything we’ve ever done, and each scene is larger than any scene we’ve ever done,” McCabe said.

He said the haunted house will offer 10 spaces on its top floor and four to five in the basement, with a small portion outside. The McCabes have been working on it the past several weeks after permitting came through from the city.

Improvements include workers getting the space up to fire code and installing fire detection devices previously absent.

Also a social media influencer who under the moniker Brick Thunder has nearly 80,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, McCabe plans to utilize the space as a year-round venture.

He said events will be held around major holidays such as Christmas, and he hopes to open every Friday the 13th and for other separate events.

“It will be operating most of the year,” he said.

“We’re excited to show people what we’ve done with all of this, because although it’s a lot to fill, I think we’ve filled it pretty well, so it’s going to be cool to see reactions,” McCabe said.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20240915/small-business/back-from-the-dead-haunted-house-helps-revive-long-vacant-nightclub-space-in-west-chicago/