Last year, a proposal was announced at the Cook County Board to spend $35 million on renovating the crumbling Hawthorne Warehouse. Currently, the Clerk of the Circuit Court stores over one million boxes of records there, and adds an average of 43,000 boxes each year.

Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski (D-McCook) objected, stating that “the County could build a brand new warehouse for less than the renovation price. This is like rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic.”

Tobolski then acquired a quote from Center Point Properties on building a brand new warehouse of similar size, and found out that it would only have cost around $23 million. The proposal was tabled, and officials from the office of Capital Planning worked to find a more cost effective solution.

On January 16th the County Board voted to purchase the Cicero Business Center at 1330 S. Avenue in Circero for $16 million. The 260,000 square foot building was built in 2009 and has been vacant since. The new building will be used by the Clerk of the Circuit Court as well as other county agencies like the Public Defender, Adult Probation, the State’s Attorney, and the Recorder of Deeds.

When reached for comment Tobolski said that “this decision is a win-win for taxpayers in the 16th District and throughout the County. This new building will help bring jobs and tax revenue to the area by taking a dark and vacant building and bringing it back to life, while also saving the county from a wasteful renovation of the Hawthorne Warehouse.”