Geneva-based investor Gerard Keating broke ground Monday, February 22, for a CVS Pharmacy on 2.5 acres of his property at 1500 Lincoln Highway in St. Charles, located at the northwest corner of IL Route 38 and Bricher Avenue. The CVS building will replace a bank built in 1989 by First National Bank of Geneva.

Keating bought the property in March of 2006 and leased the building for 10 years to Charter One Bank. In 2016, Charter One’s lease expired and the building was vacated. Keating said he is happy to help bring CVS to the west side of the Fox River to provide Tri-City residents with a competitive option for prescriptions and convenience items.

According to Keating, along with the 13,000 SF CVS building which will be built by CVS, he will develop a 4,300 SF building which will be available for lease. Both buildings are scheduled to be completed by October 15, 2016. 1500 Lincoln Highway is the fourth property in St. Charles that Keating and partners have redeveloped for higher and better use, totaling their Tri-City investments to $28 million. Other St. Charles Keating properties include the former General Mills plant at 1600 Main Street, now Olcott Plastics and West Towne Market, the former Hines Lumber at 220 North Randall Road, now Play It Again Sports and Elite Sports, and the former Siegel Lumber at 300 North Randall Road, now Illinois Central School Bus. Keating said that the city of St. Charles Mayors, aldermen, and staff have been great supporters of his vision over the last 14 years in helping him reposition dead properties for reuse, creating hundreds of jobs and maintaining over $250,000 in annual real estate taxes and new sales taxes for the city, St. Charles schools, and other taxing bodies.

Keating added that although the CVS project was small in size, it was complicated and required a dedicated A team to successfully complete.

The team included the following:

• Ken Marino
  GROBMAR Real Estate Investments, LLC
  Development Advisor for Keating Resources
• Mark Bettenhausen
  TM Crowley
  Development Advisor for CVS
• Mike Muller
  Commercial Resources
  General Contractor for site improvements
• Bob Blacher, David Meek and Moshe Friedman
  Becker Gurian
  Legal for zoning and lease
• Brad Prischman and Steve Kranenborg
  V3 Engineering
  Site engineering
• Mike Moone
  West Suburban Bank
  Project financing
• Drew Frasz
  A.E. Frasz Inc
  Site Development
• Jeremy Thorud
  American Demolition
  Building demolition