Off-track betting proposal put on hold in Buffalo Grove

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Updated: March 24, 2012 8:11AM

The postponement of committee hearings to bring an off-track betting business into property owned by the Village of Buffalo Grove should not be taken as a sign that the business is losing interest, officials said Wednesday.

Hawthorne Race Course, Inc., has proposed relocating its OTB from its building at 301 N. Milwaukee Ave., to the Village Tavern, 50 Raupp Blvd. Moving the betting operation to Village Tavern would require adjustments to Hawthorne’s special-use permit with Buffalo Grove, a matter that begins with the village’s Plan Commission.

Village trustees agreed on Feb. 6 to send the track’s request to the Plan Commission for a Feb. 15 workshop. On Feb. 13, Village Manager Dane Bragg announced Hawthorne wanted more time.

“The Plan Commission workshop … has been postponed at the request of the petitioner and for the purpose of completing due diligence,” Bragg wrote.

“No additional information is available at this time,” he added.

No new date for a Plan Commission examination of Hawthorne’s request has been set.

At the Feb. 6 Village Board meeting, the first step in the relocation process, village trustees asked Hawthorne Chief Financial Officer Jeff Kras if he would notify village staff if Hawthorne decided to move its OTB outside the village. Kras told them he would. Bragg wrote in a Feb. 15 email, however, that he had no reason to suspect Hawthorne had lost interest in Buffalo Grove.

“Mr. Kras has not indicated that Hawthorne Racecourse is taking another location, although the village is aware that they are considering another location should the village site not work,” Bragg wrote.

Kras could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Hawthorne’s OTB opened in 2010 as part of a partnership with a full-service restaurant, Adam’s Roadhouse. Adam’s went bankrupt in the summer of 2011, but the OTB has remained in operation on a month-to-month lease, still serving some food but no alcohol.

Its search for a better location brought the Village Hall-owned Village Tavern into the picture. Functioning as a clubhouse for the Buffalo Grove Golf Course, the tavern has full food and beverage service, a parking lot, clientele that Kras told the Village Board his group wanted to tap into, and space to share.