Food for Greater Elgin has a new landlord!
Joe Valente and Component Management Group purchased the building in which we are housed on September 14, 2020. As part of this purchase, Mr. Valente and the Board of Directors of Food for Greater Elgin accepted a ten-year lease instead of the one-year rolling agreement that we had with our previous landlords, Karen and Michael Tietz.
While they have been extremely generous, Mrs. and Mr. Tietz have been attempting to sell the building for some time, making it difficult to be efficient in our operations and impossible to make long term plans. The resolution of our location was a major issue for the Board for this year, and we are thankful to have a positive solution for everyone.
The impetus for the purchase by Mr. Valente and his company was to solve a mutual conflict with parking on the street due to the lack of parking on the FFGE site. FFGE’s Board agrees in principle to a ten-year lease as of its August meeting. Key aspects of the agreement include:
- FFGE will put in a full parking lot on the north side of the building to accommodate the parking needs of FFGE guests, hopefully this fall.
- When the lease for the other half of the FFGE building expires, FFGE will lease the entire building.
- There will be manageable rent increases during the term of the Lease.
“This is a major ‘win-win’ for Food for Greater Elgin,” explained interim executive director Michael Montgomery. “We will get stability and the ability to expand in order to meet our growing needs for additional space to sort donations and store foods that require freezer and cooler space. We will have extra space to share with other nonprofit organizations and will be able to do a more efficient job of providing food to the people who need it most. At the same time, Mr. Valente will have a fully occupied building and solve the truck access issues which arose with cars parking on the street.”
Board Chairman Scott Richmond added, “We are very excited about the stability and promise of working with Joe Valente. At the same time, we are very appreciative of the generosity of the Tietzes over the years, and we take this opportunity to thank them as well. We greatly appreciate the efforts of Michael Montgomery, Michael Warren, and Joe Valente in thinking outside of the box in coming up with a unique solution to solve the parking issues of FFGE and Component Plastics, and provide FFGE with the long term location stability it was seeking.”
The engineering work on the parking lot has already begun.