A Hawthorne Race Course off-track betting facility could find its home among police officers and golfers as the company eyes a spot on Buffalo Grove’s municipal campus at the Village Bar & Grill.
Hawthorne Race Course CFO Jeff Kras petitioned the Village Board Monday to consider leasing the company a banquet room inside the Village Bar & Grill building, which sits just north of Village Hall and serves golfers at the Buffalo Grove Golf Course.
All but one board member, Trustee Beverly Sussman, voted to move the petition forward by sending it to the Plan Commission. President Jeff Braiman was absent.
Sussman refused to elaborate on her vote after the meeting. She and then-trustee Lisa Stone were the only board members to vote against the OTB when it originally came to town in 2009.
Village staff have been working with Hawthorne officials to find a new location since the OTB’s next-door restaurant and bar, Adam’s Roadhouse, closed this summer. The OTB has been operating solo until last month, when the company brought in catering services to provide food and drinks to gamblers.
The OTB is still running on a month-to-month lease with the property owner, but needs to find a new spot quickly, Village Manager Dane Bragg said.
The village and racetrack officials looked at many properties around the village, but ultimately Hawthorne latched onto the golf course property, Bragg said.
The village did not want to lose the OTB, which annually brings in average of $80,000 in revenue to the village from a 1 percent tax.
By moving the OTB to village property, the village would take in additional revenue through a 10 percent commission up to $60,000.
According to a village memo, Tap Room Hospitality, which operates the Village Bar & Grill through a lease with Buffalo Grove, would also benefit from the additional food and beverage service brought in by the OTB, new televisions and the renovation of the banquet room, provided at Hawthorne’s expense.
The OTB would set up inside the facility’s banquet room and would have its own private entrance as well as an entrance to the restaurant, Kras said.
He added that the company is considering other establishments in nearby communities, but is excited about mixing the golf crowd with the gambling crowd in Buffalo Grove.
“I think that it could be even more of a success than we originally saw back in the summer of 2009,” he said.
Initially controversial when it was established in 2009, the OTB has proven it is not a nuisance and not something to be feared, said Trustee Jeff Berman.
Police Chief Steve Balinski said that of the 46 calls to police from the OTB facility, most of those were for alarms. Balinski only considers three calls — one for battery, one for theft over $300 and one for burglary of motor vehicle — serious crimes.
“There is no public safety concern,” he said.
Board members did have other concerns, however.
They weren’t sure if the Village Bar & Grill lot could accommodate the extra cars, particularly on special race days such as the Kentucky Derby, and were worried cars could spill over into municipal lots and interfere with village business.
Kras said the company would be required to run valet service those days, but not all were convinced parking would work.
They were also concerned the OTB could negatively impact golfers and the Bar & Grill, particularly if it lost all its banquet space, which is booked about two to three times each month, according to a village memo.
Bragg said he believed larger parties could be accommodated, but not all the details were worked out yet.
The biggest hurdle would be reworking previously scheduled banquet events, he said.
The Village Bar & Grill would have to move those events to the main dining room or out to the patio.
Ultimately the board sent the proposal to the Plan Commission to work out the details, such as signage, zoning and parking. The plan commission would meet for a workshop Feb. 15 with a public hearing tentatively scheduled for March.
