Seeking To Expand Its Downtown Redevelopment, Huntley Buys Catty Property

The Village of Huntley has paid $425,000.00 to buy the vacant, and possibly polluted, H. D. Catty Corporation facility at 11117 South Church Street in the village, and expects to commit another $150,000.00 to secure the building and prepare the site for redevelopment. The 117 year old factory buildings housed Catty’s flexible packaging manufacturing operations from 1945 to 2006, when Catty moved to Harvard, Illinois.

While the building is not landmarked, Village Manager Dave Johnson says efforts will be pursued to save it to the extent possible as the property is redeveloped. “The character of the building and its spot is an anchor downtown, and to the extent it can be saved – that’s something the village will consider moving forward,” he said. However, Huntley’s downtown redevelopment sought at one time to preserve the century old Sawyer-Kelly mill building on Main Street, but the mill was ultimately torn down to make way for a row of new stores and offices designed to fit in architecturally with the historic downtown structures which remain.

Huntley has already spent over $5 million on downtown redevelopment and improvements completed in 2016.