H&R Auto is now closed at 805 Hannah Ave. after 30 years of car repairs and towing services at the location.
Last December, H&R Auto Owner Larry Moskos sold the Hannah Avenue property to the Park District of Forest Park for $400,000 — though the sale’s contract allowed Moskos to stay open for up to a year.
This December, Moskos officially retired. He finished moving out of the garage, the locks were changed and utilities turned over to the park district.
“We’re very happy for him,” Jackie Iovinelli, the park district’s executive director, said at the Dec. 18 park board meeting. “He cleaned out. He did a great job. Everything is gone. He removed all the cars that were in the parkway and alongside the building.”
For now, the park district plans to use the H&R Auto space to store its maintenance equipment and free up some space in the park district’s garage.
“We can park the buses inside of the garage to help with the longevity,” Iovinelli said at the park board meeting. “We can work on vehicles. Right now, our mechanic has a hard time getting underneath those buses.”
“In the short term, we’re going to use it for our own maintenance,” added Tim Gillian, president of the park board, at the most-recent meeting. “I don’t know if short term is 10 years or 10 minutes, but that’s the only plan for it at this point.”
Iovinelli said Moskos left behind a few lifts and other materials that the park district could use. She added that the park district will likely do a few wall repairs and tuck pointing at the Hannah Avenue property. They’re also in contact with the Forest Park Arts Alliance, which will potentially create a mural on the building’s north wall after minor repairs.
Next to the H&R Auto property sits a lot of green space on Harrison Street. In 2022, the park district bought the land where the Pines Restaurant, Oak Leaf Lounge and Forest Park Foreign Car Repair once sat for $1.25 million.
At that time, the park district looked to buy Mosko’s property, but he wasn’t quite ready to sell yet. The park district was also planning on developing its newly purchased land on Harrison Street, but after they tore down the buildings there, they decided to leave the lot empty.
“We’re leaving that space green at this point, which was never the real intention to begin with,” Gillian said at the meeting. “Seeing the way the public has reacted to having that space green made all of us rethink building there.”
