After sitting vacant for about four years, the military reserve building at 7402 Roosevelt Rd. officially has new tenants this month.
The 234th Electronic Warfare Company and 217th Military Intelligence Battalion of the Illinois National Guard have already started to occupy the Roosevelt Road building. There, they will perform intelligence collection, exploitation and analysis, as well as electronic warfare and cyber operations, according to the organization’s public affairs office.
The office said the 217th Military Intelligence Battalion has an activation ceremony on Oct. 18 at far west suburban Cantigny Park to bring them into active existence after, on Sept. 19, Company C, 341st Military Intelligence Battalion cased its colors and was divested from because of the U.S. Army’s modernization efforts. The 341st Battalion was positioned to move into the Forest Park facility this year, but now many of its members will transfer to the 217th Battalion.
Every day, some National Guard employees will work from the building. And on drill weekends once or twice a month, no more than 300 soldiers in the 234th Electronic Warfare Company and 217th Military Intelligence Battalion will train and work there.
“These are traditional National Guard soldiers who drill one weekend a month and two weeks a year,” Lt. Col. Brad Leighton, Illinois National Guard’s public affairs director, told the Review in an email. “These are fellow Illinoisians, mostly from the Forest Park or Chicagoland area. We are talking about people who have civilian jobs in addition to their military jobs — teachers, college students, doctors, lawyers, carpenters, plumbers.”
Over the last several months, the Illinois National Guard has been making improvements to the building’s interior.
In May, the Macomb-based 616th Engineer Utilities Detachment and 661st Engineer Construction Co. — which do electric, water, sewer, carpentry and masonry work for the Illinois National Guard — started renovating the building. This included replacing ceiling tiles, installing railings and LED lighting, plus replacing doorways and the building’s heating system.
The Illinois National Guard public affairs office told the Review that it’s requesting federal funding to further renovate the building and planning separate, smaller projects to repair the parking lot and fencing around the property.
Completed by June, the recent building renovations would’ve costed the Illinois National Guard up to $418,000 had they contracted it out, according to its public affairs office.
“The work they did both trained them for their war-time mission and will have a lasting impact on the organization through improved facilities,” said Brig. Gen. Lenny Williams in a statement. He’s Assistant Adjutant General of the Army of the Illinois National Guard and Commander of the Illinois Army National Guard.
“We had a really good time,” said Sgt. Seth Michaels, a carpentry and masonry specialist who worked on the Forest Park facility, in a statement. He added that the long-vacant building needed the work. “We really flipped it.”
Last year, the Army Corp of Engineers licensed the property to the Illinois National Guard indefinitely. The Illinois National Guard’s public affairs office told the Review that soldiers will work and drill at the site for the foreseeable future, and the Illinois Army National Guard plans to be in Forest Park for decades.
Before the Illinois National Guard acquired the building, it was the Navy Reserve Center, where local Naval and Marine Corps reservists trained. The Navy moved out of the property about two decades ago, and the U.S. Army Reserve Command took over the building in 2007, when it started training and deploying units for Army missions at the property. The Army moved out in 2022.
At various times over the last two decades, the Village of Forest Park has expressed interest in acquiring the property from the federal government. Redevelopment concepts have ranged from commercial uses to residential projects. Mayor Rory Hoskins once suggested shifting all village government services onto the property.
Last year, Hoskins told the Review that the Illinois National Guard coming to Forest Park would be “a good thing for the village” and that “the state is a great partner.”