Little progress made on leasing old Highland Park theater, city says

Six months after assuring city officials he’s well on his way to filling a pair of prominent vacancies in downtown Highland Park, a local developer appears to have made little progress toward that goal.

City Manager Ghida Neukirch during the City Council’s Monday, May 11 meeting announced Highland Park officials have yet to receive a letter of interest or signed lease agreement for the currently dormant tenant spaces located at the former Highland Park movie theater property, 445 Central Ave.

As previously reported by The Record, Highland Park’s City Council in November of 2025 approved an ordinance amending a previous agreement for the development of that site.

The approved measure allowed property owner Scott Canel to fill one of the three empty spaces at the long-vacant downtown property with a medical office. Canel earlier in 2025 had pitched what he described as a “high-end” dermatology practice to fill suite 100 on the site, a space that city documents show is 3,245 square feet.

Additionally, as part of the approved November agreement, Canel committed to donating $250,000 to the city for economic development initiatives and to leasing the other two ground-floor spaces with either a restaurant or retail use, by Dec. 31, 2027.

As a condition of their approval late last year, councilmembers added a provision that stated Canel must provide a progress update to the council in no later than six months and subsequent quarterly check-ins as well.

Progress report

Monday night’s update to the council fulfilled the six-month requirement, Neukirch told The Record via email after the meeting.

The build-out for the dermatologist space is nearing its completion and the city is expected to receive a call for a final inspection in the coming days, officials said.

As of May 13, the City had yet to receive the $250,000 payment from Canel, but Neukirch also told The Record that the city has been advised that the payment will be remitted by the end of this month.

Regarding the remaining two vacancies on the property, Neukirch said to the council that the city’s business development staff has “provided (Canel’s team) a number of different leads of businesses that may be interested in that property, but to date we do not have a letter of interest and to our knowledge no leases have been signed.”

In a follow-up email to The Record, Neukirch said the city has so far “relayed more than one dozen restaurants and retailers to Mr. Canel’s broker for possible interest.”

She added that there are “varied reasons why the businesses have not advanced.” Those could include space constraints or terms/conditions that could not be reached with the property’s ownership, she said.

Initial agreement

The case that appeared in front of the council in November of last year was an amendment application from Canel and his development group, Alabama Associates. Canel pitched in mid-August of 2025 a proposal to lease two of the three ground floor units for the dermatologist practice, The Record reported.

Highland Park councilmembers during that August 2025 meeting unanimously rejected the amendment to the agreement that town officials first struck with Canel in 2018.

That 2018 deal granted a special use-permit to Canel and his firm to develop the two-story, roughly 21,500-square-foot commercial building, which was once owned by the city, with a restaurant and retail spaces on the ground floor.

Following Neukirch’s brief presentation last Monday, Councilmember Anthony Blumberg asked if the city has provided Canel and his team with inquiries or leads. He also questioned if the city keeps track of if those leads have been ultimately contacted by Canel’s team.

In response, Neukirch confirmed both of those points, and regarding the latter, noted specifically that “in some cases they do and in some cases they don’t.”

Blumberg, along with other members of the council, has on multiple occasions previously expressed frustrations regarding Canel’s handling of the property. He closed his remarks Monday night with a succinct ending.

“I’ll leave it there for now,” he said after his questions.

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