Dive Brief:

• A residential builder in Grayslake, IL, struck a deal with Waste Management some years ago that stated the hauler would buy homes constructed near the company’s landfill if property owners wanted to sell and failed to find a buyer within a reasonable timeframe.
• Waste Management wound up buying 50 out of 359 homes in the subdivision. 
• The waste and recycling firm announced its decision to sell all 29 homes it currently owns at an auction slated for June 9.

Dive Insight:

According to Nano Engdahl, a local real estate agent, the Waste Management agreement with the builder “saved Prairie Crossing from having a lot of foreclosures.” 

Of the 29 houses owned by Waste Management, 17 are rented out, while the others are unoccupied. The company had been selling homes individually but now “wants to accelerate its exit from the project,” says Craig Post, executive director of Sheldon Good & Co., the firm handling the auction.

“We are an environmental services company and real estate is not our primary focus,” Waste Management said in a statement.