The mother of late rapper Juice Wrld is proposing a brewery and restaurant in Homewood, according to the village’s mayor.

Orland Park resident Carmela Wallace plans to redevelop the site of the former Bogart’s Charhouse to build Homewood Brewing.

Under a tentative agreement with the village, Wallace will buy the former Bogart’s Charhouse, 18225 Dixie Highway, for $1. The village had acquired the property from Cook County through a no-cash bid, and the building was recently demolished.

It is the second Homewood location Wallace and partner Robert Lauderdale have explored for the business.

The rapper, whose real name was Jarad A. Higgins, died Dec. 8, 2019, six days after his 21st birthday.

The Homewood-Flossmoor High School graduate suffered convulsions and went into cardiac arrest as Chicago police and federal agents searched his and his entourage’s luggage for guns and drugs at a private hangar at Midway Airport.

Higgins, his girlfriend and other members of his group had flown on a private jet from Los Angeles to Chicago.

He died accidentally from an overdose of oxycodone and codeine, the Cook County medical examiner’s office later ruled.

Wallace had initially looked at opening Homewood Brewing at the site of the former Vice District Brewing operation at 18027 Dixie, which closed in 2019.

In June, when the Vice District site was being considered, Wallace told village trustees the project would be a way to pay tribute to her son.

Higgins’ music career took off after he gained support from freestyling on his high school’s radio

show, according to a 2018 Chicago Tribune profile.

He had landed a $3 million deal with Interscope Records, according to the article, and, in 2019, he was one of two artists chosen by fast-food chain McDonald’s to be part of a philanthropic campaign, representing their hometowns by partnering with a local charity and performing concerts.

His posthumously released final album, “Legends Never Die,” was the No. 1 album in the United States for two consecutive weeks, according to an August 2020 Tribune article.

Higgins had been open on social media as well as in media interviews and his music about his struggles with drug use, according to the article.

Following her son’s death, Wallace established Live Free 999, a nonprofit intended to “support programs that provide preventive measures and positive avenues to address mental health challenges and substance dependency,” according to its website.

The sale of the Bogart’s site to Wallace and Homewood Brewing isn’t a done deal.

Because the site is in a tax increment financing district, the village has to open the sale to competitive bids, said Chris Cummings, the village’s attorney. There is no contract at this point, Cummings said at Tuesday’s Village Board meeting.

Other potential bids will be reviewed at the Village Board’s Oct. 12 meeting, he said.

“We’re just going through the initial steps,” Hofeld said.

Cummings said the sale process is similar to what the village did with the former Triumph building at the southwest corner of Ridge Road and Martin Avenue, which was recently demolished. A restaurant and apartments are planned at the site.

mnolan@tribpub.com