St. Charles has seen some real success stories when it comes to preserving buildings, several of which have been given new lives with the help of Walnut Street Partners.
“The community as a whole appreciates a developer who can come in and take care of a tired building,” said Sean Williams of St. Charles, who with Terry Dunning of West Dundee owns Walnut Street Partners. “It’s very rewarding to be part of rehabilitating a building that will be here for another hundred years.”
The building that houses McNally’s Irish Pub and Restaurant has been refreshed with a $1 million infusion from Walnut Street Partners and Morris McNally, owner of McNally’s. Williams credits the tenant and the city, which offered financial assistance through a facade-improvement plan so that one of the city’s first commercial buildings, dating to the 1850s, could be saved.
In 1994, the partners bought a church that was more than a century old and renovated it as a dance studio run by Williams’ wife, Alice. Now 800 students step lively at the 3rd Street Dance and Theatre Academy.
For the most part, the partners try to save structures, but that has not always been the case. A parsonage behind the church was in such disrepair that the partners said they had little choice but to raze it. In its place is a professional building mixed with apartments that since 1996 have not had a vacancy.
The partners are moving forward with plans to redevelop the Piano Factory land, just south of downtown at Prairie and 1st Streets.
The 99-year-old brick building, which at one time housed the Cable Piano Co., was purchased by Walnut Street Partners last year. Williams originally had pitched a development plan that included lofts and retail space inside the building but recently changed his tune.
“We are very sensitive to preserving the architectural integrity of the city,” Williams said. “But we spent six months trying to find a way to save the Piano Factory building, and quite frankly the building is in total disrepair.”
Williams pitched the new plan to the city’s Planning Commission. It includes razing the structure to make way for Tudor-style brownstones and condominiums mixed with some retail on the 8.5-acre plot.
The current plan was revised after Williams met a not-so-warm reception from some City Council members concerned about razing the structure and the lack of retail stores in the plan. Since March, Williams has met with City Council members one on one to address their concerns.
“I think that the city is happy that this is not going to sit vacant any longer,” Williams said.
Marty Lucas, director of the Downtown St. Charles Partnership, said there is some disappointment that the building will be razed, but the partnership realizes the building is not within the downtown historic district and Walnut Street Partners didn’t rush to demolish it.
“Of course, there is some regret, but I think that first and foremost the developers wanted to rehabilitate the structure,” Lucas said. “Unfortunately, their economic interests for the property didn’t mesh with the condition of the building.”
More residential space is one of the partnership’s long-term goals, Lucas said.
“We had a foreclosure on the building and a bankruptcy, and now we are looking to redevelop 8 acres of riverfront property on the southern border of downtown,” Lucas said. “This is a large piece of property that has been vastly underutilized, and to get this high-quality housing stock, which is something that we have been lacking in the downtown, is just a great thing.”
The building was owned by Cable Piano until 1938, when it was bought by Howell Furniture Co., which for about 40 years manufactured tables, desks and chairs.
