The City Council on Monday night decided to sever its relationship with a developer that the city had selected more than a year and a half ago to redevelop two blocks in downtown Wheaton.
In September 2002, the council chose Wheaton Main Street Venture LLC to be the private-sector developer for the blocks that presently hold the Jewel-Osco store and the shuttered former Chicago Title building, which the city now owns. On Monday, however, City Manager Don Rose gave council members a list of problems with the developer, including its inability to acquire several key parcels facing Main Street, its controversial proposal to close Liberty Drive and build a new Jewel-Osco store on the northernmost block and financing concerns for the project.
Now, the council will head back to the drawing board, again seeking developers who are willing to come up with development ideas that follow the city’s long-term plans for redevelopment of those blocks. That will include plans that will call for the building of a new Jewel-Osco store on the site of the existing store, 114 E. Willow Ave., and that will keep all existing streets the same.
