The city of Aurora and the Fox Valley Music Foundation have inked a development deal for the foundation to build a downtown music venue.
The foundation will put the roughly 250-seat venue — that also will house a music museum, offices, a music retail area and an educational area — in the former Woolworth Building at 19-21 S. Broadway.
The deal includes a $125,000 grant from the city, through the downtown tax increment financing district, to the foundation to renovate the inside of the building.
The agreement includes a five-year lease that gives the city a chance for an early out if it wants to do something else with the building. The city now owns almost every building in the block between Downer Place, Broadway, Galena Boulevard and the Fox River, which it has dubbed the Broadway Redevelopment Zone.
In addition to the $125,000 grant from the city, the foundation would likely spend another $50,000, apart from the TIF money, on the inside of the building.
The deal was signed this week shortly after the Aurora City Council unanimously approved its part of the deal.
At one time, the city considered demolishing the building, which would have cost about $400,000, or more than three times what the city will spend from the TIF to fix the building.
The foundation was formed in 2014 out of the nonprofit group that once ran the Blues on the Fox Festival in Aurora. When the Paramount took over administering that event and moved it permanently to RiverEdge Park, the group found itself seeking a new direction and mission.
The organization wants to educate people in Aurora about the rich history of the city’s music, based largely around the 320 songs recorded over about a 20-month period during 1937 and 1938 in the former Sky Club in the Leland Hotel.
The facility planned for the venue would include information on those recordings and much more. Foundation members want to have as many as 200 shows a year featuring local, regional and national acts. There also would be kids’ shows and educational events.
