The Aurora City Council is set to vote Tuesday on a redevelopment agreement that would bring three new restaurants to downtown.
Council members also are set to vote on a separate redevelopment deal with the same developer to add 15 residential units to an historic building already being redeveloped at a second spot downtown.
The council, meeting as a Committee of the Whole March 7, gave its endorsement to the two deals with JH Real Estate Partners, a company that owns a number of properties downtown, including the historic Hobbs Building.
The company rehabbed that building, which sat vacant in downtown Aurora for almost 40 years, into 31 apartment units, 29 of which are already leased. There are three restaurant suites on the first floor of the building, and the three restaurants – an Asian fusion, a French and an Italian – would locate there, according to Harish Ananthapadmanabhan, one of the JH Real Estate partners. The other partner is Jay Punukollu.
The restaurants would be at 2, 6 and 12 N. River St. Ananthapadmanabhan told City Council members company officials see the situation as “taking matters into our own hands.”
“We always had this vision that downtown Aurora should be a destination,” he said. “This will bring more activity – not just from the Paramount, but also people from surrounding suburbs to come to our downtown.”
The restaurant at 2 N. River St., the corner suite that includes two floors and 7,979 square feet, would be Leilani, an Asian fusion restaurant. The restaurant would feature up to 150 seats, and also have patio dining in an outdoor space planned for the west side, or the back, of the building. Opening would be planned for this summer.
The restaurant next door at 6 N. River St. would be La Ville Lumiere, a French restaurant with a seating capacity of 100 in 3,460 square feet, including some patio space on the east side, or River Street side, of the building. This restaurant would be developed by one of four master chefs in Illinois, one of 63 in the entire country, Ananthapadmanabhan said. It is planned to be open by the winter.
The restaurant at 12 N. River St., in 3,408 square feet, would be Buona Italia, an Italian restaurant which plans to open in the fall. It would also have about a 100-seat capacity and have patio dining to the north side of the building.
Eventually, there could be a banquet facility in the building basement shared by all three restaurants. Officials said the restaurants will feature lunch specials and menus, and have dinner menus in the $26 entree range.
City officials see the restaurants as an extension of the vision of downtown Aurora as both a destination and a place to live.
“We’ve had many successes in our downtown,” said Elle Withall, downtown specialist in the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development. “We want to improve on that.”
The entire project would be about $5 million, and according to the proposed deal, JH Partners would put in $2.6 million, and the city would loan the developers about $2.3 million in two loans. One of the loans would be a $1.3 million, second position loan at 5% for 13 years, and the other would be a $1 million forgivable loan, if the project finishes as the developers say it will.
City officials said that both JH Real Estate partners, and Ananthapadmanabhan and Punukollu personally, would guarantee the loans.
The residential part of the Hobbs project was about $13 million, with the city putting in a $1.5 million forgivable loan and developing a tax increment financing district on the property. JH Partners raised the rest of the money through private means.
The development at 100 Cross St. would have JH Partners developing 15 apartments in the upper floors of a former warehouse building that has been empty for at least 20 years, officials said.
Right now, Foreign Exchange Brewery is developing a brewpub in the first floor of the building. The 15,000-square-foot building was built in 1929.
The proposed $5.5 million deal would have JH Partners putting in $1.25 million in equity, getting a loan for $1.7 million and selling another $1.7 million in historic tax credits.
The city’s total commitment would be $375,000, with $300,000 going to the residential part of the development. The other $75,000 was committed to the Foreign Exchange part of the project.
The money would come in the form of a forgivable loan, and money raised from a tax increment financing district on the property.
“So at the end of the day, the city would be out no money,” said Mayor Richard Irvin.
Withall has said the block the building is in “is getting a ton of interest” from both developers and property owners. It includes the former International Harvester building that was renovated into the successful Company 251 wedding destination venue.
Aurora has already done an inducement for a micro-tax increment financing district on the property, and Ald. Sherman Jenkins, at large, pointed out that in a TIF district, the developer has to create the increment before getting any of it.
“The only money involved is the increment,” said Irvin. “This money is created by their development. If they don’t create it, they don’t get it.”
City Council members placed the agreements on the consent agenda for Tuesday’s full City Council meeting, so they are likely to pass.
