A longtime bank building on downtown Aurora’s fringe could become a new regional office for a state of Illinois agency.
First Midwest is looking to convert the building at 301 W. Galena Blvd., at the corner of Galena and Oak Avenue, into “a modern office building,” according to a spokesman for the company.
Aldermen on the Aurora City Council Building, Zoning and Economic Development Committee this week recommended a final plan for what is being called the Associated Bank subdivision.
Under the plan, the building would become home to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. The state would consolidate its DCFS regional offices on Indian Trail and in North Island Center downtown into the newly renovated office building.
As part of the plan, the city would vacate a public right-of-way – an alley – that cuts through the property, and the developers would take out the drive-thru banking area and convert it to offices.
The developers also would expand the parking lot toward Oak Avenue, and do a lot of new landscaping throughout the property.
The building was built as a bank in the early 1960s, and has had offices on the second floor for many years. But tenants of all those offices have left, and the building had only a bank on the first floor for a couple of years.
