A longtime Aurora fast-food restaurant owner would receive more than $60,000 in city assistance to open a Popeye’s Chicken & Biscuits on the near east side under a deal recommended by the City Council Finance Committee.
The agreement, which the council likely will consider Tuesday, requires the city to rebate up to $50,000 in sales, property and food and beverage taxes to Valta Inc. for up to three years.
In addition, the city would sell Valta two parcels of land it owns at New York and Loucks Streets for $1.
The city, which once used the now-vacant land for a satellite police station, paid $10,425 for the parcels in 1986 and 1995.
Valta would buy an adjacent parcel for $35,000 and use all three parcels, which would comprise about half an acre, to build a nearly $1 million, 2,779-square-foot Popeye’s, which would open next year. The restaurant, which is expected to gross $1.2 million a year, would have 20 employees by the end of 2004.
The Popeye’s would be “in an area that hasn’t really seen a lot of new development,” said David Fitzgerald, small-business development coordinator for the Aurora Economic Development Commission. “Hopefully, it should start a chain reaction of development.”
Valta is owned by Soterios Gariakos, who has owned and operated a Burger King on New York Street for more than 20 years.
Under the rebate proposal, the city would return to Valta half of its property, sales and food and beverage taxes, which are expected to total nearly $53,000 a year, for three years, or until $50,000 is rebated.