The Naperville City Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on final clearances for the Water Street District redevelopment plan.
The project, which has grown in dimension by 23 percent since officials endorsed an earlier proposal in 2007, has been under discussion off and on for nearly a decade. The district covers 2.4 acres between Aurora Avenue, Webster Street, Main Street and the West Branch of the DuPage River.
Developer MP Water Street District LLP revised its previously approved subdivision plat last summer, adding more square footage to the Theatre Building planned to sit just east of the Naperville Township offices; reconfiguring some of the restaurant areas and increasing the outdoor dining space in the Loggia Building proposed for the middle of the block; reducing the square footage of the adjacent plaza/boardwalk leading to the Riverwalk; and shifting lot lines to accommodate the changes.
The City Council gave its preliminary approval to the revisions in October. Among Tuesday’s actions will be a vote on formal endorsement of the new plat, as well as a series of agreements related to the funding instrument for the $93.1 million development, including a seven-year extension of the tax increment financing district designed to cover the city’s portion of public improvements.
Anchored by a 158-room boutique inn, the project also will include restaurant and retail spaces, conference and banquet rooms, and office areas. The project also will bring a new 520-space parking structure that will become city property, at a cost of $3.2 million, with 120 spaces earmarked for the hotel’s use.
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Transportation, Engineering and Development director Bill Novack told members of the Riverwalk Commission this week that attorneys for the city and the developer have been hammering out the final details over the past several weeks.
“They’ve been working until midnight for about a month and a half,” Novack said. “We had to come up with something that worked for everyone.”
Representatives for MP, who have estimated that the development will bring 200 permanent jobs in addition to employing about 500 trades workers to build the 214,235-square-foot project, at one point planned to break ground a year ago. The most recent predication calls for the project to be finished in the middle of 2016.
MP spokeswoman Deborah Newman said the developer will have additional details to share after the paperwork has been finalized.
“Out of respect for the process we are not saying anything until the ink has dried and the final approval is at hand,” Newman said in an email, adding that the developer looks forward to breaking ground on the project.
The City Council meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday in the council chambers of the Naperville Municipal Center, 400 S. Eagle St.
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Up for consideration
Issue: Approving the route for the 2015 Healthy Driven Naperville Marathon & Half Marathon Sponsored by Edward-Elmhurst Healthcare.
Background: The course for the third yearly citywide marathon is designed to spotlight downtown Naperville. Registration capacity is increasing by 20 percent over the 2014 level, to 9,000 runners.
What it means: Half marathon runners will go no farther south than Hobson Road, while those taking part in the full route will go south on Book Road to Leverenz Road before heading east toward Washington Street and then north back to the start/finish line. The proposed map can be viewed at http://www.naperville.il.us/napervillemarathon.aspx.
Issue: Reviewing possibilities for revised regulations governing the city’s 11,200 rental housing units.
Background: Council members have expressed interest in expanding on the voluntary Crime Free Multi-Housing Program enacted a dozen years ago, as a way of reducing crime and blight in the city’s apartment complexes.
What it means: Officials will hear about five potential options for tightening the guidelines, ranging in cost from nothing to $445,000 annually.