The Aurora City Council voted 9-2 Tuesday to approve passing a $13.8 million bond issue to buy the valet parking lot downtown from the Aurora Civic Center Authority.
The bond issue also will help the authority pay off the deficit from creation of the new Stolp Island Theatre, and the renovation work going on along the Fox River Promenade between the Paramount Theatre and the river.
City staff stressed that while the bond issue and purchase of the parking garage is considered the first phase of a three-phase plan to create growth and new revenue for the Aurora Civic Center Authority, or ACCA, the first phase could stand on its own.
The second and third phases as outlined by city staff during the past two weeks could include building a 4,000-seat theater with a 600-person capacity event venue on the top floor downtown, known as the City of Lights Center.
Alex Alexandrou, the city’s chief management officer, stressed that nothing before the council this week had “to do with the potential – potential,” City of Lights Center.
He added that city staff agrees with many of the comments they have heard from aldermen and the public during the past two weeks that the City of Lights Center “requires further study.”
“It needs further due diligence, we agree with that,” he said. “We’re not at that point yet.”
What aldermen did approve is the concept of passing a $13.8 million bond issue. They would actually vote on the bond issue later this year.
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About $10 million of that would go toward buying the parking garage, which is on New York Street, directly across from the front entrance to Hollywood Casino-Aurora.
The Civic Center Authority currently owns the lot, and the casino leases it for valet parking. It has a connection underground to the casino.
Alexandrou said when the casino leaves its location for its new facility by Interstate 88, part of the agreement with the city is the casino will tear down the pavilion and the barges next to it, and leave the city with a developable slab on the north end of Stolp Island.
It will seal off the underground entrance from the parking lot to the slab, but that entrance will be available for whatever develops there. Mayor Richard Irvin has said in the past he favors a high-rise apartment building there, even mentioning it in one of his State of the City addresses.
Alexandrou called the parking garage an “asset of great significance.” He said the garage will be something the city can offer when it markets the spot for redevelopment.
“We do need this deck,” he said. “We know what’s coming. We’re trying to stay ahead of when the casino leaves.”
The bond issue also would cover about $1.3 million in Stolp Island Theatre costs, and about $2.5 million for the promenade construction.
Alexandrou said while the first phase stands on its own, city officials mentioned the proposed second and third phases because they thought it was transparent to show what they had in mind down the line.
“We thought the right thing to do is to give you the game plan,” he said.
Ald. Edward Bugg, 9th Ward, agreed, saying that “phase one is solid.”
“It needs to go forward,” he said. “I look forward to getting more information” about phase two and phase three.
Irvin made an impassioned speech in favor of the first phase, saying that while some people fail to see “the big picture,” he believes “the majority of people will recognize what the city of Aurora is trying to do with its partnership with ACCA.”
Reciting many of the same themes of his administration regarding economic development, he said the money spent “is an investment in our city.”
He pointed out that since Tim Rater joined ACCA as its president and CEO in 2010, it has enjoyed artistic success. It now draws about 600,000 people a year to downtown, with hopes to bring 1 million “in a couple of years,” Irvin said.
He pointed out that five restaurants will have opened in downtown Aurora during 2024.
“Because of our partnership with ACCA, it’s not just downtown, it affects our whole city,” Irvin said.
The two votes against the phase one plan were Alds. Ted Mesiacos, 3rd Ward, and John Laesch, at large, who are also both announced candidates for mayor in 2025.
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Mesiacos said he has been a supporter of ACCA and the Paramount Theatre. But he said while the vote was only on the first phase of the proposal, he could not separate it from the next two phases.
“Even though we are asked to look at phase one, it is part of a three-phase project,” he said. “As I talk to my constituents I keep hearing the same question again and again: How much will all three phases be funded?”
Laesch also looked more at all three phases than just the first, saying ACCA has always depended on subsidies and there was nothing in the plan that said ACCA would make money now.
“The question I’ve been asking is how do we close the gap,” he said.
He suggested a market study to show how other theaters sell their subscriptions, more corporate sponsorship and reducing shows in a given run “to meet the market demand” when shows are not filled.
As for the parking garage, he said because the casino is not leaving for another two years, the city does not have to take on the parking lot now.
Ald. Patty Smith, 8th Ward, asked for an explanation of how the city could pass the bond issue and not affect its portion of property tax.
Chris Minick, the city’s chief financial officer, said the city can pay the estimated $1 million to $1.2 million from the inflationary growth of the city’s assessed value, along with the growth of consumptive taxes such as food and beverage and hotel tax.
He also pointed out that the city by the end of 2024 will pay off two “significant” bond issues, one from 2012 and one from 2019. That will free up about $2.4 million a year in debt service, “more than enough to cover the debt in phase one.”