Batavia Walgreens construction to get second extension

The deadline to start building a new Walgreens store in downtown Batavia is being extended again.

The city council, meeting as a committee of the whole, recommended the extension Tuesday; the council will formally vote on it Dec. 16.

It is the second extension of the deadline set in the redevelopment agreement approved by the council in February. The city is offering $1.14 million worth of incentives to get the new store built.

Under the original terms, Batavia Enterprises Inc. was supposed to start demolishing the former Swanson Hardware at 122 W. Wilson St. no later than Oct. 31. In September, the council agreed to push that back to Dec. 31.

But BEI has yet to button up a lease for the new store with Walgreens. The store will replace the current Walgreens at 134 W. Wilson.

“Is there a chance this project won't happen?” Alderman Dan Chanzit asked.

Austin Dempsey, vice president of BEI, said figuring out geological and environmental aspects of the site — which was built on fill dumped into a man-made channel of the Fox River — has delayed construction.

“And then three weeks ago, they (Walgreens) decided to eliminate their real estate department,” Dempsey said. Walgreens has outsourced its real estate work to a Texas firm owned by former Dallas Cowboys' quarterback Roger Staubach.

The city received engineering plans from BEI Monday, city administrator Bill McGrath said.

“I think it (the delay) is disconcerting, even for the general public,” Alderman Michael O'Brien said.

The new Walgreens was proposed in July 2011, and it went through several years of public hearings and much city council debate. BEI is negotiating a 75-year lease with Walgreens.

Under the extension, it will have until May 31 to start demolition.