Wheaton drivers facility gets last-minute reprieve
The secretary of state's express driver services facility in downtown Wheaton has received a last-minute reprieve and won't close Thursday after all.
The owners of the building decided to renew the facility's lease, Downtown Wheaton Association officials said Wednesday, despite the state's inability to pay rent due to the ongoing budget impasse.
The announcement came a day before the facility, at 128 W. Liberty Drive, was set to close permanently.
“The property owners stated that based on the community response and the importance of having such a facility in a location that serves a significant portion of the Western suburbs, it would be in the best interest of the community to renew the lease and retain this office as a tenant,” according to the statement.
When the closure was announced, Wheaton residents and drivers from surrounding communities expressed anger at the state, annoyance about having to travel elsewhere for services and sadness about the closing of a facility run by employees who they described as fast and friendly.
The statement said that despite the uncertainty of how long the state's budget impasse will continue, the owners are remaining “optimistic.”
Secretary of state spokesman David Druker said the 138 driver services facilities in Illinois stopped receiving rent payments in July. He said rent money was sent out again to all locations to help them catch up in December, after lawmakers approved a supplemental appropriation.
But Martha Winter, a representative for the building owners and senior vice president of LM Commercial Real Estate, said last week no rent payments have been received by the Wheaton landlords since last summer.
Regardless, Druker said there are now plans to sign a five-year lease on Tuesday.
“We're very pleased to be able to stay there,” he said. “We were set to close after the workday tomorrow and they seem to have had a change of heart.”