Waubonsee votes to sell former downtown Aurora campus
Waubonsee Community College sold its former downtown Aurora campus Wednesday night, a necessary step to redeveloping the site in to a complex devoted to artists and the arts.
Seize the Future Economic Development Foundation, a public-and-private economic development foundation for the City of Aurora, will pay $350,000. Closing is set for June 29. Seize the Future is also known as Invest Aurora.
The two buildings, at Stolp Avenue and Galena Boulevard, would become part of the Aurora Arts Center, a school run by the nearby Paramount Theatre. They would also include 38 apartments for artists, four apartments for visiting Paramount performers, and a restaurant.
"It just substantiates Aurora's position as an arts and culture destination," said Kirk Albinson, project manager for The Community Builders, the nonprofit housing developer for the project.
Aurora City Council's finance committee Tuesday voted to recommend the city council approve a memorandum of understanding with the The Community Builders,
The city declined to release a copy of that memorandum to the Daily Herald on Wednesday, saying it was a draft document and the city council still needed to approve it. The next city council meeting is June 28.
The plan also calls for the company to buy and renovate the low-income Coulter Court apartments at 104 E. Downer Place, according to Albinson.
Waubonsee left the Stolp Avenue and Galena Boulevard buildings in 2011, when it opened a new campus nearby, on River Street.
The two former college buildings are attached. The Block and Kuhl building opened as a department store in 1928. The Stanley Building opened as a furniture store in 1925.
They are in the Stolp Island National Register Historic District.
The city bought both buildings in 1985. Then the college bought them and invested $6.4 million to remodel them.
If the city council approves the memorandum of understanding, The Community Builders would seek tax credits from the Illinois Housing Development Authority.
The developer told the finance committee Tuesday night that the arts school could attract 3,000 students. It would be modeled after the school at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre in Arlington Heights.