Batavia sells Thomle Building to kitchen, bath firm
The city of Batavia has sold a historic downtown building that it never intended to own for so long.
The Thomle Building, at 2 E. Wilson St., will be sold for $160,000 to Bill and Jamie Koc. It will house Jamie Koc's Heart of the Home kitchen and bathroom design firm.
The city council approved the sale Monday.
The city bought the two-story building in 1997 for $75,000, when it was abandoned and dilapidated. It put more than $100,000 into repairs and then put it up for sale in 1998.
But officials later decided to lease the building to the Batavia MainStreet organization and MainStreet volunteers remodeled the interior. When that group moved out, the city leased it out as a business incubator space. It also has housed a photography business, a cabinetry business and a gift shop.
In recent years, the council sought proposals for redeveloping the building, perhaps as a restaurant. It received several proposals and each requested financial assistance from the city.
Aldermen rejected an idea to open a four-day-a-week martini bar. Another developer proposed buying the building next door and combining the two for a restaurant and residences, with $590,000 worth of incentives from the city. But the purchase of the other building failed.
The council then decided to sell the building outright, without asking for development plans.
It was built in 1878 and used by a furniture- and coffin-making firm. At one time, it was a terminal on the Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad line that ran along the Fox River. The city has designated it as a "significant" historical building because of its "indigenous" construction with limestone and distinctive design.