A big player in Hemmens future: The ESO

It's unclear if or when the Elgin City Council will decide to renovate or replace the Hemmens Cultural Center.

But if council members pursue one of those two options, it will cost the city tens of millions of dollars.

And Mayor Ed Schock says the groups that use the center likely will be asked to help raise money.

The Elgin Symphony Orchestra could be at the top of the list.

So what does it mean that the ESO is about to lose its top administrator to a job in Florida?

Not a lot, said Michael Pastreich, the group's soon-to-be former executive director.

"We just looked at what my leaving would mean for our annual fundraising," Pastreich said. "My ego finds it hard to find out how insignificant my departure is going to be."

Pastreich says his absence is much less important than what the city decides to do with the Hemmens.

For instance, if council members decide to renovate the existing building, he says, it would be hard to raise money for the project.

"Our board seems very aware that the Hemmens is an obsolete building," he said. "A new Hemmens would be much easier to raise money for than an old Hemmens."

City officials already have said it wouldn't be cost-effective to renovate.

A study by city consultants Economics Research Associates and Fisher Dachs, for instance, said renovation could total 75 percent of the costs of a new center -- or upward of $30 million.

Still, city council members asked their staff to bring back a better cost comparison between renovation and rebuilding.

And although it would be harder to raise money to renovate, Pastreich said, the ESO will probably work with the city no matter what.

"I think that the symphony will do everything in its power to help either Hemmens renovation or a new Hemmens," he said. "I think that all parties are clear that whatever goes forward would have to be a partnership.

"Our board is clearly deeply committed to that sentiment," he said.