Omnia backers want Naperville to postpone vote

As Naperville's city council is poised to reject plans for a $190 million makeover of the area around the city's downtown train station, the group behind the project is seeking more time to change council members' minds.

"We've never been able to meet with the council all at once and hash this out," said Bev Patterson Frier, president of the nonprofit group pushing the project. "I don't think there's enough information and understanding."

City staff is recommending the council deny the proposal Tuesday. The Omnia project has been in the works for more than three years and calls for a 2,700-seat Broadway-style performing arts center, an underground commuter parking garage, several new houses, hundreds of condominiums and dozens of restaurants and shops. The estimated cost is around $190 million.

Marcie Schatz, the city's director of transportation, engineering and development, said the city's issues with the development are generally the same as they've been since the project's inception - financing, traffic and density.

"Our main reason is the potential financial impact," Schatz said. "The city would be issuing bonds and if it's not successful there's potential to have to let those bonds default."

Omnia officials have said the city could expect to reap $150 million a year in revenue from the project once it is built out. But city officials contend there are no guarantees the project will ever be built out.

Frier said the problem with going forward with the vote is that people don't understand the financing plan and residents opposed to the project believe the project will cause the city to increase taxes.

"It's not going to cost taxpayers," she said. "In fact, we taxpayers would receive a $50 million underground commuter parking garage that doubles the amount of parking available at the train station now."

City officials have said for years they don't want to add more parking at the train station because of the increased traffic on Washington Street and nearby Fifth Avenue. But Frier contends that with 720 commuters currently being picked up and dropped off by spouses, the additional spaces in the new garage won't impact traffic as much as city officials believe. Omnia's traffic engineers called the project's traffic generation "manageable."

But history is against Omnia. The project is being compared to the ill-fated Millennium Carillon, a massive monolithic musical instrument along the Riverwalk that the city took over financial responsibility for when the nonprofit group charged with its construction ran out of funds. It was supposed to be complete in 2000, but wasn't finished until 2007 and cost taxpayers nearly $5 million in the end.

Also, the residential component of Omnia is being marketed toward senior citizens, but previous attempts to lure seniors into downtown Naperville have been less than successful. Naper Place at 119 S. Main St. was originally built to house seniors, but in 2007 the scant seniors who lived there moved out as the building was turned into a dorm for students from nearby North Central College.

"Have you seen that building? No wonder they didn't want to live there," Frier said. "The problem is nobody asked the seniors what they wanted, but these condos would have all the amenities for them right here."

Neighbors near the train station also fought plans for multifamily housing proposals in the past, complaining that tall buildings would detract from the character of the neighborhood. Parts of the Omnia project would reach heights of 130 feet.

Frier said she doesn't have a backup plan if the project fails.

"I've never been down this road before," she said, then lightheartedly adding, "I don't know what I'll do, probably crawl under my bed and cry."