Developer seeks return of property rights, $960,000 from Aurora
A local developer who claims his property rights were trampled by Aurora officials has filed suit against the city and is seeking nearly $1 million in damages.
The suit, filed Wednesday morning in Kane County, seeks $960,000 in damages from the city and requests a judge to rule that the city breached an 11-year-old annexation agreement that zoned the property on Route 59 north of New York Street to allow "hotels with 50 guest rooms or more."
On Aug. 11, alderman voted 7-4 to deny developer Stanley "Lee" Fry's site plan for a 93-room Hampton Inn and Suites to be built in the Meijer lot he owns on Route 59 north of New York Street.
In April 2008, Fry entered a purchase agreement with Indianapolis-based National Lodging and Leisure, to sell the property for $960,000, contingent on the plan being approved.
Fry and his partners have been working with city staff for nearly two years but were delayed six months, last October, by a city moratorium on limited-service hotels, which expired in March.
In early May Fry's application was approved by the planning commission and the process began over again.
"They went down a path twice. But now, instead of having 100 workers making a combined $3 million in wages to build the hotel, they're going to have to spend city dollars to fight a lawsuit," Fry said Thursday afternoon. "I don't understand their logic here."
In August, aldermen, including Eighth Ward Alderman Richard Mervine and Alderman at Large Richard Irvin, opposed the plan based on the city's recent market analysis that showed an "oversaturation" of hotel rooms in the city.
If built, the new hotel would have landed in Alderman Lynda Elmore's 10th Ward and she supported the development. Elmore said she wasn't comfortable telling a developer what he can or can't do on land he owns, especially when the land is properly zoned for the project seeking to be built.
"They denied me for economic reasons and that's not right," Fry said. "It would have caused competition, which I believe is a basic American right that often benefits the consumer through lower prices and better service."
Jack Moran, president of Indianapolis-based National Lodging and Leisure, which develops and manages Hilton Hotels said after the plan was denied that he intended to ask the city to reimburse hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees before he sought similar legal action. Moran coulld not be reached Thursday evening.
City spokeswoman Amy Roth said the city had not yet been served the suit and declined to comment.