Former North Aurora betting parlor coming down
The former Off-Track Betting parlor on Route 31 is coming down, five years after it took its last bet.
Construction this week crews are demolishing the 49-year-old building at 230 S. Lincolnway in North Aurora. It has been vacant since September 2005, when tenant InterTrack Partners moved out.
InterTrack had run a horse racing betting parlor there since 1989.
Before that, it was a hotel, housing customers visiting the nearby Aurora Downs harness racing track. Aurora Downs closed in 1976 and reopened shortly as Fox Fields. That shut down in 1981.
The vacant OTB building was amassing building code violations, according to Scott Buening, the village's community development director. One serious problem was that the roof had started separating from the walls, allowing water to enter the building. That led to mold contamination, among other issues, he said. The village told the owners to either fix the building or demolish it.
The village has hired a consultant to determine what, if any, incentives or assessments the village could use to spur redevelopment of the 4.76-acre site, as well as that of a shuttered bowling alley just to the south of the Reagan Tollway.
“It (the OTB) is a prime development site,” due to its proximity and visibility to the tollway, Buening said.