Aurora alderman questions city funds for developers
The owner of a vacant lot at Bilter Road and Farnsworth Avenue in Aurora will be eligible for up to $310,000 in site work reimbursements from the city under a redevelopment agreement aldermen approved Tuesday night.
While the agreement was approved 11-1, the alderman who opposed it also voiced concerns about another agreement — a $1.25 million pact with a developer for renovating several old, vacant buildings on New York Street downtown and filling them with restaurants, creating a Restaurant Row.
Alderman Rick Lawrence voted against the redevelopment agreement for the Bilter and Farnsworth lot, saying he objected to a provision allowing the owner to get reimbursed for some costs before all work is completed.
He said the city needs to more carefully examine potential developers before agreeing to refund them for renovations.
“It's just something to ask the council moving forward,” Lawrence said. “How do we do better at this stuff? What questions are we missing here?”
Carie Anne Ergo, chief management officer, said the city already checks the financial and legal records of companies seeking TIF funds and reviews other developments they've completed.
“The city has a pretty extensive process to vet potential developers,” Ergo said.
In the case of the Restaurant Row agreement, approved in December, 2009, the city has reimbursed $500,000 out of a possible $1.25 million, said Bill Wiet, development director. But at least two of the restaurants planned for the area — a second location of Luigi's Pizza now at 732 Prairie St. in Aurora, and a Billy Goat Tavern — have not materialized.
Bill Poss, owner of Luigi's Pizza, said he pulled out of the plan and will not be building a new location downtown. But Billy Goat Tavern still is interested in coming to Restaurant Row, Wiet said.
Development agreements are designed to spur projects on sites that otherwise would be undesirable because of cost or lack of utilities, Ergo said.
In the case of the agreement approved Tuesday night for the property at Bilter and Farnsworth, tax increment financing district funds will reimburse the cost of readying the site for future development by extending a water main and sanitary and storm sewers under the land.
The owner, real estate firm Dolan & Murphy Inc., can get some money when construction stops for the winter, and the rest after the project is complete, Wiet said.
Some aldermen questioned why the city is promising funds when Dolan & Murphy does not yet have a buyer for the site. But they seemed satisfied with Wiet's answer: The tax increment financing district expires in late 2012, so the times is now to take advantage of TIF funding to make the site more attractive to future businesses.
“We do have the ability to provide the utilities and get the site pad ready for a developer that would come in,” Wiet said. “This is just another means to an end to get a property, a corner property, market-ready.”