St. Charles’ First Street project stuck in construction limbo
St. Charles officials authorized a fifth extension of the deadline to begin construction on the third phase of the city’s key downtown development project Monday night.
The ongoing delays to the First Street project are a product of an economy that is yet to see enough of a rebound to push the project forward, Mayor Don DeWitte said.
Aldermen gave Phase III of the First Street project the green light for construction way back in December 2008. That initial OK came with a two-year deadline to break ground. When that didn’t happen by November 2010, aldermen extended the construction deadline to December 2011.
That deadline also came and went, but aldermen decided to turn up the heat on the project by granting a deadline extension only to mid-January 2012. At the same time, aldermen agreed to allow Inland Realty permission to convert the 62 condos originally envisioned for the third phase into 125 rental units. The first-floor retail uses still remain.
However, the change to rentals still didn’t result in enough pre-sale/pre-lease agreements to secure the private financing needed to begin construction.
When the January deadline arrived, the city council extended the deadline to Feb. 21. At the end of February, First Street LLC and Inland Realty reported some progress, but not enough to begin construction. Aldermen again kicked the deadline to May 7.
As of Monday night, there were still no building permits issued on the project. Aldermen once again granted a deadline extension to July 17.
DeWitte said the month-to-month deadline approach is designed to push progress reports from the development team.
“It is indicative of a couple of things,” DeWitte said. “One is to try to remain emphatic with the potential development merger of First Street LLC and Inland Realty to continue to work diligently to bring this project forward.
“The other issue is the fact that it is a significant amount of money. We’re dealing with an investment of between $30 million and $35 million. So, they are being very deliberate for good reason.”
That said, DeWitte isn’t overly hopeful that major movement on the construction will occur until there is a corresponding major trend upward in the economy.
“From a development standpoint, we haven’t really seen enough of a surge in business yet that would lead me to believe that there’s a trend,” DeWitte said. “Some aspects of real estate have perked up, rental properties being one of them. That’s one of the reasons why the First Street redevelopment project, at this point, Phase III, is being discussed in a rental mode as opposed to a for-sale mode. While some aspects of the economy are trending up, I’m hesitant to suggest that any kind of recovery is in full swing.”
The third phase also includes another parking garage with more than 200 spaces for the downtown. But one of the additional buildings once envisioned has been nixed in favor of more green space.