Naperville council approves Fidelity plan and looks to limit banks downtown

Naperville City Council members have decided that Fidelity Investments can use a first-floor space in a prominent downtown building that formerly housed a Barnes & Noble bookstore.

However, the decision was not unanimous, and the council also has directed city staffers to draft a separate ordinance that would prohibit retail banks from opening in the downtown core zoning district at street level unless they’re granted a variance.

Several council members say they want businesses that generate sales tax dollars on the ground floor and to maintain the retail and dining atmosphere downtown.

Fidelity received a variance for the first-floor portion of its planned business. Naperville’s municipal code restricts what are called “general service uses” in the downtown core district to the second floor or above. Financial institutions are considered to be a general service and are not permitted on the first floor.

Wells Fargo Bank also is expected to open in the corner building at Washington Street and Chicago Avenue. The city considers “more traditional” walk-in-customer-focused retail banking to be commercial services, which are currently permitted on the first floor in the same downtown district.

This week, Councilman Patrick Kelly moved to change that.

“So my idea is to add retail banking, which currently is permitted by right, into the current financial institution definition so something like Wells Fargo that was able to come in by right on the corner would not be allowed to come in by right in the future,” Kelly said.

“We've got other prime corners in the downtown that may redevelop one day, and I think we wouldn't want to see another situation like what we had here,” he added.

Fidelity is slated to occupy about 2,437 square feet of first-floor space in addition to a larger, second-floor office space.

“The majority of the building will be occupied by a completely separate user, and Fidelity will only be using a very small portion of the first-floor area along the side of the building,” said Caitlyn Culbertson, an attorney representing Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC.

She also described the first-floor spot as more than a reception area for Fidelity’s second-floor investment center.

“The first floor will truly be dedicated to serve walk-in customers, with employees present on the ground-floor area to receive and to work with walk-in customers,” said Culbertson, who showed the city council pictures of other Fidelity branches.

Council members Jennifer Bruzan Taylor and Ian Holzhauer voted against Fidelity’s request.

“Retail sales tax is what we want on the first floor,” Holzhauer said. “Numerous times, the term ‘retail’ was thrown out to describe what's shown on the screen, but there's no sale tax being generated there. It's just not retail.”

The rest of the council voted to approve the variance with a few conditions put forward by Mayor Scott Wehrli: that Fidelity will maintain staffing on the first floor during business hours; that those business hours will be consistent with regular bank business hours; and that Fidelity will employ “upwards of 45 full-time employees at the combination of both spaces.”

“I think what we're trying to prevent,” Wehrli said, “is the second-floor space from becoming a secondary use, and then this all turning into, ‘Well, we're only needing the first-floor space,’ and all of the testimony … about the economic impact of 45 plus full-time employees eating and shopping and using the downtown is just not going to happen.”

Barnes & Noble, meanwhile, plans to return to downtown Naperville in the former Pottery Barn space.