Aurora City Council eyes plan for hotel near Hollywood Casino site
The Aurora City Council is set to vote on a proposed ECHO Suites hotel by Wyndham near North Farnsworth Avenue that if approved could open next year.
The proposed development at 1350 Corporate Blvd. would be able to take advantage of a location near the new Hollywood Casino resort that opened in late June, said Alderman Daniel Barreiro, 1st Ward. His ward includes the casino and the proposed hotel site.
Barreiro said, however, that he is worried about potential traffic around the hotel.
“It’s economic development, and there’s many, many benefits,” he said. “The main concern in the ward is traffic, congestion and just trying to get north and south in that area.”
If approved at the city council meeting on Sept. 8, the 51,000-square foot, four-story hotel would hold 124 rooms, according to the development proposal discussed at Tuesday’s City Council Committee of the Whole meeting.
The hotel would also include a guest laundry room, a fitness room, vending areas and 136 parking spaces, according to the proposal.
Barreiro emphasized that the city would not use any incentives to bring in the proposed hotel development.
He said the hotel could help provide overflow lodging for the casino’s hotel and a place to stay for people wanting to visit other nearby attractions such as the Chicago Premium Outlets mall.
The proposed hotel development would be located just under half a mile from the casino and the outlet mall.
“A lot of times it helps to have more than one because people might want to stay in a hotel but maybe they don’t necessarily want to go to the casino,” he said. “It might be something that makes a difference.”
As for traffic concerns, Barreiro said he is especially concerned about safety when cars are merging from Interstate 88 onto Farnsworth Avenue. He said recently a semitruck almost got into a bad accident in those merging lanes.
“There’s traffic coming south on Farnsworth, and they’re flying on that bridge and then they don’t know there’s cars trying to merge in front of them until they are on the downside of the bridge, and it’s not a lot of distance,” he said.
He said the city plans to conduct a traffic study if the proposed hotel development gets approved. The city also added lanes and medians on Bilter Road and North Farnsworth Avenue as part of the Hollywood Casino development. Traffic signal improvements between the tollway and Sheffer Road are also underway, he said.
Barreiro said developments have been popping up around the site of the new Hollywood Casino at 2500 N. Farnsworth Ave. for a while. In the past year and a half, he said, a nail salon, a Potbelly Sandwich Shop, a Panda Express and a Buffalo Wild Wings all opened around North Farnsworth Avenue.
The new Hollywood Casino Aurora, a $360 million land-based entertainment complex that opened in late June, generated $17.4 million in revenue and welcomed nearly 156,000 visitors in July, according to Illinois Gaming Board data released in early August.
Those numbers are nearly double the revenue and admissions compared to the same month last year, when the casino was in downtown Aurora, officials said.
awright@chicagotribune.com