Aurora City Council delays decision on plan for hotel near Hollywood Casino site

The Aurora City Council on Tuesday night delayed a decision on a proposed hotel development near the new Aurora Hollywood Casino site, citing concerns over whether the hotel aligns with the city’s vision for the area.

The council is now set to vote on the project at its Sept. 22 meeting, ahead of a Sept. 25 deadline the developer said it has with the seller of the property near North Farnsworth Avenue where the proposed hotel would be built.

“The 25th is kind of the critical date because we either have to cancel the contract or tell them we’re moving forward,” said Guy Pisani, development manager for Holladay Properties, which wants to open an ECHO Suites hotel by Wyndham offering extended stay options at the site at 1350 Corporate Blvd.

If approved, the proposed hotel development 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.

The proposed 51,000-square-foot hotel would be four stories and include 124 rooms, according to the developer.

The hotel would also include a guest laundry room, a fitness room, vending areas and 136 parking spaces, according to the proposal.

The development proposal passed through city council committees with little pushback other than some traffic concerns, but Alderman Edward Bugg, 9th Ward, said just moments before a final council vote on Tuesday night that he wanted to know if the city had an overall plan for development in the area.

Bugg said he wanted to give the city more time to ensure that any development brought to that area would build upon the economic success from the casino and the nearby Chicago Premium Outlets mall and not hinder it.

He said he was especially concerned with an extended stay hotel development because he said the city spent around $7 million a few years ago to purchase and demolish two problematic extended stay hotels on the property where the casino now stands.

“We gave ourselves a clean slate so we could have land to develop the area on Farnsworth in that corridor,” he said. “We cannot make a mistake at this point, bringing in the wrong type of business, the wrong type of hotel or other at this point that could be detrimental to what we already have there.”

Bugg said the last extended stay hotels that occupied the area, which some city officials characterized as budget motels, had public safety and noise disturbance issues.

But Pisani told the council Tuesday that the quality of the hotel depends on the operator. He said Holladay Properties has a national “A plus reputation” and does not tolerate disturbances.

“We can’t have people on the property causing other guests to leave or to not want to stay there or causing problems in the community,” he said. “We can’t control guests that come in … but it’s how you handle it and address it and also how you communicate with the city.”

He said the company completed a feasibility study that showed demand at that location for an extended stay hotel.

Pisani emphasized that Holladay Properties has owned and operated some of its hotels for years, which he said shows the company’s commitment to a community.

Barreiro previously told The Beacon-News that he supports the development for its economic benefits, but that he had some traffic concerns about the proposal that the city planned to address.

Tracey Vacek, the city’s director of zoning and planning, said Tuesday night that she also supports the ECHO Suites development. She said she did not think the development would cause issues like the previous nearby hotels did, which she said were closer to motels.

“I do not think this hotel is anything like those hotels, I will say, and I do not think they will be run like those motels,” she said.

Vacek said the city would prefer to bring a higher-end hotel to the area, but that the proposed location could be a good fit for an extended stay hotel. She said the city aims to bring higher-end hotels closer to Interstate 88.

She also said the city has only received one other development proposal for the property on Corporate Boulevard, and that it was also for an extended stay development.

Vacek said city staff are working to figure out if the city ever had a vision for the corridor and if this proposed development matches that plan.

Bugg said he was told by city staff that the previous administration under former mayor Richard Irvin had developed a possible conceptual plan for the corridor along Farnsworth Avenue, but he said that plan was never shared with the city council.

Vacek confirmed that city staff developed a plan for the area, but that it likely did not make it past the conceptual stage.

Alderman Carl Franco, 5th Ward, took issue with the council delaying a vote on the proposed development due to concerns about a plan that might not exist.

Vacek said she would locate details on any plan for the corridor ahead of the next city council meeting.

Pisani said the company could work through any questions or concerns from the city ahead of the Sept. 22 council meeting.

awright@chicagotribune.com