Elgin City Council approves 40 new apartments downtown

Despite concerns about parking, the Elgin City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved 40 new apartments downtown at 40 DuPage Court.

The redevelopment, by Legend Partners, LLC, will transform the five-story office building into The Courtyard at 40, an $11.34 million project featuring about 4,500 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, with the four upper floors being a mix of 40 studio, one- and two-bedroom market-rate apartments.

While the council expressed universal approval for the project, several members had questions about the issue of parking with that many new downtown residents.

“I'm supportive of the development, I think it will work out well there,” said councilperson Tish Powell. “My continued concerns are around parking, and what I've seen and some feedback I've heard from businesses and residents downtown.”

Mayor David Kaptain said changing demographics downtown could necessitate a parking study in the near future.

“We've gone through some changes in the community, considerably in the last decade or so,” he said, adding that the downtown area footprint has changed with more residential use. “How are we going to be able to continue to compete and make sure that businesses have adequate parking and still maintain the parking for residential people as they're moving downtown.”

“I think that (study) will pay us dividends, so we don't run in to a point four or five years from how where we start to stumble over ourselves,” he said.

40 reserved parking spaces at city facilities within 1,000 feet will be available to residents of the building for $30 per month. Those facilities include the Spring Street and Fulton Street parking garages and surface parking at the lot at Grove Avenue and Prairie Street. Parking provisions would be guaranteed for five years and are essentially the same as those made available to residents of the Elgin Tower Building.

The existing building was completed in 1893 and was Elgin's first steel-frame building. The redevelopment project should take about a year.

Saying the downtown was “on the precipice of exploding,” councilman Corey Dixon gave kudos to Director of Community Development Marc Mylott and the Downtown Neighborhood Association's Jennifer Fukala for the recent expansions.

“Our downtown for many years had been struggling,” Dixon said. “But under their leadership we're doing things we normally didn't do and taking risks that we normally hadn't took.”

“I know there are many more great things like this coming down the pipeline.”