Why a portion of Naperville's Main Street will be closed until November

A portion of northbound Main Street in downtown Naperville was closed Tuesday and will remain so until mid-November to allow space for a building project.

Drivers won't be able to head north on Main between Jefferson Avenue and the entrance to the Van Buren surface parking lot while crews work on a one-story building at the northeast corner of Main and Jefferson Avenue. The new building will replace the former Russell's Dry Cleaners, which property owner Russell Breitweiser closed and tore down last year.

Breitweiser said site work on the building began this week with tuckpointing and installation of a fence.

“There will be a lot of action in the next four months,” Breitweiser said. “There's going to be a big push.”

Signs for Sequoia General Contracting Corp. of Aurora are posted on the fence, which also blocks segments of sidewalk on the north side of Jefferson and the east side of Main. The closures caused downtown shoppers on Tuesday to adjust their paths to other stores at the corner, such as a new Kilwins ice cream shop, Bluemercury spa, Starbucks Reserve and Two Bostons dog boutique.

Bill Novack, the city's director of transportation, engineering and development, said the road must be partially closed because of the size of the machines needed to construct a new building. He said the city enacted similar closures during construction of the Main Street Promenade and does so for safety.

“They just can't build it without using some of the right of way,” Novack said. “They need a place to have equipment and staging.”

Breitweiser said he first planned to build a three-story structure to replace the building that housed the cleaners, but the market caused him to scale back the design.

“It's extremely difficult to rent the upper two stories, so we won't do it,” he said Tuesday.

Breitweiser said crews hope to finish the exterior by November so work can continue inside. He said a tenant has been chosen but cannot yet be announced. He expects the tenant to be occupying the space in February or March, if construction remains on schedule.

Detour signs are posted to help drivers, bicyclists and people on foot avoid the affected section of Main Street, and the city advises caution around the construction area.

Closed: Size of construction machinery led to decision