The Aurora Civic Center Authority is close to a deal for a new restaurant in the former Stolp Island Social location in the Aurora Arts Center downtown.
Jonathan Hylton, Civic Center Authority board chairman, said the deal would be with a restaurateur who has several successful restaurants as part of a hospitality group.
“They’ve done it well,” he said. “This is certainly a notable restaurateur.”
Hylton said officials are not ready to announce the restaurant yet, and said the opening would likely be in late summer, in advance of the opening show of the Paramount Theatre’s new Broadway Series season.
That would be about a year after Stolp Island Social closed, although it had been temporarily closed for the summer before calling it quits for good.
Hylton said the new restaurant would be “a different concept” than Stolp Island Social, and that the interior of the restaurant suite would be remodeled. He described the style of the restaurant as “upscale casual.”
That style is based on what Civic Center Authority officials found out by surveying the patrons who come to the Paramount Theatre, as well as the Copley Theatre for its Bold Series of shows.
“We are looking at what they want,” Hylton said. “Nobody really wanted a high-end steakhouse. We want them to be happy.”
As far as what kind of deal the new restaurant would get, there are no details yet. Hylton said the restaurant company was “willing to put some skin in the game” as part of the deal.
The city’s investment into Stolp Island Social was about $440,000. Aurora spent about $5.5 million as part of the about $40 million Aurora Arts Center project. Some $1.3 million of that went into creating the restaurant suite that is right next door to the Paramount.
Hylton said the new restaurant will dovetail into the theater district Aurora Civic Center Authority and city officials are trying to create downtown. In addition to the events at the Paramount, the Copley Theatre and RiverEdge Park, the authority is opening another theater, the Stolp Island Theater, an immersive experience, this summer.
But Hylton said part of the theater district idea is that it creates its own identity and synergy beyond the shows offered. That synergy is created in part by the core of restaurants.
At least five new restaurants will open in downtown this year.
“We want the restaurateurs to have their own draw, even when we don’t have something going on,” Hylton said.
Mayor Richard Irvin said in a recent interview that was the reason the city recently created the Music, Events and Entertainment Commission to look at the different entertainment opportunities “throughout the entire downtown.”
In addition to the Civic Center Authority theaters, downtown has the Riverfront Theater, which is a community theater, and The Venue, a live music facility, both along Water Street Mall.
Irvin said the downtown needs to create even more interest, more people and more walkability.
“Naperville does a great job of it, we’re going to an even better job of it,” he said.
slord@tribpub.com
