The Aurora City Council will take a look at spending about $550,000 on the Stolp Island parking deck downtown, some of which is related to the building of a new theater there.
Aldermen on the Infrastructure and Technology Committee recently recommended the contracts with several companies to do the work. The full council, as a Committee of the Whole, will look at the contracts Tuesday.
Some is connected to the buildout of the Stolp Island Theatre, an Aurora Civic Center Authority-administered immersive theater in one of the first-floor suites of the parking garage.
The new theater is scheduled to open in July with the show “Million Dollar Quartet,” a tale of the night four recording icons, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis, came together in a jam session at Sun Studios in Memphis.
The theater will create an atmosphere where people are seated among the action, and also will include a recreation of the outside of the Sun Records studio.
As part of the buildout, the city and the Aurora Civic Center Authority have to put in some new lighting and signage, said Jason Bauer, Aurora’s assistant public works director.
Two signs would be placed above entrances to the promenade along the Fox River, one at Benton Street and the other along Downer Place, directing people to the theater.
Bauer also said the exterior lighting needs to be replaced as it is aged and replacement parts are no longer available. The lighting also would be upgraded to be able to change color to match themes downtown.
He added some minor painting is required this year and existing window tinting is not consistent over the deck.
Bauer said the city allocated funding for this project in the 2024 budget.
The Infrastructure and Technology Committee recommends a $70,000 contract to Graybar, a St. Louis-based company with 345 North American locations for the lighting, and to Aurora Sign for $270,000 for the signage.
Some of the signage would be for directional reasons, and some for promotion of the show.
The contract for tinting and painting would be with F.H. Paschen for $160,000.
Ald. John Laesch, at large, an Infrastructure and Technology Committee member, asked why the city would pay for the contracts when the city has subsidized the Civic Center Authority with millions of dollars during the past several years.
Bauer said the city owns the building, even though the Civic Center Authority administers the theater.
“It is our building, our parking deck,” Bauer said. “The contract is pretty minimal for the theater itself.”
slord@tribpub.com
