Aurora is proposing a development agreement with the owner of the former Galena Hotel on Galena Boulevard downtown, one of the oldest buildings in the city.
The proposed project would turn the building into 21 micro-apartments of between 250 and 650 square feet. Rents would run from $1,050 to $1,100 a month, the developer said.
“This micro-unit thing has not been done (in Aurora),” said David Dibo, Aurora’s Economic Development director. “It’s kind of pioneering. What we’re excited about is the affordability.”
Dibo told members of the Aurora City Council Finance Committee on Thursday the city is also proud of building owner Fernando Barrera, who is redeveloping the building, and is an Aurora native and a graduate of Aurora Central Catholic High School.
He considered turning the former hotel into a new, boutique hotel, but decided that since he has experience redeveloping older residential buildings, he would do that.
“This is what I know,” said Barrera. “This is my bread and butter, what I do.”
Under the agreement, which Finance Committee members voted to support on Thursday, the city would contribute $1.3 million in tax increment financing district funds from the site toward the overall $6.65 million project cost.
The rest of the funds, about $5.35 million, are coming privately from money Barrera is raising through the sale of historic tax credits. The building is eligible for the tax credits because it’s on the National Register of Historic Places, and because it’s in Aurora’s Riveredge Redevelopment Zone.
Dibo said the tax credits brought the cost of the redevelopment down from about $1,000 a square foot – at which point it would have been almost undoable – to about $500 a square foot.
The project is small – about 10,000 square feet with only about 6,500 square feet that are usable for redevelopment. One reason is Barrera must add an elevator to the building.
The Galena Hotel building has been closed and vacant since 2020, and Barrera bought it in 2023. He joked that when he bought the building, he had to do a lot of evictions.
“I got rid of bedbugs, got rid of cockroaches,” he said.
The floor plans of the apartments include thing such as Murphy beds – which fold up into the wall – and fold-down desks, to make the small size work. Barrera described the units as “market rate, but affordable.”
The property was owned by E.D. Huntoon, a one-time board member of the town of Aurora. He built the Fox River House on the property in 1837, which burned down and was replaced by the current building in 1862. By 1870, Huntoon House was considered the finest hotel in Aurora.
Barrera’s schedule shows the building being ready in early 2026.
slord@tribpub.com
