Aurora officials said this week they are convinced a new Italian restaurant would be a nice fit in downtown.
Aldermen are set to vote next week on a proposed redevelopment agreement with a St. Charles-based restaurant group to put an Italian restaurant in a 3,200-square-foot building at 7 S. Broadway.
It would be the third Italian restaurant downtown, but city officials and the potential restaurant developers said they think that is a plus, not a minus.
“I don’t see too many Mexican restaurants closing in Aurora,” said Ald. Carl Franco, 5th Ward. “We’ve got dozens of them and they’re all doing fine.”
Megan Curren, co-owner of Graceful Ordinary in downtown St. Charles, said she and her husband, Chris Curren, a well-regarded chef, “thought long and hard” before landing on the Italian osteria concept for 7 S. Broadway.
They looked at the size and historic nature of the building itself, and the Aurora community and other offerings in the area.
“This is not going to be similar to the other Italian concepts,” she said.
Amore Mio opened recently on West New York Street in downtown Aurora, and is considered more of a white tablecloth experience, including a downstairs piano bar. An Italian restaurant planned for the Hobbs Building at River Street and Galena Boulevard, just around the corner from Amore Mio, will be seen as catering more to larger parties.
The osteria planned by the Currens is more about the experience, said Chris Curren. The restaurant will make its own pasta on site and have wood fired pizza. It also will use the adjoining Skinny Park for outdoor dining.
“We want to transform diners, make them feel like they are walking into an osteria in Europe,” Curren said.
Ald. John Laesch, at large, asked about having three Italian restaurants downtown, and Mayor Richard Irvin admitted he “asked the very same question” when he first heard about the proposal.
But Chris Curren pointed out that both downtown Geneva and St. Charles have three Italian restaurants, in one case two of the restaurants sharing the same outdoor space.
“It’s one of the most well-accepted styles of cuisine,” he said.
The 7 S. Broadway building is currently owned by the city, and under terms of the redevelopment agreement, the restaurant would spend $100,000 to buy it from the city.
It would cost about $1.65 million to renovate the building, and under the redevelopment agreement, the city and the restaurant would split that cost.
David Dibo, Aurora’s Economic Development director, said the city’s incentive would be $827,094, given in the form of a $413,547 grant, and another $413,547 forgivable loan.
Dibo said the restaurant is estimated to generate about $1.5 million in receipts a year, also paying sales taxes and the city’s food and beverage tax.
That would generate $60,000 to $70,000 a year in those taxes, he said. That should pay the city’s loan back within six years, but Dibo said if there is not enough to pay the city back within eight years, the developers would agree to make up the difference.
Because the city owns the building, it has not been on the tax rolls. When the ownership is transferred back into private hands, it would begin generating property taxes of about $3,000 a year.
Dibo said with the redevelopment, the property taxes generated are estimated to go up to $21,000. The property is in Tax Increment Financing District 10, which means the increase, or about $18,000 a year, would go into the increment.
Irvin said one thing Aurora has that other downtowns do not is more than 500,000 people coming there a year for performances at the Paramount Theatre, the Copley Theatre, RiverEdge Park and other places. Surveys taken by the Paramount show that many patrons eat before or after shows, but they do it in Naperville, St. Charles, Geneva or other towns.
“The reason they say they don’t come to Aurora is we don’t have the number of options,” Irvin said. “The more we expand our options, the more people will stay here and spend their money.”
Another thing Aurora has that other downtowns do not is the number of classic, historic buildings. The building at 7 S. Broadway is such a building, something the Currens said they liked about it. Irvin said the city has to be willing to participate in private-public partnerships “if we want to hold onto some of this old, historic stock.”
“This is an investment in ourselves,” he said. “We have to have skin in the game.”
slord@tribpub.com
