The face of downtown Aurora is going to change greatly by the end of the summer.
A number of economic development projects in the downtown are getting near to opening.
David Dibo, Aurora’s Economic Development director, updated members of the City Council Finance Committee recently on some of the projects, many of which included incentives approved by aldermen.
“Sometimes we approve deals and it takes time for them to open,” Dibo said.
But many of those are set to open within the next few months.
That includes PreMil, a growing urban sportswear brand that started in Aurora.
It is going to move from its current location on West New York Street to the city-owned parking garage at Downer Place and Stolp Avenue. A sign in the window of the side of the suite that faces Downer, next to the Subway Restaurant, says PreMil is coming soon.
Also opening in the Stolp Avenue garage building will be the Stolp Island Theatre, an immersive theater that will begin by staging “Million Dollar Quartet” beginning July 10.
Two new restaurants also should open sometime in the next 30 days or so. Leilani Asian Fusion has a coming soon sign in its window on the first floor of the Hobbs Building at Galena Boulevard and River Street.
A similar sign is in the window at the building a 110 Cross St., where Foreign Exchange Brewing is going to open. The brewpub will sell by the drink in its bar-style setting, as well as sell package goods. It also will feature what owners call a “fusion kitchen.”
Dibo said the Aurora Civic Center Authority soon will announce the new restaurant coming into the restaurant suite in the Aurora Arts Center at Stolp Avenue and Galena.
That location, which once held Stolp Island Social, will have a new restaurant that promises to be open by late August, when the next Broadway Series season starts at the Paramount Theatre, officials said.
Dibo said work should start soon in the Vargas Building on the Water Street Mall along Galena, where CL Enterprises will spend $4.5 million to remodel a restaurant, brewery, event space and possibly a basement speakeasy into the building.
The restaurant will be done by Tangled Roots Brewing Company.
Dibo said projects involving redevelopment right now are facing prices 30% to 40% higher than when they were planned.
“It’s changing everything, making it more difficult naturally,” he said.
The CL Enterprises project will go through, but officials are in the process of getting approvals on historic tax credits.
slord@tribpub.com
