Geneva committee OKs $131K economic incentive agreement

Geneva alderpersons recommended approval of an economic incentive agreement of $131,762 for a developer who proposes to rehabilitate a 113-year-old building for commercial and residential use.

James Russell, of the Kipling Group, is the contract purchaser and developer, Economic Development Director Cathleen Tymoszenko said Monday at a special Committee of the Whole meeting.

Russell, of St. Charles, created 318 Lofts LLC, as the entity to buy and rehabilitate 318 Anderson Boulevard, with a pending 10-year lease, Tymoszenko said.

The three-story brick and frame commercial building was built in 1912, she said.

The city’s share would be 5% of the overall nearly $2.4 million investment of the planned improvements:

• $15,000 for environmental remediation
• $83,836 for environmental remediation and electric upgrades
• $32,926 for the labor and equipment of a new utility pole and transformer.

“This property is under contract and has an opportunity for a new life with a vibrant commercial user on the ground floor, new residential apartments on the second and third floors,” Tymoszenko said.

The proposed use is for a bike, bagel and coffeeshop on the first floor and two-bedroom lofts on the second and third floors.

The building, on the northwest corner of Anderson and Ford Street, is 18,200 square feet on just under half an acre, Tymoszenko said.

The site is part of a neighborhood commercial area that includes Altiro Latin Fusion restaurant and the World Martial Arts Academy to the south and a dentist office and hair salon to the north, with Geneva High School behind it, Tymoszenko said.

The building first housed the Sanitary Drinking Cup Company, which made paper cups as “part of a nationwide effort to prevent the spread of tuberculosis and try to avoid germs with more sanitary approaches to medical operations,” Tymoszenko said.

In the 1930s, the Illinois Candle Company was there, in 2001 TechPro provided partial occupancy, but it has been largely vacant for the last 10 years, she said.

“The property never was fully occupied. It was always kind of sort-of occupied – substantially under-utilized, really, for the size of the building,” Tymoszenko said. "

Because part of the building is underground, its physical makeup always made it a challenge, she said.

“It does not lend itself to a storefront very easily. And it also doesn’t lend itself to residential. It’s just kind of a challenging set up that isn’t really marketable for either use,” Tymoszenko said.

Alderpersons voted 9-0 with one absent to recommend approval of the economic incentive agreement.

”We lost a bike shop recently, so I’d love to see that go in and it seems like a fantastic idea,” said First Ward Alderperson Anaïs Bowring said.