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TO: Mayor Richard C. Irvin
FROM: Alex Minnella, Senior Planner
DATE: February 8, 2024
SUBJECT:
A Resolution Authorizing the Execution of a Property Purchase and Sales Contract for 61-65 E. Downer Place, Aurora, Illinois.
PURPOSE:
To acquire the subject property in order to facilitate the securing of tenants who will be additive to a dynamic Downtown experience. The property will be included in the City's upcoming RFQ that seeks redevelopment ideas, concepts, and plans for many of the City holdings in the Broadway corridor.
BACKGROUND:
The City is facilitating the goals of the Downtown Master Plan including the support of arts, cultural space, social gathering, hospitality, and diverse businesses that distinguish Aurora as its own destination separate from other Fox Valley communities.
The space has been vacant since Johno's vacated about ten years ago. The market has not recognized the opportunity in this relatively large building (almost 9,000 square feet); its continued vacancy and dereliction has a negative impact on Downtown and quality of life.
The p.i.n. numbers are 15-22-380-003 and 15-22-380-004.
DISCUSSION:
The property needs substantial renovation which has been an impediment to its redevelopment. The current owners have had the property for about six years and have not been able to renovate or lease the still boarded-up and vacant property.
The property will be purchased for $260,000 or about $30/SF or the approximate value as indicated by a third-party appraisal, when taking into consideration closing costs, which is the responsibility of the seller. Valbridge, the national appraisal firm, conducted the valuation.
IMPACT STATEMENT:
Purchasing the property that the market has not recognized its value/potential will give the City an opportunity to "prime" the market in the same manner that was done with Craft Urban, now housed in a building not dissimilar form the conditions of 61-65 E. Downer Place.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
That the attached ...
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