By Jason Crane
Members of the Fox Valley Building and Construction Trades Council and investors packed the top floor meeting room in Aurora’s City Hall for the Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday.
Five members of the building trades group offered encouragement to the Council to pass a resolution for a $9 Million redevelopment agreement between the city of Aurora and Fox Valley Developers, LLC (FVD) to put Phase 2 in motion to rebuild the former Copley Hospital, 502 S. Lincoln Avenue, 301 Weston Avenue, and 310 Seminary Avenue, known as Avalon Heights.
The group has remediated and stabilized the old buildings, including removal of asbestos. They project they will need another $9 Million to cover the gap in Phase 2.
The plan is to develop the buildings into a medical and housing facility that would cater to seniors and those with special needs and 80% of the project would be residential.
Attorney Michael Poulakidas, one of six principals from FVD involved in the project, said, “They have to apply for a certificate of need which determines the need of a surgery center in a particular area. The supply (of surgery centers) has outweighed the demand for years, but they still give certificates for surgery centers and you have to find a technicality.
“Our technicality is we’re bringing in doctors that offer seven specialities that nobody in a 10-mile radius offers.
“Is it a guarantee? Nothing in life is a guarantee. Will we do everything in our power to make it happen? Of course, we will,” Poulakidas said.
Alderman Judd Lofchie was overruled by mayor Richard Irvin when he asked the developers about the possibility of a 70% occupancy clause before the second $4.5 Million is released. Mayor Irvin instructed members of the Fox Valley Developers not to answer.
Lofchie said, “In principal, I’m definitely in favor of this development. I think the developers have brought in a lot of good consultants. I would like to see the $9 Million dollars based on what’s called ‘good news money’. If they get the pharmacy and the certificate of need, then they get the money.”
Mayor Irvin and the majority of Council members agreed there is a risk, but the return is a $129 Million project on the East Side of Aurora which will solve the issue of the former Copley Hospital Campus, vacant for 25 years and environmentally hazardous, which came to symbolize institutionally-entrenched decay to impact the Bardwell School neighborhood, the greater community, and Aurora.
The resolution is set for a vote at Tuesday’s Aurora City Council meeting.