Council tables plan to purchase Jefferson Ave. property
by Hank Beckman For The Sun January 15, 2013 10:40PM
Updated: February 17, 2013 6:30AM
Naperville City Council Tuesday tabled indefinitely an ordinance to approve $1.3 million for purchasing the property at 20 E. Jefferson Ave.
The city would like to eventually use the property for the future expansion of the city parking structure that sits on Chicago Avenue just east of Washington Street.
In the meantime the purchase price of $1.3 million was to have been defrayed partially by renting space at part of the property to the Naperville Development Partnership, but that deal fell through.
“We had a tenant who no longer wanted to pursue the lease,” City Manager Doug Krieger said.
The tenant, The Naperville Development Partnership, would have paid the city $60,000 to house its headquarters on the property, but both parties decided that there was more work to be done on the property than they were comfortable with, effectively killing the deal.
“It needs too much work on top of the purchase price,” Councilman Paul Hinterlong said during a meeting break. “It’s just not feasible at this time.”
As for the expansion of the parking structure, it has been put on hold.
Krieger said that the city has no specific date in mind for any eventual expansion.
that the item was in the city’s Capital Improvement Plan and the parking situation downtown would be monitored by the city on a yearly basis every fall.
