YORKVILLE – The two applicants who are looking to buy the building at 111 W. Madison St., also known as the old county jail, will soon present their tax increment financing requests at the upcoming Yorkville City Council meeting.
City Administrator Bart Olson said in a Thursday, June 20 memo that city staff expects the two applicants to give 5 to 10 minute presentations about their anticipated TIF fund needs from the city and be open to City Council questions during the Tuesday, June 25 City Council meeting. He said both applicants have met with Mayor John Purcell, which may result in new information being presented as part of their TIF assistance requests during the City Council meeting.
"In general, I expect both development proposals to be viable and each TIF assistance request to be in line with our past TIF agreements," Olson said in the memo.
The anticipated presentations come after city officials last discussed what's been going on with the old jail during their May 14 regular meeting.
The two applicants who are looking to purchase the old jail are a for-profit group with Chicago-area ties and Imperfect Angels, a non-profit mentorship organization for young women based out of Aurora. The for-profit proposal includes a possible microbrewery and the non-profit proposal includes a possible shelter, resource center and community center.
Olson had said both applicants were requested to tighten up their requested TIF requests for their proposed projects. He had said both applicants have asked for additional walk-throughs of the old jail so they can try to tighten up their construction budgets and figure out how much TIF assistance they would need.
Olson said in the Thursday, June 20 memo that staff is requesting that the City Council chooses one of the proposers to negotiate a purchase and development agreement with the city. He said city staff would then bring an agreement before the City Council at a future meeting, depending on how complex the negotiation process ends up being.
The City Council meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 25 at City Hall, 800 Game Farm Road.
