The city of Aurora is looking at a $1.5 million loan to Fox Valley Developers to help bring a major health care provider to the Bloomhaven development.
Bloomhaven is the redeveloped former Copley Hospital site along Lincoln Avenue on the city’s near East Side. It includes Weston Bridges, residential apartments for developmentally disabled adults, and Bardwell Senior Living Residences, an independent living community for seniors.
It also is home to the East Aurora School District administrative headquarters, and a five-acre Fox Valley Park District park and playground, with trails and walking paths.
The $129 million project redeveloped about 330,000 square feet of space, and is a public-private partnership, with the city of Aurora putting in about $18 million worth of incentives.
One of the final parts of the development is a health care provider with a clinic, to be remodeled into about 60% of the oldest part of the former hospital.
David Dibo, Aurora’s Economic Development director, said the health care provider, which he declined to name at this time, is about to sign a lease. He described Bloomhaven as “one entrepreneurial event after another.”
“The whole thing is a remarkable story,” he said. “We’re making sure this property is and continues to be a success.”
The $1.5 million loan would go toward remodeling the 50,000-square-foot space for the health care provider. Dibo said the loan would allow Fox Valley Developers to spend $5 million of their own equity on a needed refinancing for the project.
“We determined this was in the city’s best interest,” Dibo said.
The city also would delay the developer’s payback of money from a tax increment financing district on the property for seven years. The TIF district was put on the property with the provision the developer would get 80% of the money it generates, with the city getting 20%. That changes in the 11th year of the TIF district, when the city gets 30%. The money is treated like a loan, to be paid back.
Dibo said the city’s return on investment for its $18 million has already been great, but will continue to be greater. He said Invest Aurora currently is working on a study of what the redevelopment has done to property values in the Bardwell neighborhood surrounding Bloomhaven.
Invest Aurora, a not-for-profit organization, is a public-private partnership designed to help Aurora’s business community.
With aldermen on the Finance Committee recommending the loan, the entire council will look at the proposal at Tuesday’s Committee of the Whole meeting.
