Plans for Romeoville's Athletic and Event Center Starting to Take Shape
The Village Board heard an update to the downtown's new Athletic Center Wednesday and honored outgoing Assistant Police Chief Larry Vinson.
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The first phase of demolition of the former Jewel-Osco and Ace Hardware store in the Spartans Square shopping center is complete, and Romeoville officials are moving ahead on plans for the new Athletic and Event Center in the downtown redevelopment plan.
Village officials are predicting the new Athletic and Event Center will be completed this December.
At Wednesday’s Romeoville Village Board meeting, community development director Steve Rockwell gave the board an update of the new center, which includes a 52,578-square-foot first floor and a 7,091-square foot mezzanine.
One alternative is to add basketball courts with an additional 17,123 square feet of recreational space.
The first floor will consist of two multipurpose rooms that hold 40 people each as well as an indoor soccer field. The mezzanine will have moveable spectator seating for 180 people and two multipurpose rooms for 100 people.
The alternative plan will include two IHSA regulation basketball courts or four IHSA regulation volleyball courts.
The Athletic and Event Center is being billed as a centerpiece in the downtown redevelopment initiative to draw people to the area. The village is also being flexible on how the retail space is going to be developed, and is working to attract a grocery store to the area, village manager Steve Gulden said.
“Everywhere you go in town, you run into people interested in this project,” Trustee Dave Richards said.
The downtown redevelopment project is being funded through the creation of a tax increment financing district, in which the increased value of the property within the TIF district is used to pay for improvements to that district.
In other news, the village board on Wednesday honored Assistant Police Chief Larry Vinson on his retirement.
Vinson, who rose through the ranks, started as a patrol officer with the Romeoville Police Department in 1981.
Chief Mark Turvey said the police department benefited from Vinson’s “ethics, integrity, knowledge, skill and professionalism” and thanked him for his 32 years of service.
The village board on Wednesday also approved a resolution supporting the Community Service Council of Northern Will County, which plans to apply for a portion of settlement money from the Illinois Attorney General’s office to buy and rehab foreclosed homes.
The Community Service Council is hoping to receive a portion of a state settlement agreement from major banks to buy about 150 foreclosed homes in Romeoville, Plainfield and Bolingbrook and remodel them so they are inhabitable again, said Robert Kalnicky, the group’s executive director.
The group will also counsel potential homeowners on how to buy, budget and manage a home in order to help promote home ownership and decrease the number of vacant houses, he said.
Finally, the village board on Wednesday removed from its agenda an ordinance to update its procedures for public hearings and petitions from the public.
Village Resident
9:28 am on Thursday, February 7, 2013
This board really likes to tear things down. Soon there will not be anything from old Romeoville left. Jewel / Osco, the old village hall, Danny Boys / Maryland Fried Chicken, the old dog n suds, presbyterian church. One way to turn Romeoville into Naperville, just bulldozer old Romeoville away....
Rich B
10:47 am on Thursday, February 7, 2013
There was a dilapidated, leaking shell of an old grocery store, a broken-down parking lot and a few barely used out-lot stores.
What, exactly, is Romeoville losing? No retail tenant wanted that space, and this plan will rejuvenate it.
I agree that I don't want to see Naperville-lite in having an Eddie Bauer outlet on the corner, but it's not like someone just bulldozed Mount Rushmore. This was a blight on the village, and all this can do is improve Romeoville's reputation, and with any luck our property values.
Village Resident
8:26 pm on Thursday, February 7, 2013
rich b, I am not saying that the jewel/osco didn't need to be torn down but why is the village using taxpayer money to buy all these parcels? And then what do they do with them? Danny boys and dog n suds have been nothing but open lots for how long?? Now we have a nice green space where crazy wallys used to be. I just find it odd that the village is now in the real estate business and everytime they get their hands on something all that comes out of it is a vacant lot. Private enterprise could have bought them parcels and redeveloped them.
Grocery Store Needed
10:47 am on Thursday, February 7, 2013
Article states ...... working to attract a grocery store to the area. We need a grocery store in the Hampton Park area!
I'm Just Saying
11:28 am on Thursday, February 7, 2013
We Sure need the stores in this neibhorhood !!!!!!! And retail Shops. They build Romeoville Gardens in 1994 people were able to walk to store from there now they and have NOWHERE to SHOP unless they Drive or Family takes them since Jewel/Osco moved to Weber. Dominicks also kinda far. This plan for the development when Fred Dewalt was Mayor but never went no where.....
Debra Riddle Cucci
12:50 pm on Thursday, February 7, 2013
I commend our Mayor & Board members for wanting to rejuvenate downtown as it was becoming an eye sore. I just hope the grocery store they attract is price friendly especially for the seniors living in Romeoville Garden as well as the rest of us with the present economy.