The old Woolworth building at 31 S. Grove Ave. in downtown Elgin has sat as city office space and storage for decades, generating no property or sales tax revenue. That could soon change after the Elgin City Council gave preliminary approval this week to a redevelopment plan that would turn the two-story building into a destination featuring a fine-dining restaurant, a neighborhood market, and a sports bar with a rooftop patio.
The council unanimously agreed during Wednesday's committee-of-the-whole meeting to provide just under $2 million in Central Area TIF funds to assist developer GPRETAM LLC, according to the Daily Herald. The agreement still requires a final council vote at a future meeting before it's locked in. GPRETAM LLC includes partners Robert Hanrahan, Luis Colin and Juan Urzua, and the firm is purchasing the property from the city for its appraised value of $410,000.
The plan would convert the roughly 30,000-square-foot building from its current mix of offices, storage and vacant space into a full downtown destination. Along with the fine-dining restaurant, market and rooftop sports bar, the proposal may include a fitness and strength-training facility in the basement, though that piece has not been finalized. Project developers say they have not yet decided on exact tenants for the spaces.
City Sweetens the Deal With Fees and Fast-Tracked Permits
Beyond the TIF assistance, the city of Elgin has agreed to waive all development-related fees and provide fast-track building-permit review for the project, per the same report. Elgin's Central Area Tax Increment Financing District, which was created in 2002 to spur downtown economic development, has been a recurring funding source for projects like this one. The district was scheduled to expire in December 2025, and officials had been weighing a 12-year extension that would require approval from the Illinois General Assembly, according to earlier chicagotribune.com reporting, which also noted the district had $5.1 million available for other initiatives in 2025.
City official Anthony Ortiz framed the assistance as reinvestment in a property the city has held for four decades without collecting property or sales taxes from it, the Daily Herald reports. Ortiz described the move as a way to replenish the Central Area TIF and invest in downtown's future. Developer Robert Hanrahan said he and his partners were excited about the opportunity and confident in the project's financial projections.
A Building With Deep Downtown Roots
The Woolworth building was built in 1942 for the F.W. Woolworth Company, which operated a store there until 1982. The building's owners donated it to the city in 1986, and Elgin's Parks and Recreation Department used the space from the mid-1990s until 2002, when the Edward Schock Centre of Elgin opened. Since then it has housed local nonprofit organizations and served as storage, with tenants including the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce, Elgin Development Group, Elgin Symphony Orchestra and Alignment for Collaborative Education. Those tenants were informed of the possible sale in May.
GPRETAM LLC plans to close on the building purchase by March 1, 2027, and the redevelopment project itself is expected to take about 18 months once underway. Hanrahan said a rooftop patio could give future restaurant operators extra seasonal revenue in spring, summer and fall, and the Daily Herald reports restaurateurs have reacted with enthusiasm to the possibility of a rooftop dining experience downtown.
Fits a Pattern of Downtown TIF-Backed Makeovers
The Woolworth proposal follows a string of other TIF-assisted projects in downtown Elgin. In February, the council tentatively approved $1.7 million in TIF assistance for South Grove Holdings LLC's proposed $5.1 million renovation of a historic building at 61-65 S. Grove Ave., which would add four ground-floor storefronts and six second-floor apartments, according to chicagotribune.com. The council had also previously approved TIF funds for the $4.3 million renovation of the McBride Building, where the top two floors are being converted into a 26-room boutique hotel.
Elsewhere, a similarly named project is underway in a different former Woolworth building in Middletown, Connecticut, where developers have planned about 3,000 square feet of indoor rooftop space and 1,700 square feet of outdoor patio space alongside a 4,600-square-foot sports bar, according to ctinsider.com. That project's developer expects work to continue through mid- to late 2027, with tenants there also not yet announced.
