Demolition begins at downtown Sycamore's Jane Fargo Hotel

SYCAMORE – Demolition of parts of the historical Jane Fargo Hotel began Wednesday, and will continue throughout the month as the building is transformed into an “upscale” apartment complex.

Pappas Development crews arrived about 7 a.m. Wednesday to begin knocking down the hotel's northern banquet area. Demolition of the Reuben Ellwood Mansion, around which the hotel was built, will likely begin within the next two weeks, construction supervisor Ralph Crafton said.

Sycamore police warned motorists to be aware of increased truck traffic at the property at 355 W. State St., near the intersection of State and California Street, while the demolition work is underway. The remodeled apartment units are scheduled to be ready for occupancy by October, Crafton said.

“We’re going to keep the historical aspect of it as a hotel,” he said, “even though we’ll only have one entry per apartment, so some of the doorways will be blocked off from the inside as we do the redecorating.”

Individual rooms will soon become 700- to 1,100-square-foot apartment suites. Developer John Pappas’ vision includes transforming the hotel’s 39 rooms on the second and third floors into 12 one-bedroom and four two-bedroom residences. The majority of the main floor is set to become an 8,500- square-feet of commercial space, while the current lobby area will serve as a TV and library room for tenants, city documents show.

Pappas told Sycamore City Council members in early May that no one with a credit score lower than 680 would be approved to live in the complex. Once utilities are factored in, the apartments could cost tenants anywhere between $800 to $1,100 a month, Crafton said.

“They’ll be nice, upscale, high quality ... single bedrooms as well as double bedrooms, with a lobby area maintaining the historic features it now possesses,” he said.

Pappas was not immediately available to comment.

Carpet, couches and chairs that previously furnished the hotel will be donated to Dan Stovall of Perpetual Amity Furnishings and Travel, where the items will be distributed among international students at Northern Illinois University, the University of Chicago and the Illinois Institute of Technology.

The hotel's previous owner agreed in March to sell the property to Pappas, who plans to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to renovate both the inside and outside of the building. After presenting his plans to the City Council, aldermen unanimously agreed May 2 to issue Pappas a one-time grant of $100,000 to help fund more than $400,000 of exterior work and demolition. Investment in the interior alone is expected to cost more than $1 million.

The grant will be paid using reserves in the city’s Sales Tax Distributive Fund, since the building is a mere block away from qualifying for tax increment financing assistance.

The property, which has changed hands four times in the past 10 years, has had trouble sustaining itself as a hotel, Mayor Ken Mundy has said. Any attempt to renovate and update the property’s oldest wings would be a “code nightmare,” and repurposing the building might be the city’s only reasonable way to preserve it, he said.

“It’s exciting. It’s critical. It’s an icon,” Mundy said. “It’s very important that building – that business – continue for us here. Living in residential apartments is quite popular these days and many downtown areas are going to that kind of living and those kind of residences.”