WHEATON – Plans are back on track to turn the former Wheaton Grand Theater building on North Hale Street in downtown Wheaton into a performing arts venue.

"We have high expectations of getting up and running," Lane Allen of Allen+Pepa Architects, the architect for the project, told Wheaton City Council members during their July 23 planning session. "[Jim] Atten has been waiting a long time for some things to come together, and it looks like they are coming together."

Atten purchased the former theater building in late 2012. The Wheaton Grand Theater originally opened in 1925 and hosted live drama, silent films and vaudeville performances. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

As part of the project, Atten wants to put an enclosure under the building's marquee. Because the area underneath the marquee is city right-of-way, the city would need to agree to allow Atten to use this space.

As proposed, about 550 people would be seated on the building's first floor and about 200 people on a balcony level, Allen told City Council members. The project's second phase would entail getting the theater's auditorium "up and running," he said.

An elevator would be installed as part of the project's third phase, Allen said.

City Council member Phil Suess voiced concerns about the proposed vestibule.

"I don't see the compelling case to do that," Suess said during the meeting. "This theater has been there for how many years? Why would we give up the public right-of-way to enclose that?"

Atten told City Council members "the theater is not economically viable as a movie theater."

"All the studies that we've had done is that it's got to be a performing arts theater, which requires an intermission and requires a certain amount of area for 800 people to congregate somewhere besides right in their seats," he said.

The Genesee Theatre in Waukegan – which opened in 1927 – provided the inspiration for the proposed vestibule, Atten said. The theater hosts concerts, shows, events and weddings.

"They have additional space for people to congregate during their intermission periods and for the bar and the restaurant," he said.

Suess also asked about the project's status.

"What's the timing or the expectations of making this a reality?" he asked Allen.

Allen replied he plans to have a concept plan done in the next 30 days.

"We're making good progress, and there's a lot of good simple conceptual ideas on the table," he said. "We have a plan, and it's got phasing in it."

The discussion occurred while City Council members were talking about the second phase of the downtown streetscape project, which involves Hale Street. City staff said putting in the enclosure would narrow the sidewalk width between the new enclosed theater space and the curb, eliminate one additional parking space to the north of the marquee bump out and eliminate currently proposed planting areas to allow pedestrian traffic.

City Council member John Rutledge noted discussions on what to do with the theater building have gone on for years.

"Quite frankly, there's a lot of difference between having schematic drawings in 30 days and opening the door and selling tickets," he said. "And we've been working a long time on our downtown plan here, and I personally am not willing to adjust our real downtown work for what appears to be a long shot at opening the theater based on the years of discussions that have gone on here."

Rutledge said the city should be paid for changing its plans.

"If we were to change this, I would want a very substantial payment to the city for the use of that public space," he said. "You want us to give up a parking space and rearrange the streetscape there to accommodate the theater. Pay for it."

But several City Council members said they would be in favor of losing one parking space to make way for the vestibule, including Suzanne Fitch.

"I think you have to look at the marquee as being a focal point," Fitch said. "The marquee is a focal point for that street. That's only one parking space that would be lost."

Other members agreed, including Todd Scalzo.

"I'd be willing to give up the one space," he said. "I don't see it as a significant concession on our part. And I appreciate all the efforts that Jim has made in keeping this thing going. I'm willing to do what we can to make it work."