Yorkville economic officials: Kendall County Farm Bureau building under contract

UPDATED 10:30 A.M. WEDNESDAY, NOV. 6:

YORKVILLE – The former office of the Kendall County Farm Bureau is under contract with a developer that is looking to make it a mixed commercial and residential building.

City economic development officials discussed the project and a tax increment financing, or TIF, inducement resolution for the building at 111 E. Van Emmon Street in the city's downtown during a meeting Tuesday, Nov. 5 at City Hall.

Developers Shawn La Brasseur and Alexander Reich have a contract to purchase the building from its current owner, Imperial Investments.

Yorkville City Administrator Bart Olson said the building is in the TIF 2 district of the city. Although one could probably make the argument that the inducement resolution is attached to the property and not the owner, he said, the city just wanted to have no question about the proper inducement resolution being on the books for the project.

“It doesn’t include any commitment from the city," nor does it include any commitment from the developer on what exactly they want to do with the property, Olson said. "It simply sets the property up to be eligible for a TIF agreement in the future.”

La Brasseur said the current plan is for the lowest sub-grade level of the building to be commercial space for either a gastropub, distillery, brewery or something else along those lines. He said he envisions ten residential rental units being in the building, with the first floor having one-bedroom apartments and the second floor to be penthouses.

La Brasseur that's about as far as he and his business partner got, since the purchasing agreement for the building is currently under attorney review. However, after living in Yorkville for a couple of years with his family, they all love it here, he said.

“So I want to do something nice," La Brasseur said. "I want to be able to provide back.”

La Brasseur said he is still waiting to hear back on results for the asbestos inspection for the building. He said the city’s inspection already came back pretty clean.

“Which is surprising for such an old building,” La Brasseur said.

The update comes after the Kendall County and Grundy County farm bureaus merged earlier this year and the City Council approved the proposed form-based code and streetscape master plan for the city's downtown area during their Oct. 8 meeting.

Lynn Dubajic, economic development consultant for Yorkville, said the project could give prospective developers a sense of what the city is hoping to accomplish with the downtown area mixed use zoning-wise.

“This could be a great example of how the new overlay district would work with a building like this,” Dubajic said.

The matter will now go before the City Council. Olson said he anticipates the inducement resolution for the proposed project to be on the agenda for the meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 12 at City Hall, 800 Game Farm Road.