The Ovation Center was celebrated as a venue unlike any other provided for seniors when it opened two years ago.

But the facility in Romeoville now is looming as the biggest financial burden for the Senior Services Center of Will County, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week.

“The seniors of Will County, when they did come in [at the Ovation Center], they said, ‘I can’t believe we have such a nice place for seniors,’” Will County Auditor Kevin “Duffy” Blackburn, former treasurer at the Senior Services Center, said Thursday. “That’s why I feel sad and disappointed that it didn’t work.”

Blackburn said the Ovation Center was created to be an attraction for seniors and a revenue-generator for the services that they used.

Instead, it became a financial problem, failing to produce the revenue that was expected while becoming a burden on the agency’s budget.

Senior Services Center CEO Sheila Pardo this week declined requests from Shaw Local to discuss details of what has led to the agency’s bankruptcy.

But the bankruptcy filing by the agency pointed to the Ovation Center, claiming a bank loan to finance the facility as the lion’s share of the $8.4 million debt owed by the Senior Services Center of Will County.

The agency owes $7.8 million on the loan for the Ovation Center.

Other creditors include the state and federal government, with Senior Services owing $53,000 in taxes.

Senior Services has put an upbeat spin on the bankruptcy filing, saying in a news release that it was “designed to stabilize operations, strengthen the organization’s financial foundation, and ensure the long-term sustainability of services for older adults throughout Will County.”

Pardo, when interviewed by Shaw Local, said Senior Services was “going full speed ahead” with no plans to cut services, reduce staff or pull out of the Ovation Center.

She did not, however, return calls or respond to emails once the extent of the agency’s debt was identified.

The agency provides a variety of services to seniors to help them stay in their homes, deal with elder abuse and find companionship.

The Ovation Center was built to be a revenue generator for the agency.

Instead, the Ovation Center became a financial issue even before it opened as construction costs exceeded budget during the COVID-19 pandemic, when supply-chain problems were hiking project costs everywhere.

Duffy said costs exceeded the budget and led to the banquet center not being completed.

The banquet center was planned as a major revenue generator, serving as a venue for weddings and other events.

The 127,000-square-foot Ovation Center is a former Target store that has been turned into an indoor mall for senior services.

Blackburn said the Ovation Center, in large part, was an attempt to make Senior Services more self-reliant after a shortfall in state funding led to a financial crisis at the agency in 2015.

“It was planned to be a profit center and a revenue generator for the programs that they were doing,” he said.

Blackburned resigned from his position as treasurer and member on the board of directors in March 2025 because of an illness in the family.

At that time, despite the financial problems at the Ovation Center, it had not become a drain on the programs offered by Senior Services, he said.

Even under bankruptcy, services to seniors will continue as planned, according to Pardo.

“We are not cutting any services to seniors,” she said. “We’re going full speed ahead with the services that they need.”