Uptown developer withdraws request, council takes no action on upscale restaurant plan

Posted on July 17, 2018
Uptown
The developer at One Uptown Circle pulled from the Normal Town Council agenda a plan intended to make it easier to attract an upscale restaurant to the building’s ground level. (WJBC File Photo)

 

By Howard Packowitz

NORMAL – A developer receiving tax breaks has withdrawn a request to the Normal Town Council that presumably would have made it easier to land a fine dining restaurant in Uptown.

The council was set to consider changing the two-year old development agreement allowing the firm to reduce the restaurant’s size by almost half to 3,700 square feet on the ground floor of One Uptown Circle.

City Manager Pamela Reece said Monday night she didn’t know why Uptown Circle Development asked the matter be pulled from the council’s agenda.

Reece said town staffers still want to work with the developer despite missed deadlines.

“In the development agreement, the restaurant type was very clearly defined as fine dining and with some definitions of what that means,” said Reece.

“I think that when the council entered into this agreement with the developer, I think it was to fill a void,” she added.

The town council agreed to invest $2.85 million in public money to the project and rebate to the developer the town’s share of state sales taxes of up to $1 million.

The same firm owns the Hyatt Place Hotel in Uptown Normal. Exactly a year ago, the developer sought a partial hotel-motel tax rebate of about 88-thousand dollars, but quickly withdrew that request as well.

Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]

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