Riverside Drive Promenade project. (Hitchcock Design Group)By Ted Schnell • BocaJump | Dec. 8, 2011

City officials learned this week that a major snag has been removed in securing an $8 million state grant to demolish the Riverside Drive parking deck and transform the section of riverfront into the Riverside Drive Promenade.

Mayor David Kaptain, while acting as chairman of the Elgin Liquor Control Commission on Wednesday afternoon, told Mike Buttiro the project would advance, with a call for bids coming soon and the possibility that demolition of the decrepit old parking deck probably could begin this winter.

As Buttiro told the commission he and his brother Dan are working to finish the renovations to their building so they can open, a grinning Kaptain said, “Timing is everything.

“The city manager has told us we … will have before too long” permission to start on the Riverside Drive project, Kaptain told a beaming Buttita.

“The hold on the funding’s been lifted — that should be good news for you,” the mayor added. “No we’ll be anticipating getting started next spring, even sooner if it’s demolition work.”

The brothers have much to be excited about as they prepare to open their venture. But the promenade project is icing on the cake.

Their two-level Chooch’s Pizzeria, 64 S. Grove Ave., is in a building sandwiched between South Grove Avenue on the east and Riverside Drive on the west. A patio area also is planned on the building’s west side, which faces the Fox River. Part of their preparations has been to make use of the city’s façade improvement plan. While most businesses seek a grant for once façade, the Buttiros applied for and received funding assistance for facades in both the front and rear of the building.

When the brothers were applying for the city grant earlier this year, city officials acknowledged improvements to the Riverside Drive façade on the rear of the building would dovetail well with the plans for the promenade.

Wednesday night, after the Elgin City Council meeting, Stegall said the city does not have the $8 million grant for Riverside Drive Promenade yet, but it has cleared a hurdle that was significant.

The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity had placed a hold on the grant, saying the city had failed to provide a key piece of paperwork five years ago related to a $100,000 grant. Stegall said the city knows it had turned in that paperwork but has been unable to find the file which contains the proof of that. As a result, the department had threatened to hold up the grant until there had been a resolution.

“What they’ve done it to lift their hold, so now we can take the final steps,” Stegall said. “That was a major issue they had to resolve.

“It really was more of a bureaucratic thing, so we talked to the director and the director said, ‘We’re not going to hold you up because of that,’ ” Stegall said.

Stegall said he learned about the decision Monday.

“It was the last main hurdle,” he said, adding the city could call for bids on the work this winter.

Mayor Kaptain expressed his excitement about the release of the funding, saying the city might be able to see demolition of the old deck begin even this winter.

“That’s a big thing for use to get started on it,” Kaptain said, adding the project is expected to take 12 to 18 months to complete.

The promenade is a key part of Elgin’s riverfront revitalization effort and is intended to encourage more redevelopment, public space and transportation projects. Riverside Drive Promenade involves the complete redevelopment of the Riverside Drive right-of-way and the adjacent parking deck into an urban riverfront plaza connected to Elgin’s Festival Park. It will create a large urban park right next to the downtown retail corridor with the goal of adding new commercial buildings to nearby empty lots.

Gov. Pat Quinn announced in October 2010 that the state would provide an $8 million River Edge Redevelopment grant to the city. The project to create an urban riverfront plaza was to be funded through the state’s $31 billion Illinois Jobs Now! capital program.

The money would be used to demolish the old Riverside Drive decking and to build a new, environmentally sensitive Riverside Drive Promenade. Officials said the project would create an estimated 100 construction jobs and nearly 120 permanent, private-sector jobs.