Prospective Buyer Withdraws Bid for Wheaton Grand Theater

Developer withdraws from deal to buy the Wheaton Grand Theater in downtown Wheaton after determining it'd be too costly to complete its vision for the property.

The prospective buyer of the Wheaton Grand Theater has opted out of the purchase, after realizing the cost to complete the vision for the property would be too high, a Suburban Bank and Trust banker said Wednesday. The bank-owned theater at 119 Hale St. in downtown Wheaton is "back on the market," said commercial banker Rob Siegel, who manages Other Real Estate Owned (OREO) at Suburban Bank and Trust, the bank that owns the property. Wheaton Mayor Mike Gresk told Patch March 21 that the buyer is a local developer, who was in a 45-day due diligence period to crunch numbers and determine whether they would proceed with the sale. Click to sign up for the free Wheaton Patch newsletter Siegel said the potential buyer had planned to use the …

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Business Beat

Wheaton Restaurant Owners Value the "World's Best Customers"

Ivy celebrates three years in business in downtown Wheaton.

When Dick O’Gorman moved to Wheaton in 1959, his parents attended wakes at the funeral home at 120 Hale Street. More than 50 years later, as O’Gorman celebrates the anniversary of the opening of Ivy, the restaurant he opened at 120 Hale Street three years ago, he wishes his parents were alive to see what’s going on. “I think they’d be amazed to know I was here running a business in the old funeral home,” O’Gorman said. After 30 years of owning Shell gas stations, O’Gorman and his wife, Carole, opened Fox Fire in Geneva, which they sold before opening Ivy with chef Brian Goewey March 2, 2009. The former funeral home became a stationery shop in 1969 and was then converted to a restaurant space in the late 80s, O’Gorman said. It had been …

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City Council: Agenda for Monday, Sept. 19

Downtown SSA request is back on the table.

City Council meets for a regular meeting at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 19 at City Hall.  Approval of minutes from the Sept. 6 City Council meeting Approval of a special event permit for street closures for the Orchard Church’s UPC 5K: The race will be Saturday, Oct. 22 (Oct. 15 is alternate date) to promote the Giant Killers, Orchard Church's youth group. The entire event will last from around 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the church, 205 Parkway Drive and along Parkway, Washington Street, Cadillac Drive, Webster Avenue, the Prairie Path, Howard Street, Forest Street, Santa Rosa Place, Prairie Avenue and Scott Street. An Ordinance amending the Wheaton Liquor Ordinance of the City Code to allow an increase in a Class B liquor license for Smashburger, 1 …

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