Park District Will Open Community Theater in 'Underground' Space

• Editor's note: This is the second in a series of articles on Geneva business and development, based on an interview with 2011 Wood Award winner Joe Stanton—Geneva businessman, landlord and developer.

More evidence of an upturn in downtown development comes with the news that theGeneva Park District has leased the former Geneva Underground Playhouse space, with plans to start a community theater program, Joe Stanton said in a brief interview Monday.

"We just wrapped up the leases on that," he said.

The Park District will take over the space at 524 W. State St., in the Stanton Building that once held the non-profit theater group that  had existed in large part because of the donated time of its various board members and Stanton's largess as landlord. The GUP opened in May 2009 with a production of Gore Vidal’s The Best Man and held 14 major productions until it announced its closing on Feb. 18.

"We carried them for years hoping it would take off," Stanton said. "But the Park District, you know, their marketing is a little more aggressive, and they’re going to be very heavily into children’s classes, which is going to benefit all of us."

The news that the Park District is bringing programming to the downtown is a win-win for the community, the Park District and business owners, Stanton said.

"The Park District is going to bring hundreds of people to the downtown each and every day during the week during the summer. They’re going to bring people at night during the school year. Moms and dads are going to drop those kids off, and then they’re going to do their shopping. They’re going to get their hair cut. They’re going to go to the jewelry stores, they’re going to go to Starbucks. So I think it’s great when you have a business like that that’s going to feed your other businesses."

Stanton said his first choice for leased space in downtown Geneva would be retail, but bringing traffic to help feed the retail space—whether from offices, service businesses or downtown living development—should also be a high priority.

"When possible, I’m a big fan of sales-tax producing businesses, because I think that’s how you solve most of your problems," he said. "Don’t put more taxes on people, try to strengthen your downtown to get more sales tax. You have to let the market sort of ride itself, but if you have a choice—and all things being equal—take the sales-tax-producing business."

By the same token, he said, an office use might be best for the former U.S. Bank building at 21 N. Third St. because it's what the market will bear.

"Sometimes the right decision is to put the bodies into Geneva, not a business, and I think that building is a perfect example," he said.