By Jason McFarley, Truth Staff
WAUKEGAN, Ill. -- Three years ago, this northern Chicago suburb along Lake Michigan had three downtown restaurants.
Thirteen are in business now.
Mayor Richard Hyde considers the upturn the surest sign of success of the city-owned Genesee Theatre's sweeping rejuvenation, a $23 million taxpayer-funded overhaul that opened to mixed reactions in the community because of cost overruns and construction delays.
The former cinema and live-performance hall had been inactive for 15 years before its sparkling unveiling in 2004.
"The Genesee has been a boon to us," Hyde said, though he acknowledged that the downtown theater's beleaguered renovations taught the city some lessons in project management.
Looking back, Hyde attributed the troubles to GSI Architects, the Cleveland-based design firm that initially estimated restoration costs at $13 million. Months into the project, the price tag rose by another $10 million.
The city council approved two separate bond issues to pay for the work.
"He duped us," Hyde, a former alderman, said of the architect who quoted the costs. "We believed he could do it for that original price."
The Ohio company, which the city eventually fired before completing the theater renovation, did not return a call seeking comment.
In the end, the theater took three years to complete, about a year behind schedule. Two sold-out performances by Bill Cosby highlighted the Genesee's comeback.
"It is definitely a crown jewel here," said theater spokeswoman Laura McIntyre, standing recently beneath the $300,000, 18-foot chandelier that is the centerpiece of the Genesee lobby.
"It was worth every penny," she said. "Some people will say it wasn't, but it was."
McIntyre works for SMG, the Philadelphia-based company that manages the theater and books the entertainment.
City officials originally touted the theater as a place that would attract a half-million patrons to hundreds of shows each year. But SMG has followed a more modest course that included about 90 events during its first year running the company.
One plan the company presented to the city estimated a $900,000 deficit in the first four years, followed by a slight profit from 125 shows in the fifth year.
The city spends $1 million a year to pay off the bonds and support the theater's operations. The money comes from a local 1-cent sales tax.
The theater also rents space for weddings and receptions and charges a $2 restoration fee per ticket.
Capacity crowds have turned out for several A-list acts. Since Cosby's shows, comedian Jerry Seinfeld, singer Norah Jones and several Broadway tours have performed at the Genesee. Comedians Don Rickles and Joan Rivers were on stage last week.
Halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee, the theater generally lands shows that make their second stops through the region after playing in those larger cities.
On performance nights, Mike Hussey runs a golf cart shuttle from the theater to his new restaurant.
"You can't just open your door and expect people to come in," said Hussey, who started his self-named downtown tavern about a year ago.
Business is good, he said, but his restaurant experience and name recognition in his hometown attract customers as much as the theater does. He cites other new downtown eateries as proof.
"There's one failing miserably right now," he said, "which doesn't make any of the rest of us look any good. In a perfect world, we'd all be doing well."
Waukegan's downtown development has been sporadic in recent years.
The blue-collar city is still recovering from decades of longtime industries either closing or relocating to other communities. Many have left barren sites along the lakefront in their wake.
The lake itself is separated from the downtown by an expressway and railroad tracks, but the city has begun trying to better connect the waterfront with the central business district.
Three condominium towers are in the works downtown, and a 40,000-square-foot shopping and dining plaza is under way just west of the theater.
Scattered among the new construction are old, vacant buildings, particularly at the southern end of downtown Waukegan.
"You've got the city and a lot of investors really pushing a lot of projects in downtown and along the lake," said city resident Bill Sims, who was headed to lunch one day last week at Hussey's. "They spent all that money on that theater, and there's a lot of people in this town who can barely afford to go there."
Hyde, the mayor, readily admits that about 80 percent of theater-goers are from out of town, usually people who want cheaper tickets and less traffic than they would encounter in Chicago or Milwaukee.
He doesn't apologize for the statistic. The city faced a dilemma, he said, of either restoring the theater or letting it decay and face demolition.
If anything, the city's mistake was hiring the wrong people to lead the theater renovation, the mayor said.
"Don't necessarily take the cheapest estimate, and do homework on their background," Hyde advised of choosing contractors. "You gotta get a good guy to be project manager; you gotta get somebody who knows what the hell he's doing."