Galesburg City Council approved a lease agreement to have timber frame and restoration company Trillium Dell use part of the Broad Street Armory on Monday night.
The 4-year lease is only for the drill floor area, and not the building’s office space.
The company will pay the roughly $78,000 for work that a city-hired architect says would bring the property up to code.
City Manager Todd Thompson says the city’s contribution to the project is paying $14,000 for design work and up to another $5,000 to coordinate with the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.
“That building on the interior, we don’t necessarily need to coordinate improvements but anything that’s going to involve exterior improvements will have to be coordinated with the state since there’s a design restriction on the property,” Thompson says.
Answering a question from Larry Cox, Thompson says there wouldn’t be anything preventing another lessee from eventually using the northern portion of the building.
“Parking lot situation under this lease, they have the parking lot, but there’s other parking in the area,” Thompson says.
Alderman Wayne Dennis said that recently an unidentified church group approached the city, apparently offering to make building improvements if the city would donate the property.
