After three years of delays and budget overruns, a local theater plans to open in the Main Street Metra station next month.
Piccolo Theatre will hold its first play in a 50-seat performance space at the new Evanston Arts Depot, 600 Main St., on November 12, said John Szostek, executive director of Evanston Festival Theatre, a not-for-profit organization that is developing the project.
The play, “Climbing the Volcano,” is part of Playing French, a festival of contemporary French plays.
Originally announced in 2001, the Main Street Metra remodeling project was first scheduled to be completed in spring 2003, a deadline that Szostek now admits was “wishful thinking.” The completion date later was moved to December 2003. Actual construction began one year ago and completion is scheduled for this month.
But problems in bringing electricity to the building caused the project to be delayed until November, Szostek said.
The delays have caused dismay among community leaders. Parts of Custer Avenue are closed between Main and Washington streets, which hurts business, said Ald. Steven Bernstein (4th).
“They’ve restricted the parking. They won’t let you get in and out,” Bernstein said. “It’s really a difficult time for the merchants that can’t get their customers into the store.”
Sheila Giles, manager of Classy Closet Consignments, 701 Washington St., has not heard anything about a theater being built in the station across the street from her store. But the constant construction has created confusion among some of her customers, she said.
“They think that we’re closed because there may be trucks in front of the store,” Giles said. “It kind of slows business down because they’ve been doing it so long.”
The slow pace of construction is responsible for the delays, Giles said.
“I’ve never seen anyone working,” she said. “It seems like they’re taking their sweet time.”
Szostek — also president of Old Town Evanston, a business organization for the Main Street and Chicago Avenue area — said he has not heard complaints from Evanston Arts Depot.
“We’re not far off the schedule that (the contractor) was given when he signed the contract,” Szostek said.
In addition to longer-than-expected construction, the project’s budget has increased from $2.8 million to $4 million in the last three years, Szostek said. About $200,000 of that comes from Evanston Festival Theatre and the rest from government sources.
The Evanston Arts Depot also will lease space to other cultural organizations. In December, a Tai Chi organization called The Human Process will open and hold an international Tai Chi workshop, Szostek said.
“South Evanston has the largest population density in Evanston and it does not have a cultural facility,” Szostek said. “The entire facility will go a long way towards providing that kind of service for the community.”
Bulldozers now surround the station and ladders and construction supplies are piled up in a boarded-up waiting room.
“At the end of the day when it’s completed we’ll look back and say it was worth the effort,” Bernstein said. “In the short term it’s really a difficult situation.”
Reach Greg Hafkin at [email protected].
