Berwyn development agency urges demolition and offers new loans to spur downtown reuse

Berwyn — The Berwyn Development Corporation (BDC) asked the city council committee on Jan. 27 to authorize work on architect reports and to pursue demolition and redevelopment of several city‑owned commercial buildings on Stanley Avenue, and outlined a suite of financing tools it said would help attract restaurants and other commercial tenants.

Dave Holzberg, executive director of the BDC, told aldermen the city now owns three contiguous properties on Stanley — 6609, 6629 and 6639 — and that two of the buildings are in poor condition. "What we'd like to do is take them down, start to improve that area," Holzberg said, recommending using tax‑increment financing (TIF) dollars for demolition and to prepare redevelopment plans.

Holzberg said the middle property (the former Comcast building) has extensive mold and deterioration, while the Allied building (6629) is in better physical shape and could have adaptive reuse potential. After discussion, council members conducted a nonbinding straw poll; several aldermen said they favored clearing the entire lot to offer a "clean slate" to prospective…