Just to clarify, our earlier post about the Times Square-esque video display planned for the proposed Fountain Square development in Evanston has nothing to do with another Fountain Square, to the west, in Elgin. That Fountain Square, on the banks of the Fox River, includes two eight-story condo buildings, townhouses, 400 parking spaces and 10,000 square feet of commercial space, but no video displays, as far as we can tell.
There is, however, easy access to Riverboat gambling, at the Grand Victoria Casino, which sits next door to Elgin’s Fountain Square, roughly at Chicago Street and the Fox River, so the glamor here is more reminiscent of Sin City than the Big Apple. We were astonished, though, to realize that the Web site for Elgin’s Fountain Square makes no mention of the giant casino next door. There’s lots o’ talk about Elgin’s award-winning symphony (really? in Elgin?) and the library and parks and performing arts facility, but not a whisper about that floating den of gamblers.
Would you build houses next to the Mall of America and forget to mention it? Would you construct condos across from Wrigley Field and not notice the ballpark? Developer RSC & Associates seems to have taken another tack, touting “the close-knit comfort of an all-American hometown.” Ok. But, come on, everyone knows its there, and the empty nesters buying in this place can’t get to the blackjack tables fast enough now that Johnny and Suzy are away at college.
You can keep the 1,000-pound gorilla locked in the closet, but sometimes, he’ll do you more good swinging around the sales center, hawking condos.