{"id":78324,"date":"2026-06-05T17:21:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T17:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/78324\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T17:21:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T17:21:39","slug":"genevas-historic-ex-little-owl-seeks-new-tenant-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/78324\/","title":{"rendered":"Geneva\u2019s historic ex-Little Owl seeks new tenant \u2013 Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former Little Owl in Geneva<\/a>, under new ownership, is for lease and poised for the right tenant.<\/p>\n

Located at 101-105 W. State St., at the corner of Illinois Routes 31 and 38 downtown, the iconic building has been vacant since it closed in August 2019<\/a>. A succession of owners<\/a>, possible owners<\/a>, economic investment<\/a> and various restaurant plans did not result in a restaurant opening.<\/p>\n

Adam Fortino of the Fortino Real Estate Group<\/a> of Naperville<\/a> said the for rent sign went up in late May \u2013 and there has been serious interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still a lot of finishing touches in the space that need to be done,\u201d Fortino said. \u201cIt\u2019s all drywall, taped and ready for primer. … There\u2019s serious interest, but no one I would disclose.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The former Little Owl, at 101-105 W. State St., Geneva, under new ownership, is now for lease. The inside is drywalled, taped and ready for primer. (Photo provided by Fortino Real Estate Group)<\/p>\n

The location is being advertised as a 6,075-square-feet, built-to-suit restaurant space with 131 seats and a central bar. The main level is 4,251 square feet, with a 1,824-square-foot lower level for cold storage, preparation space and back-of-house efficiency.<\/p>\n

The cost of rent will be flexible, based on what a prospective tenant would put into the building, Fortino said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re leaving it subject to an offer and kind of play with the numbers, depending on the tenant\u2019s needs and what the tenant would be willing to contribute themselves,\u201d Fortino said.<\/p>\n

If the landlord contributes more, then the rent would be more. If the tenant contributes more, then the rent would be less, Fortino said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheoretically, it could be any retail, but it\u2019s now set up as a restaurant,\u201d Fortino said.<\/p>\n

The owner is also rehabbing the second floor apartments to be five short-term vacation rentals, Fortino said.<\/p>\n

St. Charles<\/a> resident Dean White bought the property for $1.1 million in January 2025, records show, through the entity West Roosevelt Investments LLC, records show.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The former Little Owl, at 101-105 W. State St., Geneva, under new ownership, is now for lease. What could be a full bar area awaits interest from a new tenant. (Photo provided by Fortino Real Estate Group)<\/p>\n

Known as the historic Wrate Block building, the two-story former Little Owl began as a wood-framed structure circa 1837, two years after Geneva was established in 1835, according to the city\u2019s historical records.<\/p>\n

The wood structure was replaced with the current limestone building in 1853.<\/p>\n

The Arbizzani family operated it as The Little Owl from 1947, adding Flagstone as an addition in 2007, before its closure in 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former Little Owl in Geneva, under new ownership, is for lease and poised for the right tenant.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[114,65,2669,898,899,173,3253,9088,3196],"class_list":["post-78324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-geneva","tag-business","tag-geneva","tag-history","tag-kane-county","tag-local-news","tag-real-estate","tag-restaurant","tag-st-charles","tag-tourism"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116698656785934469","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}