Rochelle’s Downtown To Get New Event Venue, Hotel and Restaurant

New things are coming to Rochelle's downtown.

The city gave the nod for a new event venue, hotel and restaurant to move into a former building on the corner of 4th Avenue and Lincoln Highway.

The Rochelle News-Leader shares that the city council approved the plan to allow local business owner, Jana Gruben, to redevelop the building  at 423 4th Ave. into what she envisions as a boutique hotel on the second and third floors with room for a restaurant and business on the bottom floor.

Jana is owner and operator of Storybooks Gardens that's outside of Rochelle. She intends to keep that wedding and event open "for several months out of the year" along with creating another in the downtown area of Rochelle.

She had plans to turn "the building on the southeast corner of Lincoln Highway and Fifth Avenue into a wedding venue/banquet hall with a restaurant/lounge open to the community."

Ms. Gruben said "the timeframe for the wedding venue at the Lincoln Highway location is set for February of 2019."

She has a vision to bring the downtown back to how it once was.  As she said “I’m a local hometown girl that tried something outside of town and it worked really well, we have a really great formula. I’m just trying to bring it into the downtown area and do the same thing down there, ....I’m trying to bring back the way it was when I was a child. We’re trying to bring that back.”

Wow! It's an ambitious plan but it's welcome into making the downtown area a thriving hot spot once again in Rochelle.

That really makes me smile.

I can't wait to see it all unfold.

Good luck.