Whitewater park lures businesses

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Geneva Kayak center employee Lori Donavon of Maple Park, cleans off a kayak at the store in Yorkville on Thursday, May 12, 2011. The business has seen succes since opening in April and are looking to get more land to expand their current location next to the river. | Brian Powers~Sun-Times Media

Updated: June 22, 2011 9:54AM

YORKVILLE — For years, community leaders have watched the whitewater facility under construction in the Fox River and dreamt of raging water, a sea of people and a flood of dollar signs.

That vision now seems to coming true.

Kayakers and canoeists are raving about the new whitewater rapids along the south side of the river, more and more people are coming to the site near downtown Yorkville as the weather gets nicer, and businesses are continuing to locate or expand nearby.

No sooner has the Geneva Kayak Center at 301 E. Hydraulic St. opened than it intends to expand. The company has asked the city, from which it leases its building, if it can build a deck along the north side of the building, facing the river, another deck with changing rooms along the south side, and upgrade a planned storage area along the south side.

The company intended to put in a storage trailer, but company officials had decided instead it will look nicer to have an open rack storage area for canoes and kayaks.

“We need the changing rooms,” said Scott Fairty, Geneva Kayak manager. “People in this sport usually are in remote, wooded areas, so they are used to just changing quickly in the open. But this is in the middle of a downtown.”

The city council approved an amendment to the original lease with Geneva Kayak to facilitate the expansion plans.

Kent Ford, a renowned paddle sports enthusiast, instructor and filmmaker, was at Geneva Kayak Center the first weekend of April to instruct a training class, and he became the latest to rave about the new facility.

On his website, he called it “amazing” because of its versatility so close to a teaching area, calling it “the most teaching-friendly” of the more than 20 whitewater parks he has been to.

“(It’s) like five miles of Class 2 river features jammed into a city park,” he said.

On the other side of Riverfront Park from Geneva Kayak, another business will open to take advantage of the increase in traffic downtown.

Aldermen this week also approved a lease with Creative Kernels, a popcorn stand, to operate in the south portion of the building at 131 E. Hydraulic St. for two years, two two­-year options after that.

The rent would be $200 a month, and the company would pay the city 5 percent gross revenues.

Creative Kernels will be a year-round business, but will sublet part of the building to Whitewater Custard, which will operate during the summers when use of the whitewater park is at its peak.