The Tivoli Hotel, a rent by-the-week apartment building in downtown Downers Grove, is adding a dozen rooms under an expansion plan recently approved by the village council.

Under a proposal passed unanimously late last month by the board, the Tivoli can expand from 42 to 54 rooms by converting two large apartments in the building into single-occupancy rooms.  The remodel will not include any exterior changes to the building.

The approval of the expansion means a 12 room increase in the number of affordable housing units available downtown. For a cash-only payment of $155 a week, residents who stay at the Tivoli get a small, furnished room that’s cleaned once a week by a maid.

“It’s like an old barber shop, there’s camaraderie – just no swearing,” said Richard Morgan, 61, who used to live in the Tivoli but moved out to take care of his ailing 90-year-old father. He plans to return to the downtown spot if family circumstances allow. “There’s a basic decency about the place.”

Many, though definitely not all, who stay at the Tivoli are disabled or on a fixed income, said Willis Johnson, who owns the whole building as well as Classic Cinemas, which builds and restores movie theaters.

“We’re doing something for those who need a place to go, maybe trying to pull it together and make something with their lives, or sometimes just need a place to stay,” said Johnson, who himself lived in the building for a period of time.

While the expansion passed without discussion, it might not be embraced by all. The hotel was listed as an undesirable business – right up there with massage parlors – according to results of a community development survey published by the village in 2009. The survey polled almost 900 different residents and businesses.

“It gets a bad rap,” said resident Brad Meyer, 56,  who has lived in the Tivoli for roughly two years.

One of the biggest misconceptions, Meyer said, is that the place is a men’s-only dormitory – the place is actually fairly gender-balanced he said, which is part of why there’s a code of decorum not allowing for salty language. There’s no smoking allowed indoors, either,  and the front door is locked promptly at 10 p.m.

“We sit around here and solve the world’s problems,” Meyer said, referring to residents’ tendency to congregate in the vintage lobby, which looks as if it hasn’t been updated since the building was constructed in the 1920s. Norman Rockwell reprints dot the walls and a clerk is stationed behind an old desk with a rack of mail slots. The electrical system certainly hasn’t been updated in a while, which residents say prevents the addition of air conditioning. But they’re hopeful that will be part of the planed upgrade.

Meyer further stresses the feeling of connectedness, noting a number of residents regularly check on his well-being because he has health problems.

Morgan says that even though he doesn’t currently live at the Tivoli he’ll visit, have a cup of coffee and cut coupons out of the newspapers for some residents on disability or who have a fixed incomes.

If there is opposition to the hotel and its expansion, it’s certainly not in the business community, said Greg Bedalov of the Downers Grove Economic Development Corporation.

“Like it or not, it’s America and it’s a permitted use, which will brings tax revenue into the village,” Bedalov said.

Before approval by the village council, the hotel expansion plan carried the blessing of the village plan commission.

Furthermore, Johsnon said not every tenant fits a stereotype that goes with residents of single-room-occupancy hotels. For example, one elderly gentleman owns a limo service and some decades back a reporter for the Chicago Tribune lived in the Tivoli, he said.

The place also has a number of checks in place, including  lengthy “do not rent” list, to keep out the riff-raff.  And one of the benefits of operating a cash-only operation with no lease is trouble can be booted before they become an inconvenience for well-behaved residents.

“There’s a basic decency here,” Morgan said. “Is it a stepping stone for some? Sure. But it’s not anything like your transient hotels. They wouldn’t tolerate it.”