The Islamic Center of Naperville (ICN) is preparing for the grand opening of its newest mosque, Masjid An-Noor, located at 3540 248th Avenue.
ICN president Anees Rahman said the doors are expected to open next month.
“There’s a lot of excitement because we’ve been waiting for so long to come here. We’ve been talking about it for many years. There was excitement when we did the original groundbreaking, and now that we’re almost inside and when we do the tours, you can see it anywhere, all the way from the little kids to all the adults, everybody’s excited about moving in shortly,” said Rahman.
A project discussed for several years
The mosque has been a long time in the making, undergoing 10 months of discussions at Naperville Planning and Zoning Commission meetings before receiving a positive recommendation in October 2021. A month later, the Naperville City Council unanimously approved the project with some restrictions.
Construction began nearly two years ago in September 2022. While recent material delays pushed back the grand opening, the 28,400-square-foot mosque will soon welcome the community.
“First of all, the mosque faces the Qibla, which is basically northeast, and that is our first phase. On the first floor, we have our men’s prayer hall, conference room, and offices. The second floor is dedicated for the women, a whole dedicated floor for their prayers, offices, conference rooms, and things like that,” said Rahman.
Rahman said the first phase cost the ICN around $14 million to build.
“The reason for that higher cost is because all of the utilities: water mains, storm sewer, electrical, all of these utilities were installed under phase one that will allow us to just build the buildings and the parking for the future phases,” said Rahman.
More phases to come
Four additional phases will follow on the 13-acre site: a school, multi-purpose hall, gymnasium, and an expansion of the mosque.
“Each phase is about six to eight to 10 years apart, and basically we have some financial commitments, loans, personal loans, and investments that we’re taking to build this first phase. As those are paid off, then we start the next project,” said Rahman.
Under the city council’s restrictions, the ICN will not begin phases three to five until the expansion of 248th Avenue is completed and the city provides further review. Rahman estimated that total completion of all phases may take 30 to 40 years.
It’s all part of the ICN’s long-term plan to expand its services to the community.
“Our first facility opened on Olesen Drive in 1991. So we’ve been around for a long time, and our community’s grown considerably, and our existing facilities are pretty well full and overloaded. So we needed a new facility to be able to continue to grow the community,” said Rahman.
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