mypetrobot
January 11th, 2005, 02:08 PM
A new community is emerging in downtown State Street, and it is by no coincidence young, diverse, highly educated -- and wealthy.
Thanks largely to University Center, the 18-story tri-college dormitory at the southeast corner of State and Congress, the neighborhood's number of single young people with college degrees is vastly larger than the outlying area, according to data compiled by the Sun-Times.
For example, 71 percent of people who live within a 3-mile radius of the State Street shopping district have college degrees versus only 59 percent of those who live within a 5-mile radius. The State Street shopping district extends from Wacker Drive on the North to Congress on the South.
Household income in the once-decrepit State Street area is higher, too. One of every four households within a 3-mile radius earns $100,000 or more compared with 17 percent of the six-county region.
Retailers are taking notice, though the data show that they have yet to find the right mix that will keep local residents in their neighborhood for much of their shopping.
For instance, within the last three months of the time the data were compiled, a quarter of the State Street area residents trekked to Chicago Place, 700 N. Michigan, to shop at such high-end stores as Saks Fifth Avenue, Talbots and Ann Taylor, and at specialty stores that sell fur coats, home decor and fine art.
That's 10 percentage points higher than the 15 percent who had visited stores on State Street during the same period, according to statistics compiled by Scarborough Research Corp., a New York-based company that measures retail behavior.
The research also revealed a surprising dichotomy between high-end and discount shoppers: 12 percent of the State Street locals had shopped Bloomingdale's in the past three months, and the same percentage -- though not necessarily the same individuals -- had shopped at the Ford City Shopping Center on Chicago's Southwest Side.
Retailers and developers intend to give local residents more reasons to stay closer to home with a new restaurant planned in the Page Brothers building, immediately north of the Chicago Theater; with Wi-Fi Internet access at Pritzker Park, and with a greater variety of youth-oriented stores, including a planned Urban Outfitters store in the former Toys R Us site and a Barnes & Noble superstore in DePaul University's former Music Mart.
A key to the vision is State Street's concentrated population of students. Largely hidden among the Loop's office workers are 55,000 students who attend classes in the State Street corridor -- not only at DePaul, Roosevelt and Columbia colleges and the School of the Art Institute, but at lesser-known Westwood College of Technology, 17 N. State, and the International Academy of Design and Technology, 1 N. State.
Developers also are counting on a slew of new residents to move into the luxury high-rises sprouting up throughout the Loop, several with a view of Millennium Park. They include:
A 32-story condo tower at the Walgreens site at the northeast corner of Randolph and State.
106 condos above the H&M and Nordstrom Rack stores at 20 N. State.
168 condos in the former Evans Fur building at 36 S. State.
Library Tower at the southwest corner of State and Congress.
And a bit farther south, the 243-unit State Place at 1101 S. State.
Plans call for several familiar storefronts to vacate State Street to make way for venues expected to draw bigger crowds.
For example:
TheatreDreams Chicago, owner of the Chicago Theatre at 175 N. State, is in talks to purchase the Page Brothers Building next door, at 179-181 N. State. The principals at TheatreDreams want to put a restaurant in the Page Brothers building, displacing the off-track betting parlor there now, according to an informed source. A spokeswoman for TheatreDreams declined to comment, saying negotiations are under way.
The vacant Toys R Us store at 10 S. State will be divided among three retailers: Office Depot, Urban Outfitters, a trendy apparel and dorm-decor retailer that varies its offerings at each of its stores, and Men's Warehouse/K&G Menswear, according to sources close to the negotiations.
A building that once housed a Burger King, a wig shop and an electronics store on the west side of State Street between Monroe and Adams is being marketed as a single lease.
The Century Building at 202 S. State will be converted from office space into a 98-room boutique hotel that would sell rooms as condos.
Nuts on Clark, Lane Jewelers and a credit union will vacate their space at 190 N. State if WLS-Channel 7's plans succeed to transform the ground-floor space of its headquarters at State and Lake into a streetfront studio looking onto State Street.
Mainstay department stores have already received a makeover or are in the midst of one.
Carson Pirie Scott, hidden by scaffolding for the past two years, is scheduled to reappear in fall 2005 with its original cornice reattached.
Marshall Field's flagship store at 111 N. State underwent a multi-million-dollar renovation in 2003 -- some say the cost of the rehab and promotional support could have reached $100 million -- and now leases more than 10 percent of its square footage to high-end boutiques and exclusive shops.
"People have always underestimated the strength of the Field's store, and the diversity and quality of its customer base, even in the toughest days of State Street," said Stanley Nitzberg, principal at Mid-America Real Estate.
Field's glamor boutiques range from Thomas Pink menswear to a Bose home-theater store to luxury crystal and lighting retailer Baccarat. But Nitzberg noticed another telling detail: Estee Lauder sells all of its brands at Field's flagship store.
"The cosmetics counter is top-of-the-line," he said.
Nitzberg is hopeful that the rising retail scene will lead to a first-class development at the long-vacant Block 37, now promoted as 108 N. State.
Ty Tabing, executive director of Greater State Street Council, said he looks forward to a groundbreaking at the Block 37 site this summer. The latest plans call for the site to include CBS-Channel 2 news studios, 400,000 square feet of retail shops and a CTA transportation center where travelers can get flight information, check luggage, get boarding passes and take rapid transit to Midway and O'Hare International airports.
The project will allow for hotel and condo towers to be built at the site in the future.
"The key is that the State Street area is evolving with each calendar year," Tabing said. "It's an ongoing story. If you look at this area in five years, it will be pretty dynamic in terms of an urban destination."
Related Graphic (http://www.suntimes.com/includes/flash/state_full.html)
Thanks largely to University Center, the 18-story tri-college dormitory at the southeast corner of State and Congress, the neighborhood's number of single young people with college degrees is vastly larger than the outlying area, according to data compiled by the Sun-Times.
For example, 71 percent of people who live within a 3-mile radius of the State Street shopping district have college degrees versus only 59 percent of those who live within a 5-mile radius. The State Street shopping district extends from Wacker Drive on the North to Congress on the South.
Household income in the once-decrepit State Street area is higher, too. One of every four households within a 3-mile radius earns $100,000 or more compared with 17 percent of the six-county region.
Retailers are taking notice, though the data show that they have yet to find the right mix that will keep local residents in their neighborhood for much of their shopping.
For instance, within the last three months of the time the data were compiled, a quarter of the State Street area residents trekked to Chicago Place, 700 N. Michigan, to shop at such high-end stores as Saks Fifth Avenue, Talbots and Ann Taylor, and at specialty stores that sell fur coats, home decor and fine art.
That's 10 percentage points higher than the 15 percent who had visited stores on State Street during the same period, according to statistics compiled by Scarborough Research Corp., a New York-based company that measures retail behavior.
The research also revealed a surprising dichotomy between high-end and discount shoppers: 12 percent of the State Street locals had shopped Bloomingdale's in the past three months, and the same percentage -- though not necessarily the same individuals -- had shopped at the Ford City Shopping Center on Chicago's Southwest Side.
Retailers and developers intend to give local residents more reasons to stay closer to home with a new restaurant planned in the Page Brothers building, immediately north of the Chicago Theater; with Wi-Fi Internet access at Pritzker Park, and with a greater variety of youth-oriented stores, including a planned Urban Outfitters store in the former Toys R Us site and a Barnes & Noble superstore in DePaul University's former Music Mart.
A key to the vision is State Street's concentrated population of students. Largely hidden among the Loop's office workers are 55,000 students who attend classes in the State Street corridor -- not only at DePaul, Roosevelt and Columbia colleges and the School of the Art Institute, but at lesser-known Westwood College of Technology, 17 N. State, and the International Academy of Design and Technology, 1 N. State.
Developers also are counting on a slew of new residents to move into the luxury high-rises sprouting up throughout the Loop, several with a view of Millennium Park. They include:
A 32-story condo tower at the Walgreens site at the northeast corner of Randolph and State.
106 condos above the H&M and Nordstrom Rack stores at 20 N. State.
168 condos in the former Evans Fur building at 36 S. State.
Library Tower at the southwest corner of State and Congress.
And a bit farther south, the 243-unit State Place at 1101 S. State.
Plans call for several familiar storefronts to vacate State Street to make way for venues expected to draw bigger crowds.
For example:
TheatreDreams Chicago, owner of the Chicago Theatre at 175 N. State, is in talks to purchase the Page Brothers Building next door, at 179-181 N. State. The principals at TheatreDreams want to put a restaurant in the Page Brothers building, displacing the off-track betting parlor there now, according to an informed source. A spokeswoman for TheatreDreams declined to comment, saying negotiations are under way.
The vacant Toys R Us store at 10 S. State will be divided among three retailers: Office Depot, Urban Outfitters, a trendy apparel and dorm-decor retailer that varies its offerings at each of its stores, and Men's Warehouse/K&G Menswear, according to sources close to the negotiations.
A building that once housed a Burger King, a wig shop and an electronics store on the west side of State Street between Monroe and Adams is being marketed as a single lease.
The Century Building at 202 S. State will be converted from office space into a 98-room boutique hotel that would sell rooms as condos.
Nuts on Clark, Lane Jewelers and a credit union will vacate their space at 190 N. State if WLS-Channel 7's plans succeed to transform the ground-floor space of its headquarters at State and Lake into a streetfront studio looking onto State Street.
Mainstay department stores have already received a makeover or are in the midst of one.
Carson Pirie Scott, hidden by scaffolding for the past two years, is scheduled to reappear in fall 2005 with its original cornice reattached.
Marshall Field's flagship store at 111 N. State underwent a multi-million-dollar renovation in 2003 -- some say the cost of the rehab and promotional support could have reached $100 million -- and now leases more than 10 percent of its square footage to high-end boutiques and exclusive shops.
"People have always underestimated the strength of the Field's store, and the diversity and quality of its customer base, even in the toughest days of State Street," said Stanley Nitzberg, principal at Mid-America Real Estate.
Field's glamor boutiques range from Thomas Pink menswear to a Bose home-theater store to luxury crystal and lighting retailer Baccarat. But Nitzberg noticed another telling detail: Estee Lauder sells all of its brands at Field's flagship store.
"The cosmetics counter is top-of-the-line," he said.
Nitzberg is hopeful that the rising retail scene will lead to a first-class development at the long-vacant Block 37, now promoted as 108 N. State.
Ty Tabing, executive director of Greater State Street Council, said he looks forward to a groundbreaking at the Block 37 site this summer. The latest plans call for the site to include CBS-Channel 2 news studios, 400,000 square feet of retail shops and a CTA transportation center where travelers can get flight information, check luggage, get boarding passes and take rapid transit to Midway and O'Hare International airports.
The project will allow for hotel and condo towers to be built at the site in the future.
"The key is that the State Street area is evolving with each calendar year," Tabing said. "It's an ongoing story. If you look at this area in five years, it will be pretty dynamic in terms of an urban destination."
Related Graphic (http://www.suntimes.com/includes/flash/state_full.html)