Recently Completed. Buena Pointe 4350 N. Broadway. 11 Stories. Broadway/Montrose/Sheridan Intersection.

http://www.atproperties.com/devImages/img_full/BUENAPOINTE.jpg

Location of Buena Pointe (much credit to Krzycho's awesome thread)
BP is to the far left. Uptown highrises in center/left of picture.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v514/krzycho/chicago%20ParkPlaceTower/PC130082.jpg

Uptown Theatre Lofts.

http://www.theaterdistrictlofts.com/upload_data/gallery/7_1_l


Sheridan Grande.
http://www.loopnet.com/Attachments/1/9/6/196135C9-0765-4DD8-99FB-CF5BCE6F7A66_or.jpg

Sheridan Place.

http://www.atproperties.com/07/sheridanplace/SheridanPlaceRendering_display.jpg

4420 N. Clark (Montrose).
http://homepics.realtor.com/image3/http/chicago/submit/large/076/05079683a.jpg

The Mark Condominums. Sheridan and Broadway. 3 Blocks from the Wilson El Station.
http://www.themarkchicago.com/Images/Intro_Right2.gif

$4M Renovation Planned for Uptown Broadway Building
By Mark Ruda
Last updated: September 20, 2005 07:07am


CHICAGO-An Uptown building considered historically significant has found a developer willing to restore it to its original splendor, but at a cost to the city of more than $1.1 million. The community development commission recently endorsed tax increment financing up to 26% of the project’s estimated $4.1-million cost for broker Thaddeus Wong, co-founder of @Properties, to renovate the three-story, 19,000-sf Uptown Broadway building at 4703 N. Broadway Ave.


“This is a building we’ve loved, and have had high hopes for, but we wondered who would step forward,” says 48th Ward Alderman Mary Ann Smith. “The developer has really taken something on here out of love. We consider ourselves very, very lucky that he fell in love with it.”


Wong plans to replace the heating, ventilation and air conditioning as well as electrical systems, add interior walls and renovate the terra cotta exterior. When completed, he plans to have two first-floor retail spaces totaling 3,500 sf, which already are attracting interest from prospective restaurant and night club operators. The two upper floors of the 79-year-old building will offer 8,600 sf of office space. Wong’s projected return on the project is 7.5%, according to Michelle Dewlen of the department of planning and development.


“I’m excited about the project,” Wong says. “My major goal is to restore the building to its original splendor.”


Wong has hired Baum Realty to find retail tenants and has generated letters of interest. He plans to keep the building and manage it after it is renovated.


Part of the building’s history includes legend that it was connected by an underground tunnel system to hang-outs frequented by Al Capone, Smith says.

I'm curious if anyone has information or renderings for the large Wilson Yards project? It's sure to be a catalyst for improving that stretch of Broadway.

I was looking for that rendering too. I'm sure it is one of those threads that list "development" or "northside" in general. Again, another reason to make it by neighborhood.

I was looking for that rendering too. I'm sure it is one of those threads that list "development" or "northside" in general. Again, another reason to make it by neighborhood.

I don't think I've ever seen a rendering for that project, only information of what it will contain... Urban Aldi's, Movie theater, Mixed income housing units, etc.. This is a major development, a Block 37 of sorts for Uptown. With this in place and maybe a future redevelopment for the Uptown Theater the neighborhood can once again be a force in the nightlife scene.

Its been shown on this forum somewhere. Not a good rendering, but it shows all 3 buildings.

I'm curious if anyone has information or renderings for the large Wilson Yards project? It's sure to be a catalyst for improving that stretch of Broadway.

^It's being developed by Holsten Real Estate, and they haven't updated their website in almost 2 years!

^It's being developed by Holsten Real Estate, and they haven't updated their website in almost 2 years!

Here's a link to information from the city regarding WYP...

http://egov.cityofchicago.org:80/city/webportal/portalContentItemAction.do?blockName=Ward46%2fPromo+Item&deptMainCategoryOID=&channelId=0&programId=0&entityName=Ward46&topChannelName=Ward&contentOID=536929179&Failed_Reason=Invalid+timestamp,+engine+has+been+restarted&contenTypeName=COC_EDITORIAL&com.broadvision.session.new=Yes&Failed_Page=%2fwebportal%2fportalContentItemAction.do&context=dept

Also a link provided by LA1 explaining more into depth the project and some neighborhood developments...
http://p197.ezboard.com/fbuenaparkneighborsfrm7

http://homepics.realtor.com/image3/http/chicago/listings/large/065/05257692.jpg

GUNNISON ST. LOFTS
FIRST FLOOR COMMERCIAL PLUS
4840 N. BROADWAY
22 RESIDENTIAL Units.
CHICAGO, IL

This gorgeous building is a Contributing Structure in a national Historic District, and conveniently located within the rapidly appreciating Uptown community within the Broadway Entertainment District.

Finnegan is constructing a lower-level parking garage, first floor retail, and three floors of new loft condominiums, totaling 22 units.

The second floor of the building will have 9 standard lofts, each with one or two bedrooms. The third floor of the building will have the first floor of 13 duplex lofts. The fourth floor of the building will be newly constructed and will contain the second floor of the duplex units. These duplex lofts will have 2, or 3 bedrooms.

Located in the heart of Uptowns newly created TIF & Historic districts & five to six miles North of Chicago's central business district (the Loop), Gunnison Lofts offers convenient access to those working downtown by public transportation (2 blocks from the EL) or Lake Shore Drive (4 blocks away). It is also a five-block walk to lakeside parks, beaches & harbors. There will soon be many choices for residents to shop, eat or be entertained.

Please click on Sample Floor Plans and Rent Listings to learn space and pricing information:

Sample Floor Plans

buena pointe looks nice for what it is, a necessary hulking building that caters to low income housing, oops I guess it doesnt, but it sure looks like a great future tenement,

Really its okay, but who the fuck would buy a condo there? It should be low income housing, hilarious.


LA1 thanks for creating this thread, by far the uptown theatre lofts project looks the best, the others are allright with most of them looking as great future tenements,
except the mark condos look sharp and austere.

Area Youth Speak Out Against Changes To Their Neighborhood

By Conan Milner, Epoch Times Chicago Staff Nov 17, 2005

Photo caption:

CHANGING NEIGHBORHOOD: This freshly painted mural on the corner of Winthrop and Argyle in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood, depicts the many ethnicities and industries that have made this part of town their home over the last century. A group calling themselves the Argyle Street Youth are protesting the gentrification of this neighborhood that they say are, in effect, pricing long-time, low-income residents out of Uptown.

Article text:

In a recent open a letter, a group of fourteen young people between the ages of 14 and 20 calling themselves “The Argyle Street Youth” wrote about the changes taking over their neighborhood, “As we look out the windows of our own apartments (some of us in subsidized housing), we see the construction that has quietly crept into our neighborhood going unchallenged. We see row after row of new complexes and buildings surrounding Argyle with large signs inviting those who can afford to live in new condos. We see more than 60 rehabilitated homes, condos, and buildings — stretching over a 6 block radius, built snuggly next to each other and facing off with old buildings filled with poor people and senior citizens. We see new neighborhood amenities that old residents cannot afford such as Starbucks & Borders. We see our parents worried and confused as notices from landlords announce rent increases or possible evictions. We worry if Argyle residents (non-English speakers) don’t understand what is happening to the neighborhood. There is no word for gentrification in Vietnamese or Chinese, but there is a word for displacement.”

Anyone who has been through Uptown in the past five years has certainly witnessed these changes taking place. In 2001, the Chicago Tribune wrote about Uptown as an up and coming real estate opportunity, but observed possible problems with the new developments. A.T. Palmer writes, “…growth has an underside, community leaders warn. Uptown has lost about 2,000 to 3,000 families since 1990…Gentrification and its impact on Uptown’s property values, affordable housing and racial and ethnic diversity elicit a range of reactions from long-time residents, newcomers, community activists, real estate brokers and urban experts…There’s some excitement by homeowners about rising property values, an increasing middle class and plans for brand-name retail stores; some dismay over the changing look of some residential streets and loss of some local citizenry; and worry because there’s no comprehensive, long-range neighborhood plan.”

Some mention that the rehabbing of Uptown is just part of the natural cycle of a city’s development. After all, at the turn of the last century Uptown began as a lakeside, summer resort destination populated with large stately homes. As the city was hit with harder economic times, these big houses were split up into several low-cost units.

Along the way, many state and not-for-profit social service agencies began operating in the neighborhood, serving patients recently released from psychiatric institutions acclimation to society. In the late 70’s, Uptown’s demographic dramatically changed, seeing many immigrants from South East Asia and Africa come to the area.

Today, the face of Uptown is changing again as young professionals— who want to buy a condo in the city but avoid the high Lincoln Park, Wrigleyville or Andersonville price tags— choose Uptown not only for its diversity but also its affordability in an area near the lake and convenient to public transportation. Predictably, many businesses that cater to the needs of these new residents are following in as well.

The Argyle Youth go on to write, “We know that ‘change’ is sometimes good and an inevitable process, but we feel like ‘sweeping out’ is a more appropriate word to describe what is happening. What about those that have lived here for more than thirty years? What about the families that used to live where new condos now stand? What about the current families living in affordable housing— the people most impacted by neighborhood change. Have they been informed? Have they been considered? We believe there is a difference between gentrifying and revitalizing the neighborhood. Revitalizing is a process that looks to serve all— including the disenfranchised, the homeless, and the non-English speakers. Immigrant families and residents have not been included in this process of change. In fact, we feel like immigrant families and old residents have become the ‘undesirables’ standing in the way of new development.”

On an East Ravenswood/ Uptown weblog, one resident reasons that some of these changes are essential to the neighborhood’s survival. However, the blogger argues that the process requires a more thoughtful approach, writing that, “…The real problem is the effect that these [franchises] and the new condos will have on property value and thus rent and property taxes. A lot of people rightly complain about Alderwomen Shiller and Smith, but their work to ensure low-income housing in the neighborhood is crucial to maintaining Uptown’s diversity and integrity. Uptown needs new businesses and is not in a position to pick and choose who and what is going to build here. What Uptown can do, though, is ensure that the people who live here and the businesses that are located here do not get priced out of the neighborhood.”

So what does the future hold for a more upscale Uptown? The Argyle Youth observe that if long-time residents are not included in the revitalization process, the result could mean more racial tension, more police presence and possible rezoning to meet the needs of residents of a new higher income. They write, “As youth, our voices are not taken seriously. But as immigrant youth, our voices carry messages in and out of two different worlds. It is with this power that we will do everything necessary to inform our families and to speak out for them. Soon Argyle can expect a demand for equal inclusion in this process of change, as all residents have the right to participate in democracy, especially when it comes to our neighborhood

What's the Wilson Yards development? Is it the one with the Target?

^
Yes. I still havent found a nice rendering yet.

Ah, okay. Hopufully it'll go through; do the odds look pretty good?

Theatre Lofts should be spectacular.

Never saw this angle before:
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/419/cam2c2yi.jpg

Lovely tower.

Ah, okay. Hopufully it'll go through; do the odds look pretty good?

Yeah its going through. I work for the City Colleges, Truman College, and it is definetly happening. The Wilson Yards has been used as parking for Truman and that parking is recently gone to make way for the project. The project is going to start soon.

Never saw this angle before:
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/419/cam2c2yi.jpg

Lovely tower.

^Coolness. Has it even been approved/started sales yet?

Yeah its going through. I work for the City Colleges, Truman College, and it is definetly happening. The Wilson Yards has been used as parking for Truman and that parking is recently gone to make way for the project. The project is going to start soon.

^Yeah, the Uptown Neighbors association keeps whining about it, but I am excited about Wilson Yards. There is a lot of potential there, I just wish the damn developer would finally release some renderings/site plans

^Have they confirmed that it'll have indoor parking?

--sorry to double post, but what's the address for Wilson Yards?

I really like Uptown, and it's one of the neighborhoods I'd like to consider living in one day, but when looking at maps and pictures, it appears that there's a lot strip mall type retail in the area. Do you think this will be phased out as the neighborhood becomes more popular?

^Have they confirmed that it'll have indoor parking?

^No offense, but why must you always ask so many questions?

^ lol. A question about why someone asks questions.

This is awesome! I live in Uptown and I never heard of any of this!

^No offense, but why must you always ask so many questions?

There's just a lot I don't know. ;)

Here is a link to the developer's website for the GUNNISON ST. LOFTS:

http://www.finnegandev.com/chicagoland_real_estate_developments.htm

Wilson Yards is being fenced off. Construction is coming soon. Faculty/Staff and Students have not been able to park on the city owned lot for about a month or so now.

^ FINALLY!

this one seems like it's been in the works for 2 decades now.

Thank. God. This will be really cool; I've never been to Uptown, but it could really use the retail. Even better, this will be easily assessable by transit!

Although....I've heard that the building is going to be 7 storys tall...with 3-7 being parking.

It's not much, but I found this:

Wilson Yards Plan Heads to Council
http://www.uptownchicagocommission.org/jan_07_05.html

The formality of a city council approval is the next step for the controversial $113-million Wilson Yards redevelopment project, which will bring a Target store and 12-screen movie theater to the Uptown community's gateway at 4400 N. Broadway. The city council's zoning committee was the latest to endorse the project, which already received a favorable recommendation from the plan commission as well as a $26.5-million tax increment financing package from the c community development commission.

The sticking point to developer Peter Holsten's 702,000-sf project has been a pair of 10-story multifamily buildings along Montrose Avenue. One building will have 71 units at affordable rents for lower-income households while the other building will be a 70-unit senior-housing tower. The community has been polarized by the issue, as opponents argue whether there is too much or too little affordable housing in a gentrifying community.

"The major bulk of this project is the retail and movie portion, which was very important to the community," says 46th Ward Alderman Helen Shiller. Business and property owner Thomas Bissonnette, co-chair of the Broadway Merchants Association, agrees with her assessment that the current retail area has lacked critical mass.

"It's been a poor business area," Bissonnette said, who runs a book store out of a building he owns at 4441 N. Broadway, across the street from the 5.7 acre Wilson Yards site.

Formerly a Chicago Transit Authority maintenance garage, the Wilson Yards site became available after a 1996 fire destroyed the facility. The CTA also has a Red Line stop at Wilson Avenue.

How is Chuck Norris your location? Did he eat you?

Chuck Norris is not simply man, nor is he a location. He is a state of mind.

This is great news for the Uptown area. That Wilson Red-Line stop has been something most people avoid, at least at night. I wish I got a property in that area a few years back, before the boom.

- edit

That sucks. So basically a Target and some other crappy retail?

“These guys have a suburban model that works good in a corn field, but it’s really hard to stack it,” he said. “I went to (city Planning Commissioner) Lori Healey and said ‘how about some more TIF?’ and she said ‘in your dreams.’

^ I sense a tad bit of animosity in this statement

Man! I am walking distance from there...I was really looking forward to that theatre...

That SUCKS about the theater. :wallbash:

Does anyone have any news on the 835 West Wilson proposal?

http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=245577

It's 27 floors and would go up a little west of the lake view towers in this Picture.

http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/7116/2004jul25uptownskyline7hv.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

BY DAVID ROEDER SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

CALENDAR NOTE: Opinions are boiling again in Uptown over changes in the plan for Wilson Yard, the former CTA property at Wilson and Broadway. It's become a neighborhood version of the Block 37 debacle. Kerasotes Theaters and some senior housing providers have pulled out of the deal, leaving only low-income housing and an Aldi.

The Uptown Neighborhood Council is planning what it says is the first community meeting on the project in more than 18 months. It will be at 7 p.m. April 4 at Hull House, 1136 W. Wilson, and Ald. Helen Shiller (46th) and city planning officials have been invited.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/roeder/cst-fin-roeder29.html

Thank. God. This will be really cool; I've never been to Uptown, but it could really use the retail. Even better, this will be easily assessable by transit!

Although....I've heard that the building is going to be 7 storys tall...with 3-7 being parking.

How do you know that uptown needs more retail if youve never been there?

seems strange that someone familiar with shytown hasnt passed through uptown, just curious,

Here's a link to a rendering and article of a portion of the Wilson Yard development, which is now near starting construction:

http://yochicagotoday.com/index.php/permalinks/2006/04/13/new-target-aldi-opening-at-wilson-yard-in-uptown_986

^You should remove that link. Someone will through a fit over that trivial offense.

Having lived for several years near Malden and Sunnyside I always thought that lot could use development......the desire to provide affordable rental units is commendable.....however if the the blog on that link is accurate if this thing is 100% low income I would not want to see it built.........highrise lowincome doesn't work......high rise mixed income might work .....prob would

Thread revival! Geeze, doesn't anyone care about Uptown? Anyway, is there any news On Uptown projects?

^Well the Wilson Yards project is probably delayed thanks to the big-box ordinance..

^Yea, I was really hoping for that Target to come there. I use to live in Lincoln Square and the closest big retail store was that K-Mart on Elston. That community desperately needs development. They could still build a 89,999 sf Target but the law could change again and make it 80,000 or even 70,000. I hope the city gets it shit straight and get rid of that stupid law. This project started with Movie Theaters and all sorts of stuff and now it seems like there is nothing left.

- edit

Awesome. Does anyone know how the Borders is doing in that location?

There is a proposal at the SE corner of Irving Park and Sheridan for a 15 story condo accoring to the Buena Park neighbors web site.

There is a proposal at the SE corner of Irving Park and Sheridan for a 15 story condo accoring to the Buena Park neighbors web site.

^ And are they rallying up against it in usual NIMBY fashion or are they actually okay with it?

Better hope the "living wage" ordinance is vetoed, or else we may never see this project happen :wallbash:
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3021/obwy01ts9.jpg

Better hope the "living wage" ordinance is vetoed, or else we may never see this project happen :wallbash:
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3021/obwy01ts9.jpg

I thought wilson yards was supposed to include a 10 story or so apt building?

Better hope the "living wage" ordinance is vetoed, or else we may never see this project happen :wallbash:
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3021/obwy01ts9.jpg

^ I really like the design of that Target. And that Aldi looks great too--I'm starting to like this urban designed big-box thing.

Has that Aldi been built yet?

I thought wilson yards was supposed to include a 10 story or so apt building?

^ No, plans were originally for a Target, with movie theatres and parking above. The apt building is supposed to be in a separate structure

OK I guess you are right but this is from an earlier post, I guess technically the land along Wilson was not originally part of the CTA yard, if my memory serves. Nevertheless there still seems to be two apt building in the mix if not techincally wilson yards

The formality of a city council approval is the next step for the controversial $113-million Wilson Yards redevelopment project, which will bring a Target store and 12-screen movie theater to the Uptown community's gateway at 4400 N. Broadway. The city council's zoning committee was the latest to endorse the project, which already received a favorable recommendation from the plan commission as well as a $26.5-million tax increment financing package from the c community development commission.

The sticking point to developer Peter Holsten's 702,000-sf project has been a pair of 10-story multifamily buildings along Montrose Avenue. One building will have 71 units at affordable rents for lower-income households while the other building will be a 70-unit senior-housing tower. The community has been polarized by the issue, as opponents argue whether there is too much or too little affordable housing in a gentrifying community.

TUP this is also form the Holsten website concenring Wilson Yards so according to them the developers it does in fact include two apt buildings


http://www.holstenchicago.com/buildings/Development/wilsonyard.htm
All financing and approvals for the Wilson Yard project are in place. Once the new Aldi store is occupied at year end, we will demolish the old Aldi. We will attempt to disassemble the terra cotta façade of the Azusa building later this year. Construction start for the balance of the site should start early in 2007. Included is the Target, more retail space the parking structure, the
Senior building, and the affordable apartment building

TUP this is also form the Holsten website concenring Wilson Yards so according to them the developers it does in fact include two apt buildings


http://www.holstenchicago.com/buildings/Development/wilsonyard.htm
All financing and approvals for the Wilson Yard project are in place. Once the new Aldi store is occupied at year end, we will demolish the old Aldi. We will attempt to disassemble the terra cotta façade of the Azusa building later this year. Construction start for the balance of the site should start early in 2007. Included is the Target, more retail space the parking structure, the
Senior building, and the affordable apartment building

^ I know, but from your original statement, you seemed surprised that the apt buildings weren't in the rendering, as if they were somehow 'above' or attached to the Target. All I was saying is that they will be in separate buildings, which are not depicted in the rendering.

Interesting tid-bit from Lynn Becker

LAWRENCE/BROADWAY TIF REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT AREA (WARD 48)

Request authority to acquire the Uptown Theater, a Chicago Landmark, located at 4816 North Broadway Avenue in the Lawrence/Broadway Tax Increment Financing Redevelopment Project Area.

A specific task for a leasing rep

Daniel Duggan
Tuesday October 10 2006

Brokers set out to fill 6,500 square feet in a building under renovation in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood.

After getting some feedback from the neighboring retail tenants, local officials and residents, it seems the best use is an entertainment venue.

Specifically, people in the community asked for a gay/lesbian nightclub.

“It’s a great space, 6,500 square feet, 14-foot ceilings, it would be perfect for a restaurant, lounge or club,” says Anthony Campagni with Baum Realty. “And the neighbors think the end user should be a club that’s friendly to the gay community.”

Campagni says finding a qualified national tenant is not as challenging as this deal — searching for more of a neighborhood-oriented tenant.

But after looking at the area, Campagni says bars in the neighborhood of the space have also been gay-friendly.

“At least, the successful bars,” he says.

So how does a broker go about finding a gay nightclub as a tenant?

Campagni says they’ve started with local publications, looking for clubs that are interested in expanding or relocating. From there, it’s the long road of cold calls and meetings with owners.

“We’re hoping to appeal to the established club,” he says. “While it’s great to have someone in here as a pioneer to start up their own club, it’s always better to find a tenant with a little experience.”

Renovation of the building, at 4707 North Broadway, is expected to be completed by March 2007.

^^^ok so that is a block south of lawrence I used to live in UT and am tryi9ng to picture which building this is......anything that brings more life to the stretach of braodway between montrose and lawrence is foster is good

^^^ok so that is a block south of lawrence I used to live in UT and am tryi9ng to picture which building this is......anything that brings more life to the stretach of braodway between montrose and lawrence is foster is good

It has to be the Uptown Broadway Building that's across Broadway from the Borders bookstore. There's a picture of it in a post from August on this thread. It's definitely under renovation now and it's on the east side of the street, which means it would have an odd-numbered address like 4707. And the article in the post above mentions nightclubs as a possible tenant for the basement.

Dosoes anyone know anything about the two tallest current projects in Uptown, The 27-story 835 West Wilson proposal and and the approved, 20-story Theater District Lofts II?

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/8044/tguptwnvb7.jpg

Woah! Is this the first overall rendering we've gotten? It's great!

Is that a green roof over the Target???

^ Looks like it.

I hope Walmart takes some cues from how Target is developing within the city. A design such as this for the Walmart planned on 63rd/Halsted would be very appropriate, and the city should really hold them to it.

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/8044/tguptwnvb7.jpg

Please tell me the white first floor is the terra cotta from the now standing buildings! I am keeping my finger cross. It is where the Chicago Tattoo place use to be north of Montrose.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/156561,CST-NWS-uptown01.article

Historic Uptown may get an encore at last
Interested firms large enough to restore landmark

December 1, 2006
BY DAVID ROEDER Business Reporter

The landmark Uptown Theatre, 4816 N. Broadway, has been mostly unused for 25 years. Community-based plans for a revival foundered because little but hope was behind them.

Now, the Uptown has another chance. This one involves prospective buyers with money and, maybe, a real plan for putting the huge auditorium to use.

Two companies that specialize in concert promotions and large-scale entertainment, Live Nation Inc. and AEG, have examined the property, sources said.

Greg Harris, an aide to Ald. Mary Ann Smith (48th), confirmed both companies' interest and said either or both are expected to submit a proposal in December. "These are major groups that have the financial capacity to do the job right," he said.

Harris said both would restore the 1925 building for its original use as a live performance venue.

The local aldermanic office is involved because city officials are pressuring the Uptown's owner to sell. The theater is controlled by Robert Lunn, a financial adviser forced into bankruptcy by creditors who accuse him of misusing their money.

Companies have venues here

The City Council has given Mayor Daley's administration authority to forcibly acquire the theater. Threatening condemnation was a tactic to force Lunn to accept an offer.

Harris said the city hopes a voluntary sale can be worked out. Lunn, he said, has voiced a willingness to cooperate.

Lunn did not return calls. Live Nation had no immediate comment and AEG did not respond to messages.

Live Nation bills itself as "the world's leading live entertainment company" and owns such local venues as the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park and the Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wis. For $354 million, Live Nation bought the House of Blues nightclub chain a month ago.

It also manages the bookings for the Charter One Pavilion on Northerly Island.

AEG owns Toyota Park in Bridgeview, home of another of its properties, the Chicago Fire, one of four Major League Soccer franchises it owns. It also owns the Los Angeles Kings hockey team and the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Once part of thriving district

The city planning department declined to say if it has met with the companies. Spokeswoman Connie Buscemi said staffers "haven't seen any proposals yet but we look forward to doing so."

The department oversees landmark buildings and would review any zoning changes the site might need.

The Uptown was done in the Spanish Baroque style for the Balaban & Katz theater chain and anchored an entertainment district that thrived before World War II. It later showed movies and the occasional concert while suffering through a series of owners.

Lunn gained control of the building after the collapse of development ventures of a former business partner, Rudy Mulder. In 2002, Mulder was said to be offering the theater for $2.5 million.

http://www.suntimes.com/business/roeder/178775,CST-FIN-roeder20.article

Sunrise plans to bring Lagrange to Uptown

December 20, 2006
BY DAVID ROEDER Sun-Times Columnist

Fawad Butt, chief operating officer of Sunrise Development Group, admits that it didn't take a lot of brains to make money in real estate the last few years. If you built it, the buyers came. But now he believes product niches and unique approaches will be needed to succeed, so that's the course he's charted for his young, Rogers Park-based company.

Butt has three residential deals in the works, including one that will bring highly regarded architect Lucien Lagrange to Uptown. Sunrise is finalizing a zoning deal with the city that will permit it to build 179 units in a Lagrange-designed complex in the 4700 block of North Clarendon, across the street from Weiss Memorial Hospital. The project includes an 18-story building, plus low-rise segments.

Lagrange, known for both modern and classical buildings, has been hired to take the modern approach, Butt said.

Lagrange has been hired to take the modern approach

Thank god. I don't think I could stand any more of their traditional stuff after they completely BLEW the design for Lincoln Park 2520. They do an awesome job on the more modern stuff, though. Erie on the Park is one of my favorite new buildings in the city.

^^Project mentioned above

Leland Park
179 units - 203 spaces
http://img391.imageshack.us/img391/3812/lelandct1su7.jpg
http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/4276/lelandct2tv1.jpg
http://img506.imageshack.us/img506/534/lelandct3vm6.jpg

http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=14085

48TH WARD INCUMBENT: MARY ANN SMITH
2007-02-21

By Andrew Davis

Windy City Times: What accomplishment during this current term are you proudest of?

Mary Ann Smith: I would have to say that a premier developer has signed a contract with the Uptown Theatre (whose name I can’t reveal right now) is pretty important. This is very significant not just because it’s an important structure historically and architecturally but, also, because people have been giving up because property values have gone up. People needed to be reassured that this [area] is viable. It’s also symbolic because so much of what we do is community restoration—revitalizing the community and also historic buildings.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/realestate/chi-0703290411apr01,0,4374875.story?coll=chi-classifiedrealestate-hed

By Jeanette Almada
Special to the Tribune

April 1, 2007

Uptown multi-use project is planned

A 228-unit, mixed-use project is planned for the Uptown neighborhood on land neighboring Weiss Memorial Hospital.

Chicago-based Sunrise Equities and Development Co. will build the project through an entity called Leland Terrace LLC.

The 1.5-acre site consists of four parcels -- the northwest corner of West Leland Avenue and North Clarendon Avenue, at 4700 N. Clarendon; the southwest corner of Lakeside Place and North Clarendon Avenue, at 4730 N. Clarendon; 831 W. Leland Ave; and 834 W. Leland.

Sunrise purchased the site, along with a city-approved planned development for 95 units, from developer Ansonia Properties. The purchase, in 2005, came just months after the city had approved Ansonia's plan, which applied to three of the four parcels, Salman Ibrahim, president of Sunrise, said last week.

Sunrise expanded the plan, adding 133 units. Chicago Plan commissioners in March approved the new plan. City Council approval is needed, and expected in April, Ibrahim said.

"We are still in design stages, but we are trying to change the entire look and feel of the neighborhood; we are going for a very modern look," Ibrahim said.

The site is surrounded by Weiss and residential buildings that went up in the 1960s or earlier. "Our project [designed by Chicago architect Lucien LaGrange] has a very modern look, with a lot of glasswork on the exterior," Ibrahim said.

Plans include the rehab of a vacant five-story building at 4730 N. Clarendon that was once an Alzheimer's residential facility. "It is still early, but we expect to rehab it into a senior-care facility," Ibrahim said.

The developer will build an 18-story building with 165 condominiums -- 17 of them to be sold as affordable units -- at 4700 N. Clarendon, where a former psychiatric hospital had been demolished by Ansonia by the time Sunrise bought the site. "That building will have 7,200 square feet of ground-floor retail space," Ibrahim said. He expects condos in the building to range from estimated 900-square-foot, one-bedroom units to 1,400-square-foot, two-bedroom units.

At 831 W. Leland, Sunrise will build a four-story building with eight units. "They will all be affordable, and though we are still planning, we expect that they will be three-bedroom units with about 1,500 square feet of space," Ibrahim said.

Three-story, three-bedroom market-rate townhouses, to go up at 834 W Leland, will have an estimated 2,100 square feet of space, Ibrahim said.

"We expect to begin construction in spring 2008," Ibrahim said, adding that he expects to open a sales center, by fall. Sunrise will sell the units through a Realtor to be selected.

Rogers Park-based Sunrise is building other residential and mixed-use projects, including the 75-unit Pure on 24 S. Morgan, with 4,600 square feet of ground-level retail space.
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

So is that Target development under construction yet?

The Target has not yet begun construction. To my knowledge, it's still not 100% that Target has even agreed to move into the retail space there. Currently the new Aldi is mostly finished and a new street has been paved to access the parking lot for it.

So is that Target development under construction yet?

They need to get Aldis moved over and then tear down the old one and demolition of the other buildings on the lots.

The one story terra cotta building at Montrose and Broadway will be preserved (or at least the facade). You can see it in the rendering. The old CTA building west of it on Montrose probably will not be saved, though.

Decided to post TUP's recent Uptown article from SSP over here as well....


http://www.suntimes.com/classifieds/...0356,HOF-News-

Uptown on the way up
DEVELOPMENT | New residents change flavor of neighborhood

May 11, 2007
BY CELESTE BUSK cbusk@suntimes.com

Like most Chicago lakefront neighborhoods, Uptown is no stranger to redevelopment. And, like its neighbors Lake View to the south, Edgewater to the north and Lincoln Square/North Center to the west, Uptown is no stranger to controversy as homebuyers have moved into new condos and houses, displacing long-time renters.

For years, this anxiety had a name all its own: Wilson Yard.

What's up in Uptown?
You may know it as the home of the Green Mill, but Uptown lays claim to plenty more good stuff.

Wilson Yard is the former site of a CTA maintenance facility on the west side of Broadway, between Wilson and Montrose. The project's housing component was the subject of heated debate. Like its far north neighbor Rogers Park, for years Uptown was known for its social services agencies and subsidized housing. The longtime alderman -- Helen Shiller, an independent firebrand on the City Council -- had worked to bring a Target retailer and affordable housing development to the site.
But newer, relatively wealthier residents wanted a different flavor of retail there, one that would blend better with the artsy feel of the historic architecture and their vision of the neighborhood. And they have been actively fighting for a different approach to developing the site.

"There are a number of people who live here who are tremendously committed to the community," said John Holden -- who owns a vintage two-flat, is a block club president, and has lived in the neighborhood for 15 years. "They spend untold hours at community meetings. This adds to Uptown and hopefully will help its future," Holden said.

As of this writing, that dispute is over with a whimper if not a bang. Construction begins in July on Shiller's plans for a $140-million development on the Wilson Yard site that calls for a 180,000-square-foot Target, 30,000 square feet of smaller retail and 168 units of affordable housing.

The rental component at Wilson Yard is a 98-unit high-rise apartment building, according to its developer Peter Holsten of Holsten Real Estate Development. Units in that building will be sold to seniors with incomes equivalent to 60 percent of the area median income, or $35,000, for a household of one. Another 78 units will be available for rental to those earning 60 percent of the area median income, or $50,000 for a household of four. The development includes 700 parking spaces.

"This affordability range can qualify instructors at Truman College, police officers and public school teachers," Holsten said. Other plans call for a new Aldi store, which is set to open June 2.

"The retail space is planned to include restaurants, a coffee shop and a bank," Holsten said. At least 100 parking spaces will be available for the smaller retail and general public use. Construction on the Target store is scheduled for June, and the development is scheduled to be completed within 22 months.

To pre-empt big-box sidewalk blight, the Target and other retail stores will front Broadway, while the housing will primarily front Montrose. "The facade of the existing one-story terra cotta building at the northwest corner of Montrose and Broadway will be restored or replicated to the greatest extent possible given the condition of the terra cotta material," Holsten explained.

With the Wilson Yard controversy behind it, Uptown -- bounded roughly by Irving Park Road, Foster Avenue, Lake Michigan and Clark Street -- still has lots of housing, although today far fewer rentals and many more condos. New research by the Center for Urban Research and Learning at Loyola University shows that Uptown had 512 large apartment buildings in 1989; it lost 219 (43 percent) by 2004.

Luring the new-home buyers, residents say, are the area's lakefront location, shopping, restaurants and good transportation.

"There are a lot of signs of development all over the neighborhood." Uptown resident Holden said. "And, of course, obviously Uptown's location is fantastic. It's five blocks from the lake -- about five minutes by bike."

Another Uptown attraction is its vintage architecture. "We have three landmark districts here," Holden said. "I'm an architecture freak, and we have some beautiful buildings here."

A theater district centered at Broadway, Lawrence and Racine is working toward revival, slowed somewhat by lagging plans for the 4,500-seat Uptown Theater.

The Chicago landmark building, built in 1925, was the crown jewel in the Balaban and Katz theater chain and the focus of the Uptown entertainment district in the '20s. Another historic music hall, the Aragon Ballroom, is still a flourishing live music venue. The Riviera Theatre, a formerly elegant movie palace, now hosts rough and tumble rock acts from all of over the world. Jazz showcase the Green Mill Lounge has reinvented itself Sunday nights with its poetry slams. And Uptown's cultural edge is emerging at the Kinetic Play-ground, the namesake for the legendary '60s club where stars like Jimi Hendrix played.

Nevertheless, Holden said there have been a number of issues over the years regarding public safety. He points to the L stop at Wilson and Broadway, which has been a community eyesore for decades.

Holsten, the Wilson Yard developer, says plans are under way to remove the blight from the L stop. The architecturally significant structure will be completely restored on the outside and completely new on the inside.

"It will be brand, spanking new, so more people will use it," Holsten said. "The more people, the lesser the crime." That project is expected to be completed by early next year. he said.

"I'll believe that when I see it," Holden said. "There have been so many plans over the years for that station and nothing has happened. But if it does happen, that would be great," he said. "But right now, the L stop is very intimidating and is a place where vagrants loiter. It's gotten a little better in recent years, but I still avoid that station," Holden said.

There's so much going on in this neighborhood it's hard to capture it all. Uptown consists of several smaller upscale residential enclaves, including the historic landmark districts. These include the Hutchinson Street District (a city landmark district), the Sheridan Park Historic District (a national landmark district), Buena Park Historic District (a national landmark district), Clarendon Park and Margate Park. Each of these landmark districts has its own homeowners association.

"The fact that we have three historic districts is a big draw," said Joyce Dugan, president and chief executive officer of the Uptown Chicago Commission, an economic development corporation. "People are interested in historic preservation, and we have some very attractive older housing.

"Also," Dugan said, "there has been a huge resurgence of people interested in city life and wanting to live closer to downtown. And, Uptown is only about a half-hour to the Loop or Millennium Park, so people are coming here."

Many students who attend Truman College live in the area. Springing up nearby the college's Wilson Avenue address are cafes, coffee houses and lounges. One harbinger of the changing neighborhood is a Nick's bar, a northern cousin to the popular Lincoln Park watering hole.


Ethnic influences
Uptown is home to people from many parts of the world, and exhibits influences from many cultures. Argyle Street, from Sheridan to Broadway and spilling onto Broadway features an exceptional selection of Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Laotian, French Vietnamese and Cambodian ethnic restaurants and bakeries.
The Clark Street Corridor -- running north from Montrose to Foster avenues on the western edge of Uptown -- also is undergoing a rebirth with new condominiums, retail and restaurants.

"Spilling north from the Graceland West neighborhood into East Ravenswood and West Uptown, growth in the Clark Street Corridor is being sparked by the sale of new upscale condominium developments," said Susie Kanter, sales associate for Rubloff Residential Properties.

Another revitalization catalyst is the completed $24.3-million Phoenix at Uptown Square, a mixed-use condominium and retail developments on Broadway, just south of Lawrence in the heart of Uptown.

The former Goldblatt's department store now hosts 37 lofts and new-construction condominiums, and 41,000 square-feet of retail space, including a Borders Books and Music store at Broadway and Racine.

"Home shoppers looking for everything from affordable condos and rental apartments to posh lofts and Queen Anne mansions can take their pick at the diverse housing stock in the Uptown neighborhood," noted Paul Hardej, president of Metropolitan Development Enterprises, which is developing the ambitious Rainbo Village on the 2-plus-acre site of the former Rainbo roller rink at 4836 N. Clark.

Situated on the border of historic Uptown and Andersonville neighborhoods, Metropolitan's Rainbo Village is a condominium development drawing first-time buyers.

"Soft loft condominiums have been the draw for young, urban buyers at Rainbo Village," Hardej said. "We have diversity here. People from Uptown, Andersonville and Lake View are upgrading from rental to ownership.

Rainbo Village is home to 127 soft loft condominiums, duplexes and town houses as well as 15,000 square feet of retail space. Open, soft-loft floor plans with spacious 10-foot ceilings are the earmark of Rainbo Village's Kinetic Lofts, a collection of 88 loft condominiums in two five-story buildings. Homes will be built around a courtyard garden that features stone pieces from the original Rainbo facade.

- edit

^^

hopefully somebody will step up and restore this beauty

http://uptownupdate.blogspot.com/

^Pretty nice and new blog providing updates on some of the renovations and new developments in Uptown.

Recent photos of the Uptown Theater interior if you're interested
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chicago_steph/sets/72157600264268667/

Recent photos of the Uptown Theater interior if you're interested
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chicago_steph/sets/72157600264268667/
^^^ Here's a teaser and the associated caption:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chicago_steph/513415016/in/set-72157600264268667/:

Here's a little more of an idea just how much the restoration would do. It looks like it's in a patch of sunlight, but this area is just as murky as everywhere else - that's the beauty of the restoration.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y150/wjcordier/513415016_c4f547c27c.jpg

To me if this was restored it would be as good as a new mega-project i could get excited about. The craftsmanship is simply stunning and not likely to be replicated this day in age.

I am not sure of the history behind the Riveria, Aragon, and Uptown, but from the looks of it, all 3 were built around the same time. I think all 3 can be restored to look very nice.

I attended a circuit party there one time. It's an awesome venue(from what I remember)

I am not sure of the history behind the Riveria, Aragon, and Uptown, but from the looks of it, all 3 were built around the same time. I think all 3 can be restored to look very nice.

The Uptown was built as a Broadway type live theatre venue. The Aragon was a big band dance hall, thus the Aragon Ballroom. I'm not sure about the Riv, but it and the Uptown also hosted movies during the movie palace era. During the '70s and '80s the Uptown and Aragon hosted some raucious and rowdy rock shows.

:rock: :righton: :hammer: :hammer: :booze: :dance:

The articles don't mention what will happen to the Uptown after it's restored.

Any ideas?

The articles don't mention what will happen to the Uptown after it's restored.

Any ideas?
That restoration is, I believe, just a test patch, not part of an ongoing project.
There is some litigation going on now as to who the true owner of the property is...

That restoration is, I believe, just a test patch, not part of an ongoing project.
There is some litigation going on now as to who the true owner of the property is...

I guess I'm just confused as to what the owners want to do with the property after the proposed $40 million restoration. Something tells me that they won't be holding rock concerts in there.

It would be pretty sweet if they returned to live stage performance and got a pretty big Broadway show there. From the pictures, the inside (and outside) is a very beautiful venue.

http://www.pioneerlocal.com/newsstar/news/424767,SN-WilsonYard-061307-s1.article

Holsten: Target is coming to Wilson Yard

June 13, 2007
By LORRAINE SWANSON

Developer Peter Holsten went on record that a Target store is coming to Wilson Yard despite no official announcement from the retail giant.

In a June 6 meeting of the Wilson Yard Task Force at Truman College, Holsten, the lead developer for the former, five-acre CTA rail yard, insisted that his firm, the Chicago-based Holsten, had passed all of the Target Corporation's financial boards and had a signed contract in hand.

"Target wants to open in mid-2009," Holsten said.

Wilson Yard, bounded by Broadway and the CTA tracks on the east and west, and Wilson and Montrose Avenues on the north and south, became a political battleground during the recent 46th Ward aldermanic race. Some Uptown residents have criticized Holsten and Alderman Helen Shiller, 46th, for what they claim has been a lack of transparency in the mixed-use development's planning process.

The redevelopment plans include a 180,000-square-foot Target store, 178 units of affordable housing and a 700-car parking garage, with 30,000 additional square feet for retail, offices and restaurants. A new Aldi's that replaced an existing store at 4450 N. Broadway, opened in May at Wilson Yard, almost six months past its projected opening of December 2006.

Last month, the City Council approved increasing Wilson Yard's TIF subsidy from $35.6 million to $43.1 million, stipulating that construction begin on the Target and residential units no later than July. Holsten attributed the increase to a 15 percent rise in construction costs and materials.

Holsten told task force members and a handful of residents attending the mid-morning meeting that toxic soil removal had already begun on the site. Demolition of the old Aldi's and the Azusa Building will start in July.

Wary after the pullout of a 12-screen movie theater in 2005, residents have questioned whether Target has truly committed to anchoring the Wilson Yard complex of stores, offices and apartments. Uptown resident Dustin Fogel, who took a day off from work to attend the task force meeting which are typically held during business hours, asked why there has been no official announcement.

Repeated calls to Target's media relations department were not returned.

"When the Target on Peterson opened there were signs up well in advance of its coming," Fogel said.

"Also, (residents) have contacted Target and asked if they had any new stores planned in the Chicago area and the Wilson Yard Target was not mentioned," Fogel added.

Holsten described Target's policies on announcing new stores "odd."

"We asked to put an announcement in the newspaper. It's bizarre," Holsten said.

Shiller backed Holsten, who reiterated that his firm did indeed have a contract.

"Do you think he'd go forward if Target wasn't on board?" Shiller asked.

Holsten said that once construction is underway, a rendering of the proposed Target would be posted at the construction site.

"(Target's) policies on this side are absurd. We'll put up a rendering and to hell with them," Holsten said.

-----------------

To hell with them? I don't think this is the way a developer would talk to their anchor tenant, especially when the deal seems shaky at best. I guess we'll have to see.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/realestate/chi-irving_re_07-01jul01,0,3798990.story?coll=chi-classifiedrealestate-hed
87 condos at Irving Park and Sheridan

By Jeanette Almada
Special to the Tribune
Published July 1, 2007

A mixed-use project with 87 condominiums will replace an old gas station on Irving Park Road, near Sheridan Road.

Loukas Development Group will develop the project through SEC Sheridan Irving Park LLC.

Loukas will build the project on a 19,616-square-foot site at 943-957 W. Irving Park Rd. and 3947-3957 N. Sheridan Rd.

"We have owned the site for about three years. We live in the neighborhood and are very concerned about what our project looks like [and] worked long to design something that we can be proud of," Tony Loukas, president of Loukas Development Group, said June 27.

The gas station will be demolished, according to a Chicago Department of Planning and Development project manager who won Plan Commission approval for it June 21. Approval was needed because the site was originally zoned to allow an 87-foot building, and the proposed building will be a little more than 100 feet. The new zoning allows a building of up to 142 feet. City Council approval is needed.

Loukas will build a 12-story building with 87 condos, 87 parking spaces and ground-floor retail space.

The condos will consist of 50 one-bedroom units from 725 to 860 square feet; 34 two-bedroom units with 1,155 to 1,285 square feet; and three three-bedroom units with 1,500 to 1,800 square feet, the Planning Department project manager told commissioners.

Eighty-three units will be sold at market rates. "We have not yet finalized our design so are not sure about the final prices. But we expect that our one-bedroom units will be priced from about mid-$200,000, and that our largest two-bedroom units will be around $400,000," Loukas said.

Pappageorge Haymes is designing the building.

Under its agreement with the city, Loukas will sell four units (two two-bedroom and two one-bedroom units) at the affordable price of $145,000. Those units will be sold to buyers earning up to 100 percent of the average area income, or $75,000 for a family of four.

Loukas negotiated that agreement, according to the Chicago Department of Housing's Chicago Partners for Affordable Neighborhoods program, before the City Council approved an ordinance that requires developers of housing projects with any city assistance to set aside at least 10 percent of their units as affordable housing.

Loukas hopes to begin construction in early 2008.

Interesting ... wasn't there a discussion of putting a Whole Foods at that location?

close enough URB,
but it is on the south side of irving park,
so to be technical it would be lakeview.

i yahoo mapped it, and you can also tell just by the address
that its below 4000 which is irving, so many would call it the beginning of wrigleyville?

never liked that name, cuz its not really well defined.

btw this sounds like a great idea for the area, that corner has been dead for awhile,
and there is an awesome new mixed used building just south of it,
this is shaping up to be a great el stop. hopefully it will be a nice looking bldg.

"....I don't think this is the way a developer would talk to their anchor tenant, especially when the deal seems shaky at best. I guess we'll have to see...."

Holsten knows what he is doing. He is not a hothead. He wouldn't say this publicly about Target unless it would help his situation.

I am not saying that the Wilson Yard project has proceeded in the best way for residents, I am just saying that Holsten is tweaking Target on purpose.

this thread is so dead,
but there is alot going on in uptown
check out uptown update, its a great blog
in the same vein as broken heart of rogers park,
just not as heavy on the politics.

Yesterday there was a meeting for a project by the same developer of the Theater District Lofts for a building on the SE corner of Lawrence and Winthrop.

This thread has a good discussion on the development
http://p197.ezboard.com/Results-of-Meeting--Lawrence-amp-Winthrop-Project/fbuenaparkneighborsfrm2.showMessage?topicID=2536.topic

The developer says the building will have a 9 screen theater, 499 parking spaces, high end grocery store or restaurant for the ground floor retail, and office/retail space on the top floor. However, there are many doubts regarding the possibility of either a theater or grocery store.

The developer says the building will have a 9 screen theater, 499 parking spaces, high end grocery store or restaurant...

^ We must prepare for the avalanche of cars! They're coming, HELP!!!

^ We must prepare for the avalanche of cars! They're coming, HELP!!!

Restrict the amount of parking garage spaces as much as possible. Stop designing around the car. We have a huge dense population right there who can walk easily or take the El to this spot.

I work in the Bridgeview/Uptown Bank Building (?) and I had no clue that so much stuff is being built all over Uptown. Does anyone know what's going to happen with the building adjacent to Riviera? It's being renovated, and from what I hear, Bank of America will be moving there. Does anyone know?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/news/chi-mary_re_09-16sep16,0,5044246.story

Downtown goes uptown--more slowly
By Mary Umberger
September 16, 2007

As the downtown condo market has grown in the last few years, so have the number of columns in Gail Lissner's spreadsheet.

Lissner keeps a quarterly sales score card for Appraisal Research Counselors, a Chicago firm that specializes in analyzing the downtown market for newly built condominiums. Where condo-shoppers see granite countertops, luxurious baths and dazzling city views, Lissner sees square footage -- increasingly pricey square footage.

FYI
I believe you posted this article link to the wrong thread. The article has nothing to do with the "Uptown" neighborhood. It speaks specifically to the ever-increasing cost per/SF of the "downtown" condo market.

This building is begging to become a grand casino.

This would be the most elegant gambling palace in the US, perhaps the world.

^^

No, its begging to be put back to its original use which is a grand performance venue not to listen to the great acoustics of slot machines. Plus entirely wrong neighborhood in terms of distance and economic demographics I think.

^^^^
The place has been vacated for 20 plus years! Right now it's a haven for the rats. I'm not the authority on this, but nothing seems to have gotten off the ground accept various owners attempting some revitalization without bearing fruit. . .obviously the market for the sort of venue advocated is also questionable for that area and demographic.

I wouldn't say destroy the theatre component, and I don't know the layout of the building, but, the darn thing is just HUGE and seems suited for multi-purpose. I mean look here:

[img=http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/9665/001rs1.th.jpg] (http://img119.imageshack.us/my.php?image=001rs1.jpg)

Casino complexes do have theatre components and this one could restore/retain theirs. As it stands now, the thing is facing destruction. And isn't Uptown a vital, yet still an economically edgy community?

The Uptown Theatre has not declined because of bad potential. It's declined because of a string of absolutely shitty landlords, who will do anything for a buck, including selling the building and then claiming that they still own it after people start appreciating the architecture.

^^^^
The place has been vacated for 20 plus years! Right now it's a haven for the rats. I'm not the authority on this, but nothing seems to have gotten off the ground accept various owners attempting some revitalization without bearing fruit. . .obviously the market for the sort of venue advocated is also questionable for that area and demographic.

I wouldn't say destroy the theatre component, and I don't know the layout of the building, but, the darn thing is just HUGE and seems suited for multi-purpose. I mean look here:

[img=http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/9665/001rs1.th.jpg] (http://img119.imageshack.us/my.php?image=001rs1.jpg)

Casino complexes do have theatre components and this one could restore/retain theirs. As it stands now, the thing is facing destruction. And isn't Uptown a vital, yet still an economically edgy community?


I would rather have a casino there then have it torn down as well but I do hold out hope as there have been murmurings of a few possible interested parties renovating it for theater or music acts rather recently. I just think that would be far more preferable and with Uptown on an uptick I think that it will only become more of a possibility that someone will finally step up and do it.

Is there any news with the Wilson Yards project?

Last I heard (and this was last summer) the developer was claiming that he had a letter of intent from Target, and Target itself was denying it. After that, 4 months of silence until now.

I hope this building goes through - it's very urban, and sets a new pattern for retailers to follow out in the neighborhoods, where they usually just build strip malls and be done with it. The Aldi turned out fairly nice, except for the lack of an entrance on Broadway.

http://www.suntimes.com/business/682576,target120507.article

Uptown Target to start construction: developer

December 5, 2007
BY DAVID ROEDER

Construction on a Target store in Uptown will begin in January, the developer of the community’s Wilson Yard site said today.

Peter Holsten, president of Holsten Real Estate Development Corp., said the store should be open by October 2009. He said construction also will start in January on the site’s 178 apartments, which are scheduled to open by the end of 2009.

Awesome! I get a real news article within days, not just hearsay. Couldn't have wished for better news.

http://www.suntimes.com/business/roe...eder09.article

Live Nation has eyes on Uptown
REAL ESTATE | Northerly Island promoter seeks to restore theater's glory

January 9, 2008
BY DAVID ROEDER Sun-Times Columnist

Live Nation Inc., the concert promoter that manages the outdoor performance stage at Northerly Island, is negotiating with city officials to take over the landmark Uptown Theatre, 4816 N. Broadway.

The 1925 building has been mostly unused for 25 years. But Live Nation is said to be interested in restoring it to its former glory and using its 4,300-seat auditorium for concerts and other events.

Possible hitches -- and there are many -- include a city subsidy for what could be a $40 million restoration..........................

:cheers:
Lets hope it happens and we get a new retrofitted music venue that could potentially be the best in the city or at the very least possibly the most interesting.

^ Incredible news. Lets hope this opportunity isn't allowed to slip past..

This same article also discusses the Theatre District tower project:

Jan. 30, 2008

Aragon owner a partner in Uptown movie theater project
By Eddie Baeb

Excerpt:

James Gouskos, owner of Lawrence Properties LLC, joined with Aragon owner Luis Rossi to buy a vacant site at 1063 W. Lawrence Ave. for a building that would house a nine- or 10-screen movie theater, a 500-car parking garage and 85,000 square feet of retail space. Messrs. Gouskos and Rossi paid $4.6 million for the property earlier this month.
http://chicagorealestatedaily.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=27968

http://www.suntimes.com/business/roeder/790569,CST-FIN-roeder13.article

Real estate

February 13, 2008
DAVID ROEDER droeder@suntimes.com

......OFF TARGET: Uptown residents keeping watch over the Wilson Yard property at Montrose and Wilson are a vigilant group. Many of them reminded me that the site's developer, Peter Holsten, vowed in December that construction on the Target store would begin in January. He said so in the Sun-Times.

January is gone in the winter slush, and yet no construction has started. I know that thanks to many e-mails. So a conversation with Holsten was mandatory but not revelatory.

"Nothing's wrong and we are in good shape but I cannot talk about it," he said. Many retailers have been delaying or scrapping store expansions because the economy is pinching their earnings and banks are less eager to lend.............

Dammit!

old news but i didnt see it posted here

i found it on uptown update
a great uptown blog,


The sign announcing the upcoming "Pure2o" condo development was recently posted at Clarendon and Leland. The website says "coming soon." Check back there soon for more info.
Update: Joe Zekas over at "YoChicago" posted a link with more info on the "Pure2o" development. Check it out here. Thanks for linking to it Mr. Pirate.

http://www.pure2ochicago.com/

click this one http://www.castlerocestates.ie/downloads/pure2o/Pure20%20IM%20Oct%202%202007-2.pdf

^^ Looks cool.

http://WilBSnodgrassiii.smugmug.com/photos/277541864_YNaRJ-XL.jpg
I love this building!

Also - Chicago Journal posted an article a few days ago about the Wilson Yards project. The city has upped their TIF contribution to cover 36% of construction costs, which is almost double the city's suggested cap of 20%.

The developer, Holsten, now vows to begin construction in June. Why am I skeptical?

Just get it going already! I'm anxious for a Target in this area so that I'm not stuck riding the Addison bus all the way out to nearly the Kennedy Expressway or taking the red line all the way down to Roosevelt.

According to Uptown Update, the Clever Boar Wine Bar will open this fall in the newly restored Uptown Broadway Building.

http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/the_theater_loop/2008/07/uptown-theatre.html

Uptown Theatre goes on the block
Want to buy Chicago's historic Uptown Theatre on Tuesday morning? It's relatively easy.

..........You'll only need at least $40 million—the precise figures depend on whom you ask and what gets done—to bring the long-shuttered, 1925 venue back to life.

In the latest Byzantine twist in the saga of the colossal, landmark theater—followed by a passionate group of historians, neighborhood activists and arts supporters—the Uptown Theatre will be the object of a forced judicial sale Tuesday. Regardless of the buyer, it should remove a stumbling block in the theater's restoration.

It will clarify who owns the joint.

"The bottom line here is that the ownership issue will be completely cleared up," said Judy Frydland, an attorney for the City of Chicago, which will be closely monitoring the morning's developments. "Regardless of what has happened in the past, whoever is the highest bidder will own the building."..............
..

http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/264/2736492686559042fa26bgi5.jpg
Pete Fuller/ flickr

Are they any closer to beginning construction on the new Target in Uptown? I'm getting tired of waiting. :wallbash:

Oh yeah, any day now!!! Not.

I live a block south of that. There's always "news" about Target from the developer, but myseriously nothing ever seems to happen. They are digging around in the dirt to get ready to build the two towers that will contain 178 new low income housing units for Uptown.

I love the neighborhood to death, but what in the hell is the Alderman on when the ONLY type of development she wants in this neighborhood striving to gentrify (but being held back) is methadone clinics, shelters, low income and section 8 housing? How many social services can we crush into one small area of the city before someone finally throws her ass into the lake. Has she not been paying attention the past 40 years? I'm all for helping people out, but the exactly wrong way of doing it is to take everyone in poverty and hopelessness and then go throw them together in a few close together building and wait for the worlds biggest block party to develop.

Shiller is such a cunt. I used to live at Montrose and Broadway and it was a hot mess then. It's gotten worse I think. I have friends who just moved into deepest ghetto at Sheridan and Lawrence. Good Christ, their place is beautiful, but two steps outside and it's disgusting. Maybe I'm just getting old/older, but I just don't have the patience for the endless stream of trash walking Schiller's streets. It's really sad that one neighborhood could have so many people who would like to make it better, but there's no support from the alderman.

http://www.suntimes.com/business/roeder/1334584,CST-FIN-ROEDER17.article

Another chance on the N. Side's money pit
UPTOWN | Maryville Academy site is latest development deal

December 17, 2008
DAVID ROEDER

The latest development firm to bite the Uptown apple is Sedgwick Properties Development Corp., which has signed a contract to buy the former Maryville Academy property at Montrose and Clarendon. The site consists of buildings north of Montrose and on both sides of Clarendon, just off Lake Shore Drive and Lincoln Park.

The potential of new homes with lake views wasn't lost on Marty Paris, Sedgwick president. At 3½ acres, the property is large enough to do several things, such as adding retail space into the design.

So Paris said he's working on a mixed-use concept he hopes to refine after discussions with neighborhood groups. He also said he believes the property can accommodate a high-rise, although he didn't want to get specific.
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/9530/121708roedercstfeed2008gk9.jpg

http://chicagojournal.com/main.asp?SectionID=49&SubSectionID=142&ArticleID=6914&TM=85966.84

Holsten's attorney subpoenas Google
Information sought on 2 Uptown blogs

By LORRAINE SWANSON

The attorney representing Wilson Yard developer Peter Holsten in the lawsuit filed against him by Fix Wilson Yard has subpoenaed Google seeking information about two Uptown blogs.

News-Star learned that the blogs in question are Uptown Update and What the Helen. Each blog was notified by e-mail that they had been subpoenaed as third parties through Google and that they have until Feb. 4 to file a motion to quash the subpoena. Both blogs are maintained anonymously and neither is affiliated with Fix Wilson Yard.

http://chicagojournal.com/main.asp?SectionID=49&SubSectionID=142&ArticleID=7020&TM=84052.77

Residents sound off on Maryville proposal
By LORRAINE SWANSON


...The developer is proposing a residential and commercial development with up to 850 units of housing and 100,000 square feet of retail.

"We didn't come with fully blown designs to try to overwhelm you," Feeley said.

...The developer plans to demolish one of the buildings that once housed a school and residence for wards of the state. In its place, Sedgwick wants to build two residential towers of market-rate condominium and rental housing, a bank of five-story townhomes along Agitate and an affordable senior rental building up to 10 stories tall facing Clarendon. One of the residential towers will be 30 stories, and the other 39 stories.

The developer also wants to add a boutique hotel where there is a second existing structure across Clarendon adjacent to Chicago Park District property. Still undecided is whether the second building will be demolished or incorporated into the master development plan.

Touting the entire project as a "top-notch, class-A" development, Feeley added that the firm is talking to high-end retailers including a gourmet supermarket, to anchor the two towers.

^ Great. Hopefully we'll keep the NIMBY self-entitled stupidity to a minimum

Uptown neighborhood on an upswing
Steeped in history, diverse neighborhood witnessing a renaissance

By Jeffrey Steele | Special to the Tribune
April 3, 2009

There was a time, in its Roaring '20s heyday, when Uptown lived up to its name in more than one way. Yes, it stood higher than the Loop on the Chicago city map, but it also represented a glamorous step up from much of the rest of the Windy City.

In his book, "Guide to Chicago Neighborhoods," author and Tribune reporter Ron Grossman recaptures that age. "Between the World Wars, Wilson and Sheridan marked the center of what the Chicagoan magazine of the day called 'a city within a city,' a glittery district dotted with big movie palaces, fancy department stores and dance halls hosting Glenn Miller, the Dorsey Brothers, Jan Garber and all the other famous names of the swing era."

Ensuing decades would not be so kind to Uptown. Chic "Wilson Avenue girls" and their Aragon Ballroom suitors married and fled to the suburbs. Uptown began a slow slide, morphing into a low-rent district known for crime, grime and arson fires.

That slalom bottomed out in the 1970s, when urban pioneers swooped in to grab architecturally stunning vintage homes and commercial buildings at bargain prices. Three decades later, Uptown continues on with an inspiring revitalization.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/communities/chi-uptown_profile_chomes_0403apr03,0,1826994.story

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/uptown.theatre.discussion.2.1064167.html

Discussion Planned On Future Of Uptown Theatre
Chicago Architecture Foundation To Host Documentary Screening, Talk On Restoration Efforts

Jun 29, 2009 11:55 am US/Central

The long-vacant Uptown Theatre looks much the same as it did nearly a year ago when JAM Productions bought it with plans to bring live concerts back.

But many Chicagoans are eagerly awaiting its reopening, and they may get some updates this Wednesday.

The Chicago Architecture Foundation on Wednesday will screen, "Portrait of a Palace," a documentary film on the history of the Uptown Theatre, 4814 N. Broadway, which has been boarded up since early 1981. Afterward, JAM Productions founder Jerry Mickelson and Friends of the Uptown volunteer Andy Pierce will talk about the history and planned renovation of the theatre.

The free screening and discussion are set for 12:15 p.m. Wednesday at the Chicago Architecture Foundation's first floor gallery in the Santa Fe Building, 24 S. Michigan Ave...................

Friends of the Uptown is also holding a fundraiser in September at the Sanfilippo Estate in Barrington Hills. The $40-per-ticket fundraiser will feature tours of the mechanical musical devices and historical artifacts at the estate, and a theatre organ concert. It's set for Sept. 20 at 2 p.m................
..

Has anyone visited the Wilson Yard site recently?

I passed by it 2 days ago. It's pretty large, and will go a long way towards enclosing that area. Too bad about the vacant building across Broadway from it

Has anyone visited the Wilson Yard site recently?

I passed by it 2 days ago. It's pretty large, and will go a long way towards enclosing that area. Too bad about the vacant building across Broadway from it

The ALDI was pretty bad, having little resemblance to what was planned, promised, or ideal. And it has already been tagged. Unfortunately, the second phase seems to be following the first. I'm not too impressed with the brick or the residential structure.

And that vacant building across the street is destined to become another one of Shiller's hair-brained TIF schemes: an urban fish farm.

Anyway, this (http://www.lakeeffectnews.com/2009/09/04/tough-retail-market-affecting-wilson-yard/) article mentions a few possible retail tenants that could join Target, Subway, AT&T, some nail salon and Play N Trade:
An adult daycare center, Sally’s Beauty Supply, XSport Fitness, Chili’s, and something called Panara Bread Company [sic]. Panara would fit right in on the Wilson Yard billboard with the fake Target logo.

I pass Wilson Yard frequently, it looks pretty bad. It looks very cheap. Some good retail like a Panera and Xsports could help push Uptown over the hill and into a true yuppie bastion. If Target opens I think the dynamic of the neighborhood will definitely change.

There is also great retail opportunities in the recently renovated building on Broadway, just south of Lawrence.

The ALDI was pretty bad, having little resemblance to what was planned, promised, or ideal. And it has already been tagged. Unfortunately, the second phase seems to be following the first. I'm not too impressed with the brick or the residential structure.

And that vacant building across the street is destined to become another one of Shiller's hair-brained TIF schemes: an urban fish farm.

Anyway, this (http://www.lakeeffectnews.com/2009/09/04/tough-retail-market-affecting-wilson-yard/) article mentions a few possible retail tenants that could join Target, Subway, AT&T, some nail salon and Play N Trade:
An adult daycare center, Sally’s Beauty Supply, XSport Fitness, Chili’s, and something called Panara Bread Company [sic]. Panara would fit right in on the Wilson Yard billboard with the fake Target logo.

^ It's tall, it's brick, it's dense, and it encloses the shit out of Uptown's Broadway streetscape.

Sure it could be better. But sheesh, have you noticed some of those strip malls? What's there to complain about here?

Sure it could be better. But sheesh, have you noticed some of those strip malls? What's there to complain about here?

With more than $50 million in TIF, we shouldn't have to settle for just "good enough."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classi...,6700971.story

Continuing-care communities move ahead
By Jane Adler

The Admiral on the Lake, Chicago.

After a delay, this project on the city's North Side should be moving ahead soon. The new building at Foster Avenue and Marine Drive replaces a retirement facility that was torn down in 2007. The Kendal Corp., an experienced retirement-community operator from the East Coast, has been brought in to help push the project forward, and a new marketing effort is under way.

About 70 percent of the 200 apartments are reserved. Though financing for big projects such as the Admiral has been hard to obtain because of the economic downturn, Glenn Brichacek, CEO of the Admiral, expects to begin construction by next spring or sooner. In that case, the project would open in 2012.
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/5025/admiral1zoom.jpg

http://www.lakeeffectnews.com/2010/01/14/new-tif-coming-to-uptown/

New TIF Coming To Uptown
By LORRAINE SWANSON

...The proposed, mixed-use development to be named Lakeview Station after what was once the site of city’s largest North Side water pumping station in the late 1800s, will include two residential towers up to 30 and 39 stories of market-rate condominiums and rental units, a bank of five-story townhomes along Agatite, and a 10-story affordable senior housing building facing Clarendon. Both residential towers include a combined 100,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space. Also in the mix is a “boutique” hotel across the street from the main campus where there is an existing structure once used by Maryville as an administration building.

http://www.lakeeffectnews.com/2010/01/14/developer-says-community-wont-lose-parking-to-new-uptown-development/

Developer Says Community Won’t Lose Parking To New Uptown Development
By LORRAINE SWANSON

...Feeley also said that Sedgwick has revised its original plans from 860 parking spaces in compliance with Chicago building codes that require one space for each new unit of housing to now include 1,100 spaces of parking. A minimum of 125 spaces will be available for public parking, up to 500-plus spaces of public parking after the development is completed.

...Sedgwick has also received “letters of intent” from a grocer and health club to lease the ground floor commercial space of the two residential towers.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/26396462/Target-Opening-On-July-25-2010


Planned opening date: July 25, 2010
Not a Super Target but there will be groceries, some deli/bakery items, and a Starbucks
Possible walkway connecting the store to the CTA station
The community has sent some letters to Target corporate asking about sponsoring the Wilson El stop (rehab of the station) - is that something that could be possible?

That is something that the corporate office would look at. Jeff [DeMoss, District Team Leader] is willing to talk to anyone that has ideas and explore it.

http://interactive.chicagobusiness.com/closer/constructionpipeline/private/

2010/02/14 Theater District Lofts - Phase II 21-story condominium tower, $35 million 4738 N Winthrop Ave, Chicago, IL 60640-5034, US Cook Est. Start Date: October 2011

http://www.lakeeffectnews.com/2010/03/01/lunching-with-helen/

Lunching With Helen
By LORRAINE SWANSON

...Negotiations are being finalized with a new restaurant that Shiller described as “a hybrid between a sit-down and carryout” restaurant.

...Also on tap for development is the Wilson Mall and possibly turning it into a mini-French market.

Update on the New Admiral at the Lake - Jan 2010 (https://www.kendal.org/webview/downloads/New_Admiral_Update_012810.pdf) (***PDF***)

Update on The New Admiral at the Lake
Construction expected to begin this spring on Chicago’s lakefront

Strong response to the combined
marketing efforts of The Kendal
Corporation and The New Admiral
at the Lake has garnered more
than 75% reservation deposits for
the 31-story Life Care/Continuing
Care Retirement Community to be
built on Chicago’s lakefront. Those
deposits, combined with a thawing
of the financial markets in the senior
housing sector, have put The New
Admiral firmly on a path toward
financing and the beginning of
construction in the spring.

Having already secured all of
the permits and licenses necessary
to construct and operate the
community, The Admiral’s team of
advisers and contractors have begun
taking the final steps necessary to
secure construction and long-term
financing.
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/6578/admiral1.jpg
http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/4827/admiral2c.jpg

Nice! Finally, a new tower for the north lakefront. I don't think there's been a significant new tower up there since The Hallmark, 20 years ago. At this rate, it may go vertical before Lincoln Park 2520.

I love the massing of it, too... it reminds me of some of those massive resort towers you see in Orlando or Vegas, that just instantly convey an impression of hugeness through their height AND width.

An oddly new york-style setbacked building, though I'm unsure as to how the horizontal massing works on streetlevel. That being said, I agree with ardecila that it's great to have a new scraper for the north lakefront, especially in the uptown area.

http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/1596/yw9wyr4s.jpg
Matt Stewart/ flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewie81/4585900923/)

Broadway (Montrose to Wilson) streetscape project:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_JTlCj7YVS0Q/S-NPZ5W1DBI/AAAAAAAAE2Y/sNlhVz1k9BE/s1600/broadwayss_poster.jpg

Update on the New Admiral at the Lake - Jan 2010 (https://www.kendal.org/webview/downloads/New_Admiral_Update_012810.pdf) (***PDF***)

Update on The New Admiral at the Lake
Construction expected to begin this spring on Chicago’s lakefront

Strong response to the combined
marketing efforts of The Kendal
Corporation and The New Admiral
at the Lake has garnered more
than 75% reservation deposits for
the 31-story Life Care/Continuing
Care Retirement Community to be
built on Chicago’s lakefront. Those
deposits, combined with a thawing
of the financial markets in the senior
housing sector, have put The New
Admiral firmly on a path toward
financing and the beginning of
construction in the spring.

Having already secured all of
the permits and licenses necessary
to construct and operate the
community, The Admiral’s team of
advisers and contractors have begun
taking the final steps necessary to
secure construction and long-term
financing.
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/6578/admiral1.jpg
http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/4827/admiral2c.jpg

Construction already started on this right??

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/5103/461214048480d62a1109b.jpg
Strannik45/ flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/strannik45/4612140484/in/set-72157621862062263/)

Before and After
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/3396/227820775f95ac68009o.jpg
geekgrrl++ / flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/gentlentropy/227820775/)
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/7441/4611528473d939af3be5b.jpg
Strannik45/ flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/strannik45/4611528473/)

Great preservation job. Well done, Holsten.

when is that target going to open?

Great preservation job. Well done, Holsten.

^ I take it you're being sarcastic, right? That is a really pathetic and lazy preservation job there..

Otherwise, I like Wilson Yards. Good density

I'm not sure if preservation is the word i'm looking for but it is definitely a great improvement on that corner and adds some much needed density

http://www.suntimes.com/news/transportation/2464198,CST-NWS-ride05.article

July 5, 2010

BY MARY WISNIEWSKI

Starting next year, the Chicago Department of Transportation will convert Lawrence Avenue between Ashland and Western from a four-lane street to a street with one lane in each direction, one continuous left-turn lane down the center, and bike lanes.

A streetscaping project, which will include adding trees and a new light system onto the wider sidewalks, will extend east to Clark.


"We hope to begin work in the spring," he said. "It's really going to be beautiful."

Schulter said the project will fit in with the new Metra station planned for Lawrence and Ravenswood, and new streetscaping on Clark.

"It's another extension of what I've done in Lincoln Square," he said. "It will be a really nice connect with the Andersonville area as well."

The Lawrence Avenue project is expected to cost about $12 million, and may be funded by tax increment finance money. The city plans to be finished in 2012.

^^^ That sounds like a waist of money IMO...

^^^ That sounds like a waist of money IMO...

It's not a waste of money. I used to live on that stretch of Lawrence and it never was a particularly pleasant sidewalk to walk on. As it is now, it's mostly a concrete & asphalt automobile haven. Reducing the auto lanes, softening the streetscape with more greenery, and adding defined bike lanes is a *major* improvement.

I just think there's better things to blow $12 Million on at the moment (and I'm not a big fan of greenery because it invites swarms of bugs...)

http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/1596/yw9wyr4s.jpg
Matt Stewart/ flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewie81/4585900923/)



Im neutral towards the wilson yards project... if the housing density and the target help smaller businesses spring up in the base of the towers then I'll be a little happier.

But the amount of TIF money that went into this project and the size of that parking structure (which dominates the neighborhood to the west of it) will always bug me

I just think there's better things to blow $12 Million on at the moment (and I'm not a big fan of greenery because it invites swarms of bugs...)

money isn't a zero sum game, especially since improvements in greenery and landscaping can increase property tax revenue and offset the cost and pay for itself in the long term. if the TIF funding goes through, in fact, than it would largely be "self-funded" by such increased property tax revenue--you can't just tap into deferred property tax revenue just for anything (despite the fact that there are some really disgruntled anti-TIF people on these forums).

http://www.blackensembletheater.org/capital_compaign.php

4440 or 4450 n clark

Black Ensemble Theater expects to start work in September on a new home at 4450 N. Clark St. in Uptown, according to BidClerk.com. The $7-million development includes renovating an existing two-story building and construction of a new, 300-seat theater, says John Morris, president of Chicago-based Morris Architects/Planners Inc., which is designing the project. Black Ensemble is currently about two blocks away, at 4520 N. Beacon St.

http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=38846

rendering

http://www.morrisap.com/portfolio/viewproject.php?id=4

^^^^ im replying to myself
:nuts:

but after google map streetviewing
the address, holy jeez, it will
be nice to have something cool there
that building has been defaced
with massive amounts of glass brick
absolutely disgusting!

i hate glass brick, so cheap.
very nice project, will
be nice to see this area come alive.:cheers:

The new Target in Uptown opened today. Blair Kamin wrote about the new building earlier in the week. Posted below is a portion of the article. Click the link for the full article.

A better big-box: New Target at Wilson Yard hits the mark, but rest of city project disappoints (http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/theskyline/2010/07/a-better-bigbox-new-target-at-wilson-yard-hits-the-mark-but-rest-of-city-project-disappoints.html)

With Walmart likely to build more stores in Chicago, a big design issue looms: How to tame the suburban big-box monster? A sprawling big-box store provides jobs and low-priced goods, but its vast parking lots and blank walls can dull the vitality of a city neighborhood. What works along a suburban highway can be death to an urban street.

A better way was evident Tuesday at the dedication of Wilson Yard, a $151 million North Side retail and apartment complex built on land once occupied by a Chicago Transit Authority rail yard and bus barn. While the project as a whole is a mixed blessing, with two dreary apartment buildings and an anti-urban Aldi grocery store, its new Target store does a decent job of walking the city walk.

Designed by FitzGerald Associates Architects of Chicago and championed by Mayor Richard Daley and 46th Ward Ald. Helen Shiller, Wilson Yard rises just east of the CTA elevated tracks in Uptown, a neighborhood with a politically volatile mix of the urban gentry and the desperately poor. In Uptown, drug addiction clinics promising “same day dosing” sit just blocks west of an elegant veneer of lakefront high-rises. Welcome to big-box retailing’s new frontier.

This frontier, it should be noted, is a place of robust architectural character. Within steps of Wilson Yard is a cornucopia of design riches, from Gothic Revival high-rises to Stanley Tigerman’s postmodern Pensacola Place Apartments, where stacked balconies and curving windows wittily suggest Ionic columns. Throw in the occasional African grocery store and you know you’re not in Kenilworth anymore.

But a torturous, decade-long approval process made it hard for Wilson Yard to hold up its end of this conversation. Opponents filed a lawsuit, since dismissed, that accused city officials of misdirecting more than $50 million in tax-increment financing funds for blighted areas to a site with intrinsic real estate value. The design went through 50 versions, developer Peter Holsten acknowledged at Tuesday’s ceremonies. And the one that emerged suffered cost-cutting forced by the escalating prices of the boom years.

The design’s broad outlines, at least, merit praise.

http://edgewatercb.blogspot.com/2010/11/admiral-to-break-ground.html

The Admiral to break ground?

"I received a note from Glenn Brichacek, CEO of The New Admiral.

Their bond funding was oversubscribed and funding transaction will close on either November 18th or 19.

GROUND BREAKING WILL BE NOVEMBER 30th."

http://edgewatercb.blogspot.com/2010/11/construction-underway-at-new-admiral-at.html


Official Press Release:
Construction of The NEW Admiral at the Lake begins in Chicago
81 percent of residences reserved in 31-story lakefront life-care community

NOVEMBER 8, 2010 -- Construction began Nov. 5, on The NEW Admiral at the Lake, a 31-story life care/continuing care retirement community being built at Marine Drive and Foster Avenue on Chicago’s lakefront. With 81 percent of its residences already reserved, The NEW Admiral has found strong support among older adults in the region.

The NEW Admiral also has garnered strong support from investors, having secured the $202 million in financing needed to make the not-for-profit community a reality.
Situated just 400 steps from a sand beach in Lincoln Park, many residences in The NEW Admiral will offer breathtaking unobstructed views of Lake Michigan and downtown Chicago, which is a 10-minute ride away. In addition to 200 residential apartments--ranging in size from one-bedroom to three-bedroom homes--the community plans to provide 39 assisted living and 17 memory-support accommodations, as well as 36 private skilled nursing rooms.

In mid-2009, Kendal and The Admiral announced a collaboration, bringing together The Admiral’s 151-year tradition in Chicago with Kendal’s nationally recognized expertise and leadership in the development and operation of not-for-profit continuing care retirement communities. Since then the original intent to collaborate has been consummated with a formal working agreement that will eventually lead to an affiliation between the two.

“With Kendal’s involvement in The Admiral’s redevelopment project, significant results have been achieved within a relatively brief period of time,” says Glenn Brichacek, Chief Executive Officer of The NEW Admiral at the Lake. “The New Admiral has seen a surge in interest from potential residents, which has yielded more excitement and new resident reservations in a shorter period of time than had been anticipated.”

Drawing its name from the historic hotel that once occupied the site, The NEW Admiral at the Lake will continue to serve one of the most interesting and diverse neighborhoods in the United States.

As Chicago’s first and longest-operating, not-for-profit senior living community, The Admiral has a long history of serving older adults of all faiths and nationalities. The Admiral approached Kendal, asking for assistance in repositioning its historic mission on the same site it has occupied since the 1960s, which sits on the border of Chicago’s Edgewater and Uptown neighborhoods on the shore of Lake Michigan.

“This collaboration works because Kendal’s values resonate deeply with those held by The Admiral and its board, staff, and residents,” says John Diffey, President and CEO of The Kendal Corporation, based in Kennett Square, Pa. “The mission, history, and multi-dimensional attractiveness of this opportunity are compelling, and Kendal moved swiftly to help The NEW Admiral complete its plans to create what promises to be an exceptional new urban retirement living community and Kendal’s newest affiliate.”

Lake View Station

http://www.connectingclarendonpark.com/Home.html

Phase I
Location: Northwest corner of Montrose and Clarendon Avenues (Main development site)
Program:
-120,000 sq. ft. retail space-Anchor tenants: full-size grocer and full-service health club
-Parking to support retail
-125 FREE overnight parking spaces for community
-Developer investment to revitalize Clarendon Park

Phase II
Location: Northeast corner of Montrose and Clarendon Avenues (Eastern development site)
Program:
-150 luxury residential units (200 max)
-22 floors (+/-)
-20,000 sq. ft. retail space
-Parking

Phase III
Location: Northwest corner of Montrose and Clarendon Avenues (Main development site)
Program:
-262 residential units (300 max)
-35 floors (+/-)
-Parking

Phase IV
Location: Northwest corner of Montrose and Clarendon Avenues (Main development site)
Program:
-452 residential and hotel units (500 max)
-42 floors (+/-)
-Parking

Phase V
Location: Northwest corner of Clarendon and Agatite Avenues (Northern development site)
Program:
-100 residential units
-14 floors
-Parking

Phase VI
Location: Northwest corner of Clarendon and Agatite Avenues (Northern development site)
Program:
-50 residential units
-6 - 8 floors
-Parking

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/4134040-418/fresh-hope-to-turn-uptown-into-chicagos-music-mecca.html

Fresh hope to turn Uptown into Chicago’s music mecca
By Thomas Conner, Fran Spielman AND STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporters Mar 6, 2011 0

It was just a question, not a promise, but it certainly got the city’s music community and the Uptown neighborhood chattering.

In an interview that aired Wednesday on WXRT-FM (93.1), mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel talked about his favorite bands — and dropped an idea for creating a music district in Uptown.

“You have the Riv [Riviera Theatre], you have the Aragon. ... We have a downtown theater district. Should there be an Uptown music district, given our history with labels as well as the club scene, which is truly, truly unique around the country?” Emanuel asked.

..

Update on the New Admiral at the Lake - Jan 2010 (https://www.kendal.org/webview/downloads/New_Admiral_Update_012810.pdf) (***PDF***)

Update on The New Admiral at the Lake
Construction expected to begin this spring on Chicago’s lakefront

Strong response to the combined
marketing efforts of The Kendal
Corporation and The New Admiral
at the Lake has garnered more
than 75% reservation deposits for
the 31-story Life Care/Continuing
Care Retirement Community to be
built on Chicago’s lakefront. Those
deposits, combined with a thawing
of the financial markets in the senior
housing sector, have put The New
Admiral firmly on a path toward
financing and the beginning of
construction in the spring.

Having already secured all of
the permits and licenses necessary
to construct and operate the
community, The Admiral’s team of
advisers and contractors have begun
taking the final steps necessary to
secure construction and long-term
financing.
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/6578/admiral1.jpg
http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/4827/admiral2c.jpg


Admiral SSP Update:

The Admiral in Uptown... a slow but steady race.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5304/5646844997_d0ff03ca5d_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/45670325@N07/5646844997/)
IMG_8548 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/45670325@N07/5646844997/) by HomrQT (http://www.flickr.com/people/45670325@N07/), on Flickr

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5225/5646845203_3cfc9fb600_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/45670325@N07/5646845203/)
IMG_8549 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/45670325@N07/5646845203/) by HomrQT (http://www.flickr.com/people/45670325@N07/), on Flickr

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5181/5646845427_0e798384c9_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/45670325@N07/5646845427/)
IMG_8553 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/45670325@N07/5646845427/) by HomrQT (http://www.flickr.com/people/45670325@N07/), on Flickr

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/realestate/chi-irving_re_07-01jul01,0,3798990.story?coll=chi-classifiedrealestate-hed
87 condos at Irving Park and Sheridan

By Jeanette Almada
Special to the Tribune
Published July 1, 2007

A mixed-use project with 87 condominiums will replace an old gas station on Irving Park Road, near Sheridan Road.

Loukas Development Group will develop the project through SEC Sheridan Irving Park LLC.

Loukas will build the project on a 19,616-square-foot site at 943-957 W. Irving Park Rd. and 3947-3957 N. Sheridan Rd.

"We have owned the site for about three years. We live in the neighborhood and are very concerned about what our project looks like [and] worked long to design something that we can be proud of," Tony Loukas, president of Loukas Development Group, said June 27.

The gas station will be demolished, according to a Chicago Department of Planning and Development project manager who won Plan Commission approval for it June 21. Approval was needed because the site was originally zoned to allow an 87-foot building, and the proposed building will be a little more than 100 feet. The new zoning allows a building of up to 142 feet. City Council approval is needed.

Loukas will build a 12-story building with 87 condos, 87 parking spaces and ground-floor retail space.

The condos will consist of 50 one-bedroom units from 725 to 860 square feet; 34 two-bedroom units with 1,155 to 1,285 square feet; and three three-bedroom units with 1,500 to 1,800 square feet, the Planning Department project manager told commissioners.

Eighty-three units will be sold at market rates. "We have not yet finalized our design so are not sure about the final prices. But we expect that our one-bedroom units will be priced from about mid-$200,000, and that our largest two-bedroom units will be around $400,000," Loukas said.

Pappageorge Haymes is designing the building.

Under its agreement with the city, Loukas will sell four units (two two-bedroom and two one-bedroom units) at the affordable price of $145,000. Those units will be sold to buyers earning up to 100 percent of the average area income, or $75,000 for a family of four.

Loukas negotiated that agreement, according to the Chicago Department of Housing's Chicago Partners for Affordable Neighborhoods program, before the City Council approved an ordinance that requires developers of housing projects with any city assistance to set aside at least 10 percent of their units as affordable housing.

Loukas hopes to begin construction in early 2008.
Don't know if you ended up posting this project somewhere else, but I just rode by the site today as I was biking down Sheridan and they have started site prep/foundation work. Brand spanking new fence and signs up and a lot of activity going on.

....unfortunately Uptown Update is reporting that they have scrapped the initial 12 story mixed use design in favor of a single story Walgreens. :bash:

Yet another case of where I would prefer no development to development.

^unbelievable

^unbelievable

Technically this is lakeview.
As the site is south of Irving Park.

....unfortunately Uptown Update is reporting that they have scrapped the initial 12 story mixed use design in favor of a single story Walgreens. :bash:

Yet another case of where I would prefer no development to development.

Sorry guys - but I'd prefer the Walgreens over the 12 story "mixed use" development on this lot any day of the week. The housing market is saturated as it is and the absolute last thing we need is for MORE HOUSING.

The housing market is saturated as it is and the absolute last thing we need is for MORE HOUSING.

Tell that to everyone seeing their rents jacked up this year in Lakeview... myself included.

A stand alone Walgreens on this corner is a joke

I'm sorry, I was under the impression the planned development was condos not apartments.

Tell that to everyone seeing their rents jacked up this year in Lakeview... myself included.

A stand alone Walgreens on this corner is a joke

Have you considered moving to another part of Lakeview? I know the rental market is still very soft despite what the headlines will tell you. You can still find a ton of deals out there.

I'm sorry, I was under the impression the planned development was condos not apartments.

It was, but considering the high rise apartment boomlet currently taking place it could have been a relatively painless switch while still creating additional density smack next to a transit station.

Instead... Walgreens.

Have you considered moving to another part of Lakeview? I know the rental market is still very soft despite what the headlines will tell you. You can still find a ton of deals out there.
I only saw a 5% increase... and given my location/quality/size (and relative cheapness) of apartment I'll just suck it up. But in talking with my landlord, he is seeing incredible demand on all of his Lakeview units, all future vacancies lease out in under a week, all with 8-10% rent increases for the incoming tenants when compared to the outgoing. Its pretty impressive.

oops wrong username.

^^ That's me. Long story. Anyways:

Re: Admiral

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/6578/admiral1.jpg

It's not too bad. I love the decorative feature at the top, which -in combination with the tower's shape- looks like an homage to art deco. I have a weakness for American 1920s/30s urbanity, so I gotta commend the architect(s).

Not too crazy about the balconies, but it is residential, and a standard feature for residential towers nowadays. At least this is not downtown, so it works.

Not too crazy about the first few floors of the building, which look like a suburban/rural Best Western. Of course, artistic renderings don't always do justice to the actual project (so, we'll to wait and see), but judging from this picture, it looks like a retro-20s tower with a more contemporary "podium"...it just doesn't match. I'll just wait until it's finished, but overall, I like it, especially for Uptown (perfect height for Uptown).

Tell that to everyone seeing their rents jacked up this year in Lakeview... myself included.

A stand alone Walgreens on this corner is a joke

To make things better - they started work quick on this Walgreens and got it about 1/3 finished, then a few weeks ago everyone just left the place abandoned and no one has been back since.

August 23rd Town Hall minutes (http://www.james46.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Aug23TownHallMinutes.doc.pdf)

Walgreens at Irving Park/Sheridan
A new Walgreens is getting built at the NE corner of Irving Park Road/Sheridan. There’s a slow-up due to a decision about the electrical lines.

Another Uptown Theatre article.....

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/ct-ent-1012-focus-uptown-rehab-20111011,0,2070595.story

Uptown Theatre: Polishing an old jewel
Venue has sat empty for nearly 30 years, but its owners see it as the anchor of a revitalized music district on the North Side, a vision supported by Mayor Rahm Emanuel

By Mark Caro Tribune reporter

5:04 p.m. CDT, October 11, 2011

.......Your jaw drops," said Mayor Rahm Emanuel, whose support for this crumbling, 86-year-old theater has triggered renewed hopes for a revitalized Uptown neighborhood. "It's stunning."

The space is big enough for Chicago Bears scrimmages and elegant enough for a royal ball. The almost pristine gray and black marble floor leads to a pair of curved, majestic, red-carpeted staircases and is flanked by ornate pillars, figurines, grates, gargoyles, carvings, frescoes and other ornamentations so intricate and beautifully rendered that it would take weeks to admire them all. One floor-to-ceiling slice of column and wall shines brighter than the others, its 24-carat gold and silver leaf designs restored 20 years ago to show how this jewel used to gleam.

That's just the main lobby. Pass through numerous other spaces, all designed contrastingly and painstakingly, and eventually you reach the Uptown Theatre's sprawling, gracefully raked, dramatically domed auditorium, which boasts what was billed on the theater's 1925 opening-night marquee as "an acre of seats in a magic city."............

Yet despite a continued economic downturn that has dried up public and private funding sources, a newfound sense of optimism is gathering around the prospect of eventually reopening Uptown Theatre as an anchor to an Uptown entertainment district. Mickelson has been pushing for such a development since he and his Jam partner Arny Granat (and their spinoff company, UTA II) bought the theater out of bankruptcy in 2008 for a reported $3.2 million, but Emanuel has moved the issue to the front burner with his recent declarations of support for a music hub in the neighborhood.

"It can happen now because people are finally seeing the intertwined connection between culture and economic development," the mayor said in an interview Monday.

The two new aldermen who represent the quirkily divided neighborhood — Harry Osterman of the 48th Ward (which includes the Uptown Theatre and Green Mill Jazz Club a few doors south) and James Cappleman of the 46th (which includes the nearby Riviera Theatre and Aragon Ballroom) — are encouraging the effort, as are various city departments. Mickelson also recently signed on Phil Tagami, an Oakland-based developer who spearheaded the pricey but neighborhood-transforming restoration of that city's historic Fox Theater, as a consultant. Tagami is in town this week for meetings with Mickelson, the aldermen, city officials and community representatives.

"It's like the stars are all in alignment," said Michelle Boone, the city's Cultural Affairs and Special Events commissioner.

Of course, the stars are one thing. Money is another. Mickelson's estimated price tag for restoring the Uptown to its former glory?

$70 million.............

"This intersection was like Times Square," Syfczak said. "You had the Aragon Ballroom across the street, the Riviera Theatre, this place operating, a lot of (other) clubs; there was a lot of activity in this neighborhood. But when the neighborhood declined in the late '60s and early '70s, it of course contributed to the decline of the theater also."...........

Steps have been taken to stem the deterioration and to preserve what's there. Several years ago chunks of the glazed terra cotta facade were removed, cataloged and stored inside the building, and Mickelson said he and Granat have been putting six figures (he wouldn't say high or low) into the place annually to keep it repaired, heated, cooled and at proper moisture levels.

But that's all just maintenance. Mickelson's plans go far beyond that.

2 needs: Time and money

In 2000, the Urban Land Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit research and education organization, issued a 48-page advisory report on how to transform the Uptown Entertainment District. The recommendations are as specific as what new street lamps should look like, but the broader stroke is that Uptown Theatre is the area's "crown jewel" and "one of the most outstanding theaters in the United States … a major historic and aesthetic treasure that must be maintained."

The economic picture has changed since the institute's report, but an Uptown neighborhood flush with new development and activities remains the vision being chased by Mickelson and the city.

"This could make the Uptown area a great entertainment district that could drive the economy of that area with more restaurants and more other types of retail and commercial life that would really take off," Emanuel said, citing the Old Town School of Folk Music's impact on Lincoln Square.

Mickelson and Granat hired the local architecture firm Booth Hansen, which restored the Loop's Bank of America Theatre (formerly known as the LaSalle Bank Theatre, the Shubert and the Majestic), to draw up a feasibility study, which was issued in fall 2009. The firm presented three options, ranging from a plan that would make the building merely operational again (about $55 million) to one that would restore the theater completely ($70.8 million).

"You can go in and fix the structural problems — make the exiting work, put in more bathrooms — and it will be functional," Booth Hansen principal/director George Halik said. "I think the real challenge is to get enough support and money to make it a real jewel, which it is, and not just a big space."...........

But Tagami, the Oakland-based developer, said he was surprised to see how well-preserved the Uptown was when he first visited. Tagami had told Mickelson he wouldn't take on this project unless he fell in love with the building.

"It's an amazing building with a great history and a great story, and quite frankly it's in a wonderful community," Tagami said. "You can't spend enough time there. I'm used to seeing historic structures that are in far worse condition. The building has very good bones.".........

Still, a ton of money must be raised from sources both private (corporate naming rights are being discussed) and public. Tagami said Oakland's Fox Theater project, which included an addition built for a new performing-arts school, drew its almost-$90 million budget from more than 20 sources. Now he and Mickelson are trying to line up a network of potential incentives and programs to help finance the Uptown, including city tax increment financing, federal new market tax credits (to spur investments in low-income communities) and historic preservation tax incentives (rebates for work on buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which the Uptown is)...........

Mickelson said the next 12 months will be key to laying out a plan, and the theater's restoration would take another two years following that. To set any timetable now, Tagami said — or even to estimate costs — would be jumping the gun. He noted that for the Fox, which had been shuttered since 1966, he wrote his first proposal in 1997, and it hosted its first shows in February 2009.........

He'd like to remove the floor-level seats and tier the main floor a la the Riviera, raising the capacity to about 5,000. Rene Rabiela Jr., who tried to spearhead a restoration effort before Mickelson took over — and whose father previously owned the Uptown— said he's rooting for Mickelson but would prefer to see the seats maintained.

With the largest outdoor amphitheaters and arenas struggling in the current rock concert climate, Mickelson said he could see booking 80-100 shows a year at the Uptown. To what extent such bookings might take business from other theaters remains an open question, though Mickelson said the Uptown would attract different types of shows than the all-general-admission Aragon, with its capacity of 4,900.........

..

I've been out of town a while on business. Anyone have any new/recent shots of the admiral? I read it was topped out recently. Thanks in advance!