Today marks 35,000 HITS for ChicagoismynewBlog!

Earlier today, ChicagoismynewBlog! reached over 35,000 hits.  Obviously, I wish they were all 35,000 unique hits, but that’s alright.  It still means people are coming back to take a look so I’m happy.  Thank you to everyone who visits the site and lets keep it going. 

Also, if you or anyone you know are looking to buy, sell, or rent a home in Chicago, I’m always looking to pick up new clients and expand my business!  Just give me an email:  jeffstewart@atproperties.com.

I FINALLY went to Rick Bayless’ new restaurant Xoco in Chicago’s River North (2.5/5 Stars).

So after opening up a couple months ago, all I’ve heard is that everyone I know in Chicago wants to go to Rick Bayless’ new restaurant, Xoco, located at 449 North Clark Street.  I wanted to visit Xoco because I had heard it was more of a fast food and more inexpensive version of Rick’s other restaurants, Topolobampo and Frontera Grill.  While I agree that Xoco is both of the above, it’s still expensive as hell.  I spent over $19.00 for my meal which is not what I consider inexpensive.

I ordered the Pepito ($12.00) which is braised Tallgrass shortribs, caramelized onion, artisan Jack cheese, black beans, pickled jalapenos.  Now, I have to admit, the Pepito was an awesome sandwich.  Now, I’m sure Rick Bayless would hate to have his sandwich described as a much better Portillo’s Italian beef sandwich but that’s all I thought about when I was eating it.  Personally, I would take this as a compliment because Portillo’s Italian beefs are awesome.  I also had an order of fresh chips and Frontera guacamole ($4.00) and one homemade churro ($1.25).  Obviously I could have gone without the churro in order to save money, but I felt like the chips and guac were necessary.  You know how a burger comes with fries?  Well, this sandwich didn’t come with anything else.

My sister ordered the Gunthorp Chicken sandwich which is wood-roasted red chile chicken, caramelized onion, black beans, avocado and tomatillo salsa ($8.50).  She didn’t like it and only finished half of the sandwich.  I thought it was alright, but the red chile sauce was so thick and almost chalky in texture.

Our friends both ordered the slow-cooked pork carnitas with potato-masa dumplings, chayote, roasted serrano chile, spinach, arugula, avocado…all in soup form ($11.50).  Neither of them liked it and for one, it was too spicy and painful to even finish.  Again, I thought it was good but not $11.50 good.  Everyone but me ordered the hot chocolate and althought it was very rich for two of the three, I thought it was awesome…think melted chocolate mixed with a teaspoon of water.  That’s how rich it was. 

 The service and food came out very fast and they definitely have it down to a ‘T’ so I give them props for that.  Too bad Xoco isn’t larger because it could definitely use more tables at times.  Click HERE for their menu!

The Pepito sandwich!

North/Clybourn Apple Store to be much like the Scottsdale, Arizona Apple Store.

So word on the street is that the new Apple Store, located at North Avenue and Halsted Street, will look exactly like Apple’s Scottsdale, Arizona store.  After I heard this, I immediately Google’d to find the image and sure enough, it looks like it’s true.  You can already tell from the steel frame of Chicago’s Apple Store that, when finished, they will be the same.  Take a look.

If you’ve walked or driven by the new Apple Store, you’ll definitely notice a resemblence.  Too bad I don’t have a picture from here.

 

Hollywood coming to Chicago. 2nd largest movie studio in the United States will be in Chicago!

Chicago gets $80 million studio complex!

Reported by ReelChicago.com

Toronto studio owner buys Ryerson Steel property.

A $5 million state grant approved Friday set in motion the purchase of the former Ryerson steel property that will be converted into the biggest state-of- the-art film studio outside of Hollywood.

Cinespace Chicago, located on 50 acres of prime city property on the Near Southwest Side, is now under construction and one 330,000-sq. ft. stage could be ready for action by January.

Cinespace Chicago owner, Nick Mirkopoulos, is a highly successful and respected Toronto studio owner, who will invest an estimated $80 million to convert the six contiguous buildings into a film and TV production center.

When completed in 12-15 months, Cinespace Chicago will create a projected 6,000 jobs.

“A big studio like this is long overdue,” said John Coli, Sr., secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 727 and president of Teamsters Joint Council 25, who has worked tirelessly behind-the-scenes for several years in an effort to convince a major studio owner with a successful track record to establish a film complex in Chicago.

The Ryerson campus, as it is called, consists of 1.3 million sq. ft. of buildings under one roof, situated on 48.5 acres of land between Ogden and Western Avenues, a scant five miles southwest from State and Madison Streets in the Loop.

Mirkopoulos reportedly paid $18 million for the property. An asking price of $22-$26 million had been listed with an industrial real estate broker for the past 18 months.

Production business is expected almost immediately.

After receiving news of the state grant approval Friday, Mirkopoulos on Monday flew his architect to Chicago to meet with contractors to immediately begin converting one of the property’s six 572×572-sq. ft. buildings into a sound stage, which is expected to be completed within an estimated 60 days.

“They claim they will have business for the studio by then,” said Coli.

Chicago will be an extremely attractive place to produce movies and TV shows, said Coli, thanks to unions that have committed to providing lower costs for filmmakers and Illinois’ sustainable 30% tax credit….

Thank you to the IFP Chicago website for the article.  To check out the full article, click HERE!

Block 37 stores to open by Thanksgiving. Good news for Chicago’s State Street!

Block 37 signs 13 new tenants, plans to open by Thanksgiving

By Sandra M. Jones

Tribune staff reporter

3:41 p.m. CST, November 3, 2009

Joseph Freed and Associates LLC said it signed leases for 13 new tenants at Block 37, the embattled retail development that has been threatened with foreclosure.

The announcement of the new leases comes as developer Freed fights a move by lead lender Bank of America to put the retail and transit project at 108 N. State Street. into receivership less than a month before the mall’s first shops were set to open.

The new tenants — which include Sephora, Michelle Tan and Comic Vault — are a mix of chains and local shops aimed at satisfying the city’s redevelopment agreement to put unique retail in the famous city block.

Freed, which is contesting the foreclosure lawsuit, said it plans to open the mall by Thanksgiving and complete the project by the end of 2010, “assuming the bank cooperates on necessary funding.”

The banks filed a foreclosure suit last month, claiming that Freed essentially ran out of money to complete construction. .

Among the new tenants:

Sephora, the beauty chain owned by Paris-based LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, will open a 6,000 square foot store on the first floor of the four-story indoor mall with access onto State Street.

L’Occitane en Provence, a body care products chain, will occupy 750 square feet on the first floor.

Michelle Tan, a local women’s clothing designer, agreed to lease 650 square feet on the second level….

 

Check out the full Chicago Tribune article by clicking HERE!  This is great news for the retailers getting ready for the Christmas shopping season and there’s even more information on the new stores going into Block 37 in the article!

No injuries reported in a Chicago residential high rise fire!

Fire breaks out in building on Chicago River

November 3, 2009 3:45 PM

Smoke rises from the roof from a 48-story residential building at 233 E. Wacker Drive. (Andrew L. Wang / Chicago Tribune)

Firefighters responded this afternoon to a fire in a residential building near Columbus and Wacker Drives. A plume of black smoke could be seen coming from the roof of the building before the fire was brought under control.

No injuries were reported at the 48-story building. The fire broke out about 3 p.m. in a cooling tower on the building’s roof, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Quention Curtis. The blaze was confined to the roof, he said.

Crews had the fire under control by about 3:30 p.m., and it was put out by about 3:45 p.m., fire officials said.

– Staff report

Thanks to Chicago Tribune’s Breaking News for this article.  For the article on the Tribune website, click HERE!

Hotel Cool in the Gold Coast at State and Rush Street. Lame name, cool building.

Like the title says, I’m not a fan of the name but it’s safe to assume the name is very very preliminary.  I’m also not normally a fan of modern architecture but lately, I’ve been getting tired of Chicago’s boxy, beige, and bland new construction buildings that have been going up.  Granted, this proposed hotel IS boxy, but one out of three makes it fine.  I found the proposed Hotel Cool, designed by Laurence Booth of Booth Hansen, on The Burnham Plan Centennial website.  The website states:  “Urban hotels make visiting Chicago exciting and enlivening. While corridors and rooms provide the function, public spaces create the experience. Hotel Cool Chicago builds the rooms to form a large, high public space and garden on the second level, creating fresh views of the surrounding city. Bringing an ever-changing cast of characters together in a dynamic, energetic gathering room will keep people returning.”

What do you guys think of it?

Proposed Hotel Cool Chicago

Spertus Institute hosts public meeting/workshop on future Northerly Island plans!

The Chicago Park District along with the Grant Park Advisory Council and Conservancy have scheduled a public meeting:

 

Northerly Island design workshop and input on ideas.

 

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

6:00 – 9:00 p.m.

 

Spertus Institute at 610 S. Michigan Avenue – Crown Family Great Hall – 9th Floor.

 

Through a thorough public input process, the Chicago Park District has developed design ideas for Northerly Island and needs your input.  Please come out for a series of workshops and meet design teams and react to the ideas. 

 

The Spertus Institute has donated magnificent space for this event. This one-of-a-kind architecture offers panoramic views of Chicago landmarks from the Hancock Center to Soldier Field.  Floor-to-ceiling windows showcase Navy Pier, Millennium Park, Buckingham Fountain, the Museum Campus, and Lake Michigan. An atrium soars to 30 feet (from the 9th to the 10th floor).  It is also adjacent to Spertus Museum’s innovative
core collection gallery.

  

I randomly found the information about this public meeting and workshop from the Grant Park Conservancy website.  I’m going to try to make it to this meeting because I have a feeling they’ll have some pretty cool and some pretty bad ideas for what should happen with Northerly Island.  When you think of it, if Northerly Island stayed an airport, none of this would be necessary.  Ah, politics!

 

 

The new Apple store to play a key role in the Clybourn Red Line station!

Doors will open on the right at the Apple stop

By: Thomas A. Corfman October 26, 2009

The North and Clybourn station on the CTA’s Red Line may become the iStop.

In exchange for Apple Inc. spending more than $4 million to renovate the scruffy station, the Chicago Transit Authority gave the maker of MacBooks and iPhones first dibs on naming rights, if the agency decides to go that route. It’s apparently the first such deal ever by the cash-strapped CTA. Apple also gets the exclusive right to buy all the ad space in the station, at 1555 N. Clybourn Avenue.

The CTA has been considering naming-rights agreements since at least 2005, but the idea is seemingly getting another look as President Richard Rodriguez scrambles to avoid hiking fares and cutting services to cover next year’s projected budget deficit of $178 million. A CTA spokeswoman did not respond to questions.

Cities nationwide are increasingly looking at corporate sponsorships to ease budget woes. The risk to the CTA is that slapping corporate logos on stations could confuse riders and cheapen the city’s image, and make only a small dent in the massive financial problems….

Check out the full Crain’s Chicago Business article by clicking HERE!  From driving by the construction zone, you can see the general design of the store, which is different from the picture below.  So far, I like where they’re going with it but I hope they keep it very light, open, and covered in glass.

Hopefully VERY preliminary plans...

Homebuyer tax credit one step closer towards being extended. Go U.S. Senate!

Senators agree to extend homebuyer tax credit

Set to expire at end of November, plan will remain until end of April

updated 5:56 p.m. CT, Wed., Oct . 28, 2009 //

WASHINGTON – Senators agreed Wednesday to extend a popular tax credit for first-time homebuyers and to offer a reduced credit to some repeat buyers.

The tax credit provides up to $8,000 to first-time homebuyers but is set to expire at the end of November.

Senators agreed to extend the existing tax credit for first-time homebuyers while offering a reduced credit of up to $6,500 to repeat buyers who have owned their current homes for at least five years, said Regan Lachapelle, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

The tax credits would be available to homebuyers who sign sales agreements by the end of April. They would have until the end of June to close on their new homes, said a congressional aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the deal….

Check out the full MSNBC article and some cool interactive graphics by clicking HERE!  Now, I do need to stress that althought we are one step closer towards extending the tax credit, it has NOT been voted on and approved.  This means that if you were on the fence about buying a home, still go ahead and do it!