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.

 

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!

Block 37 filling up the retail space for its upcoming opening!

Block 37 close to deal with dinner-theater troupe

REAL ESTATE | Dinner-theater troupe close to signing lease, but space configurations remain

October 13, 2009

BY DAVID ROEDER droeder@suntimes.com

Block 37’s developers are close to leasing prime top-floor space along State Street to a dinner-theater troupe with elements of vaudeville and circus acts.

Teatro ZinZanni, based in Seattle, would take over around 40,000 square feet, sources close to the project said.  It would be on the fourth floor of the retail base being built on the block between the Daley Center and Macy’s.

The sources said an agreement could be signed by next week.  But ceiling heights and space configurations might be issues.  The troupe’s shows are under a vast tent said to be central to the performance.

Block 37, due to open this fall, is a project of Joseph Freed & Associates LLC.  Freed executives did not return calls and the firm’s spokeswoman, Jayne Thompson, would not discuss Teatro ZinZanni…

To read the full Sun Times article, CLICK HERE!

Huge retail transformation for Presidential Towers in the West Loop!

Retail leases launch Presidential Towers redevelopment

By Eddie Baeb, Aug. 12, 2009

(Crain’s) — A health club and a trendy breakfast restaurant have signed leases to become the first new retail tenants at Presidential Towers in the West Loop, paving the way for a major redevelopment to take place beginning later this year.

Chicago-based Fitness Formula Ltd. has leased 52,043 square feet that will be spread over two levels along Clinton Street, where a glass-enclosed, three-story atrium will be built to replace a loading dock there now.

The restaurant Yolk has leased 4,200 square feet just south of the new gym that will also front Clinton between Madison and Monroe streets.

A big thanks to ChicagoRealEstateDaily.com for the article.  I am 110% for this project and only wish it could start construction earlier than they’re saying.  Right now, the Presidential Towers retail and parking podium is a huge, blank, brick wall and is basically an indoor mall but now, this will make it so the storefronts are facing the outside…the more modern version of a mall. 

Check out the full article by clicking HERE!