Village Green seeking TIF money to redevelop a historic Loop highrise!

I really really hope this building gets started soon.  I have a friend who lives in another Village Green rental building and let me tell you that they did an amazing job with the apartments and I’m confident that Village Green will do the same for 188 W. Randolph.  Now I just gotta try to get in to one of those below market rent apartments!

Tower seeks public financing

20% of landmark would be set aside as lower-rent units

January 13, 2010

DAVID ROEDER – droeder@suntimes.com

Partially masked by nets and scaffolding for months, the Jazz Age skyscraper at 188 W. Randolph looks like a wounded veteran of the real estate crash. To restart its renovation, the owners are in hot pursuit of public financing.

Apartment builder Village Green Cos. has asked the Illinois Housing Development Authority to issue tax-free bonds on its behalf. And City Hall has begun to move on Village Green’s request to establish a tax-increment financing district that could help the project.

The 188 W. Randolph building, known in its early life as the Steuben Club Building, is remembered more recently for its falling terra-cotta. Village Green, which bought the building out of bankruptcy for $10 million in 2005, fixed the worst of it and put up the scaffolding to protect pedestrians. But the richly ornamented terra-cotta is what makes the building special and contributes to its status as a Chicago landmark.

Kenneth Barnes, senior vice president for development at Village Green, said public support is justified by the historic preservation.

Twenty percent of the apartments would be set aside at below-market rents, calculated as affordable for families with 50 percent of the city’s median income.

The office building would be converted to 310 apartments, Barnes said. Village Green will occupy lower-floor commercial space, turning it into its Chicago regional office….

Check out the full Chicago Sun Times article by clicking HERE!

Old being turned into new in the West Loop’s Igoe Building.

I just read from Skyscraperpage‘s ‘spyguy’ that the Igoe Building, located at 600 W. Van Buren Street in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood, is being renovated…but for office or residential?!  When researching the background of the name, either the Igoe Building was named after a printer or was named after James T. Igoe, a former U.S. representative who was as Chicago’s city clerk from 1917 – 1923 and was later chairman of the executive committee of Chicago.  For the past year, whenever I’ve gone past this building, I’ve thought the the Igoe Building would make a great loft condo building because of the massive windows but we’ll see.  The 285,900 square foot former industrial turned loft office building already has a Panera Bread opening up on the ground floor.

Plans for a fully renovated Igoe Building.

Current look of the Igoe Building.

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!

 

Renovation brings a JW Marriott hotel into a Daniel Burnham designed building in the Loop.

Slated for a June 2010 opening, a new JW Marriott Chicago will be located at 151 West Adams Street in a converted Daniel Burnham designed bank building after a lengthy $369M restoration.  When finished, the JW Marriott Chicago will include 609 large guestrooms, 125 luxury suites, two ballrooms, and 48,000 square feet of meeting and event space.  Included in the newly renovated building is a 20,000 square foot spa which is an amenity not usually found in most Loop hotels. 

I’m excited for the JW Marriott Chicago to be finished for a couple reasons.  First, I am always a huge proponent of the smart re-use of an old and historically significant building especially when many are being torn down without much thought.  Secondly, this part of the Loop becomes a ghost town after 5pm.  With the W Hotel – City Center right across the street at 172 West Adams Street, I am hoping more restaurants and shops will choose to move here and stay open longer.