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 10.18.2006 Condos to rise on site of old News-Sun building |
Condos to rise on site of old News-Sun building
October 18, 2006
By DAN MORAN DMORAN@SCN1.COM
WAUKEGAN -- The six-story News-Sun tower on Sheridan Road could be replaced by a new 14-story condominium and retail complex under a $120 million proposal being negotiated with the city by a Chicago developer.
If all the details are worked out by early next year, officials with the Beitler Real Estate Corporation say they could break ground in early 2008 and have more than 250 condominiums and townhomes open within a three-year construction phase.
"We re hoping to start sales and marketing by next spring, and we would like to have a shovel in the ground a year after that," Beitler Managing Director of Investment Services Sharyl Rothschild said Tuesday, the day after the City Council green-lighted negotiations on the proposal.
The two-acre parcel in question stretches from Madison Avenue on the south to Clayton Street on the north, and from Sheridan Road to the alley behind the former News-Sun building. The development zone also includes what is now a 30,000-square-foot surface parking lot behind the Genesee Theatre.
This summer, the city asked the development community to submit general concepts for the land, along with their qualifications to make a project reality, according to Robin Schabes, the city s director of lakefront and downtown development.
She said the city fielded 12 inquiries and two formal responses, and Beitler was selected in part for its past experience in developing commercial buildings and a more recent focus on residential development.
"They put together a clear and concise proposal, (and) demonstrated the wherewithal to bring it to fruition," said Schabes, who added that all applicants were asked to include such information as access to capital and who might be involved in their design and construction teams.
The Beitler Co., formerly known as Miglin-Beitler, is known for regional projects like the 31-story Oakbrook Terrace Tower, which ranks as the tallest building in Illinois outside of Chicago.
Though it has successfully completed several Chicago office towers, including a 50-story building at 181 West Madison St. in 1990, the company pulled back from plans in the early 1990s to build the 2,000-foot Miglin-Beitler Skyneedle in the West Loop.
Beitler s initial concepts call for a mix retail buildings, parking structures and residential units in high-rises running along Sheridan. The 14 stories eyed for the project would make the structure the tallest in Lake County, but Schabes said all of the concepts are preliminary.
"All of that has to be negotiated, and it has to be consistent with the master plan," Schabes said. "The plan does say that area of downtown could include taller buildings like that."
While Rothschild stressed that the proposal does not even have conceptual drawings at this early stage, she said not all of the land s 100,000 acres would have buildings topping out at 14 stories.
"We are going to try to match those numbers. but it would only be a small portion of the building," she said. "Conceptually, most of the buildings would be four to six stories."
Schabes said the council s action on Monday authorizes city officials to begin talks on refining the details of the proposal, and also start negotiating sale of the land. The News-Sun property was donated to the city by the Copley Press in 1998, and the city spent some $500,000 in state funds clearing it of asbestos. |
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