Even though the city’s “quick-take” legislation for the Sherman Plaza wasn’t passed Tuesday in the Illinois General Assembly, the project developers said the plaza will still open in fall of 2002, as scheduled.
Despite warnings from state lawmakers that their properties are doomed for condemnation, owners of two business parcels needed for the project are holding out for a higher sale price from the developer.
The quick-take amendment would have allowed Evanston City Council to take possession of Olive Mountain Restaurant, 814 Church St., and of Osco Drug, 1630 Sherman Ave., without the owners’ agreement, leaving the compensation amount up to the courts. The amendment was attached to a larger condemnation bill that never reached the floor of the Senate before the legislative session ended Tuesday.
The parcels are needed to complete the proposed $110 million Sherman Plaza development by Chicago-based Thomas J. Klutznick & Co., which includes a Sears store, 135,000 feet of specialty retail space, a senior luxury apartment building and a parking garage.
But developer James Klutznick said even though Evanston won’t be able to take possession of the properties within the next 60 days, the bill’s failure won’t delay the plaza’s opening.
“We have to stay on schedule at this point in hopes that we can work something out sooner rather than later,” Klutznick said.
Time is of the essence for the development, Klutznick said Friday, confirming he is still in negotiations with the development’s anchor retailer and the two hold-out property owners.
Retail analyst Kurt Barnard said a bank will not approve a development loan for a shopping center until agreements are signed with major retailers and all the land can be acquired.
The city has stepped in to help Klutznick, granting his company a $2.5 million tax subsidy, moving to condemn the two properties, and hiring lobbyist and lawyer Lawrence Suffredin to push the quick-take amendment.
The new legislative session begins today, but another quick-take bill could not be introduced until February, and the process would have to start again with a new bill. After introduction, such legislation would have to go through hearings, committees and both the house and the senate before reaching the governor’s desk for his signature.
Olive Mountain co-owner Hassid Blan said he will keep collecting signatures to fight what some lawmakers say is an inevitable condemnation of his property. Blan said the city offered him $805,000 for the Olive Mountain site, just more than half of his asking price of $1.5 million.
Blan and his partner, Ahmed Saleh, have run the Middle Eastern restaurant in Evanston for 10 years. Over the last two months, Saleh and Blan have persuaded diners to make phone calls, write letters and sign the petition to help them stay in business.
“I think it helped – legislators were surprised to see that a lot of Northwestern students and staff were against the quick-take,” he said.
Rep. Jeffrey Schoenberg (D-Evanston) said he received Blan’s petition with more than 1,700 signatures in addition to dozens of letters and phone calls on behalf of Olive Mountain.
He said he’s optimistic Olive Mountain owners will receive the compensation they need to relocate.
“I’m confident Olive Mountain will continue to serve the best falafel in the Midwest, if not the Mideast, too,” Schoenberg said.
But Klutznick and the city are continuing efforts to secure the Olive Mountain and Osco properties, whether or not the owners agree or are able to relocate their businesses.
“We have to start over, but this time it will be our own bill,” Suffredin said. “The earliest this thing is going to come up is February, but I would expect that we can have it on the governor’s desk by the end of April. In the meantime, we are going to continue with the regular condemnation proceedings.”
Evanston lawmakers remain sharply divided over the quick-take issue.
Sen. Kathy Parker (R-Evanston) maintains that the only purpose of quick-take is to develop land for public use. The private Sherman Plaza development, even if it includes a public parking garage, she said, does not qualify as public use.
But Sen. Carol Ronen (D-Chicago) said the main purpose for a quick-take is to help parties agree sooner on a sale price for the land.
“It’s in condemnation court already,” Ronen said. “Quick-take is really meant to get people to sit around the table and negotiate.”
Blan said Ronen reiterated this stance when he met with her in Springfield earlier this week.
“She told us, ‘You know it’s already condemned – you have to work out a deal with them,'” said Blan, “but they (the developer and the city) are not helping me with relocation, they are not helping me to find an affordable lease.”
Suffredin said he feels an amicable agreement can be reached with Blan because at least he is talking, but he said negotiations with Osco Drug property owner Stuart Handler have come to a complete standstill, presenting a greater obstacle to the development.
“His negotiating stance is to hold the last parcel so he can extort the highest possible price from the city and the developers,” Suffredin said.
When contacted by The Daily, Handler had no comment.
