By Peter JacksonThe Daily Northwestern
If city officials and developers have their way, Evanston’s skyline and downtown will be transformed by a 49-story skyscraper that would be almost double the height of the city’s tallest building.
The project faces several hurdles before construction can begin on the proposed condominium and retail building at 708 Church St., including issues of preservation, funding, rezoning and approval by the Evanston City Council. But the developers’ aggressive timetable – completion is scheduled for 2010 – and the absence of the city’s usual skyscraper skepticism makes this project stand out.
The developers, Jim and Marc Klutznick of Klutznick-Fisher Development Company and Tim Anderson of Focus Development, also planned the 25-story Sherman Plaza complex, which opened on the neighboring block in September. Sherman Plaza, which is home to 253 condominium units, and retail tenants, such as Barnes and Noble Booksellers and Pier One Imports, is just shorter than Evanston’s tallest building, the 277-foot Chase Building on Davis Street and Orrington Avenue.
The developers have worked for months in concert with city officials to design a tower with “wow factor,” they said at a Thursday news conference.
“(The city) said, ‘Don’t come back with an ordinary building,'” architect Lawrence Booth said.
The tower’s glass wrap would rise above the highest floor, and the developers have talked about placing lights on the roof of the building, creating a subtle glow through the glass. The existing building at the site includes Radio Shack, 716 Church St., and sporting goods store, Uncle Dan’s, 700 Church St.
The coordination between the city and the developers underscores a mutually beneficial outcome if the tower comes to fruition. The project could help fund the expansion of Fountain Square Plaza on the south part of the block. The plaza has languished on the city’s agenda for five years, according to Assistant City Manager Judith Aiello.
Though the plans submitted to the city include only the block’s northernmost property, the developers have designed a plan for the entire block, which stretches down Sherman and Orrington avenues between Church and Davis streets. The design for the triangular block tapers from the glass-and-steel tower to the landmark Hahn Building, which would not be modified, and then to a re-landscaped public plaza in place of the Fountain Square building that now stands at the block’s south end.
Developers and architects held closed-door meetings with the City Council and with a handful of influential business leaders and preservationists before submitting their first formal request, for rezoning, last Thursday, Aiello said. She said those who saw the models will be key in the approval process, and the meetings were typical for projects of this size.
“We indicated that there was a need for people to see it, particularly if they were going to go to the press,” she said. “The last thing you want to do is throw out a project to citizens, committees or neighbors without them having as much information as they possibly can.”
Multiple people who saw the project in private said the building’s height was justified as it would be the center of “the wedding cake” of downtown.
One architect who criticized Sherman Plaza had praise for the new building.
“The proposed building is an elegant, magnificent building,” said John Macsai, a retired architect who viewed the models last week. “I would have to write a dissertation to tell you how much I dislike Sherman Plaza.”
Even several who have opposed tall buildings in the past, such as Ald. Edmund Moran (6th), have responded positively to the project.
“Given that this proposal is for the epicenter of Evanston, this is probably a logical area to discuss the construction of a large building, especially since it will be between two already large buildings,” Moran said.
Moran said his enthusiasm stemmed in part from the idea that the new development could provide funds for the beginning of a “significant public space” at the south end of the block.
The new space is contingent upon the destruction of the Fountain Square building just north of the current plaza. Ted Mavrakis, the owner of the Fountain Square building, said he would sell it to the city for $10 million. The city could generate that amount through increased real estate taxes created by the Tax Increment Financing district that exists in that area of downtown, city economic development planner Morris Robinson said.
When a TIF district is created, the property tax revenue in the district going to the city’s general funds is capped for 23 years. The capped amount still goes to the city and other taxing bodies, but any excess tax revenue – presumably from new development – would go directly back to public works and capital improvements within the district.
To generate enough to buy the Fountain Square building through TIF revenue, the development itself would have to be worth at least $100 million, Robinson said.
Tim Anderson, president of Focus Development, said it was too early to put a price tag on the project, but said the tower could be the “financial engine” that would support the square’s renovation.
“It’s a short window of opportunity,” Anderson said, noting that the TIF expires in 2018.
Still, developers said they expect the skyscraper to go through with or without the Fountain Square plaza renovation.
“We expect that the city wants to do it,” Anderson said. “This project doesn’t need Fountain Square to go ahead.”
The site of the proposed tower, and the entire Fountain Square block, has foiled other developers in the past.
In January 2005, developer John Mangel of HSA Commercial Real Estate was on the brink of submitting plans for a development covering the entire block, he said. But he could not secure the northernmost site, which would house the proposed tower, something he labeled “ironic.”
Multiple calls to Jim Nash, owner of the leasing company that runs the existing building at 708 Church St., were not returned.
Developer Thomas Roszak unveiled plans for a 38-story condo and hotel complex on the block last June. He could not secure all three properties either.
Other developers were surprised by the favorable reaction of city officials to the proposed development.
“I’m surprised, given their past history about tall buildings and our experience with much more modest proposals, that they should be so supportive of a building that’s twice as tall as anything that’s ever been built in Evanston,” said Bob Horner, a developer at Winthrop Properties working on a 15-story building at 1567 Maple St.
Still, all involved anticipate that despite their preparations, public debate on the proposed building may be acrimonious.
“This is Evanston,” Carroll said. “We don’t know what the outcry will be.”
Reach Peter Jackson at [email protected].
