On an abandoned corner of Sherman Avenue, Ji Park leans against a counter in Fashion Tomato, waiting for customers. Business has been faltering, and the store manager is afraid the proposed 35-story tower on 708 Church St. will force her to leave Evanston entirely.
“If they build the (tower), the rent is going to go up, and it’s going to be really difficult to stay here for us,” Park said. “We would maybe move to a location downtown. It’s really slow in Evanston right now, and people don’t even come to this side because all the stores went out of business.”
After the Evanston City Council approved a downtown plan and central core district with a building height limit of 35 stories, tower developers shrunk their proposal down to comply with restrictions. Still, some downtown business owners think the tower would be detrimental for business.
The tower would contain condominiums along with retail establishments, said Ald. Edmund Moran (6th), who heads Evanston’s Planning and Development Committee. Moran said the new building would stimulate parts of Evanston where businesses have been closing down.
“All of the businesses clustered in downtown Evanston will have a whole new customer base that would come in,” Moran said. “It definitely will help the eastern portions of downtown where it’s been really dead.”
But Noel Youkhana, owner of Fountain Square Hair Center , said customer traffic would drop during the building’s construction period. He remembers the construction for Sherman Plaza, completed in 2006, which transformed his hair salon into a “ghost town.”
“There was noise, there was dust, and it blocked the streets,” Youkhana said. “When people see them building, they’re going to go two or three blocks away because all the businesses here can be found somewhere else, whether it’s a restaurant or a beauty salon or a coffee shop. Especially for the elderly, they’re going to go somewhere where it’s safer from the noise and the dust.”
Construction would take at least one year, beginning in the second half of 2010 at the earliest, Moran said.
“There very well could be some temporary loss of business, but the development team has pledged to help businesses with relocation efforts,” Moran said. “Hopefully, they’ll find comparable space and make the move well in advance of the developers moving and tearing the building down.”
Building the tower would be a poor allocation of funds in the recession, Youkhana said.
“I know the city needs tax money, but it’s not the right time,” Youkhana said. “We have a lot of condominiums for sale in Evanston, and no one’s moving in because of the economy. With this economy, it’s not time to make big buildings or construction.”
However, some business owners see the high-rise as an opportunity to bring in new customers. Blair Taylor, community leader at Lululemon Athletica, said that if there were a gym in the tower, it could attract more visitors to the store.
Even so, Taylor is concerned the high-rise will cut off the Evanston skyline.
“Evanston has such a charming vintage feel, and having another high-rise is going to detract from Evanston’s small-town charm,” Taylor said. “It’d feel less cozy, like we’re just stuck in another part of the city with a bunch of high-rises.”
In Moran’s opinion, the tower wouldn’t affect Evanston’s traditional feel because the city has already lost its “small-town charm.”
“The reality is that downtown Evanston is not exactly a small village in the countryside of Vermont,” he said. “We’ve had tall buildings in downtown Evanston for over 40 years, so that quiet village feel went away a long time ago.”
