The long battle over the tower at 708 Church St. ended last week when the Evanston City Council voted 6-3 to approve developers’ proposal for a 35-story building, but the decision’s effect on Evanston residents and Northwestern students remains cloudy.
At the council’s March 23 meeting, the council gave the developers, Klutznick-Fisher Development and Focus Development, an extra five years to begin building.
“The developer has five years to do something, so it could be a long while,” Ald. Elizabeth Tisdahl (7th) said. “The immediate impact is that all the empty retail stores will remain empty.”
Some existing stores will also be closed down. That list includes places like Williams Shoes, 710 Church St., that are frequented by students.
The development – which must have all necessary documentation by the end of 2013 – has met with many complaints from Evanston residents due to aesthetic and economic concerns.
Tisdahl, who has consistently voted against tower proposals, said she thinks the stretch of time before the tower gets built will hurt the city and students.
“The heart of downtown will not be producing any tax revenue for the city or any retail shops that the students might need or enjoy,” she said. “It’s kind of a dead zone in the heart of downtown.”
Jonathan Perman, the executive director of the Evanston Chamber of Commerce, said the students who attend NU now are not likely to feel the effects of the Tower and that the block’s retail industry would not suffer from the lag time.
“It’s not as if one day a building gets approved and all of a sudden the world changes,” he said. “I think it will continue to be the same block you walk down, and I don’t see how it could not be.”
Ald. Edmund Moran (6th), who chairs the Planning and Development Committee and has been a vocal supporter of the tower, stressed the long-term benefits the building could bring to Evanston and to NU students.
“We’ll get $136 million in tax revenue over the next 30 years,” he said. “We can use some of that money to purchase and tear down the ugly Fountain Square building.”
Moran also said the large number of condominiums will definitely be useful to NU faculty and staff, though he was not sure of the effect on students.
“I don’t know whether Northwestern students would eventually buy condos or rent them from someone who owns them,” he said. “That’s a possibility.”
The Tower will be more helpful to students as they graduate and leave NU but want to stay in Evanston, Moran said.
“(The 708 Church St. building) would provide a venue for them to do that,” he said.
Students interviewed this week expressed mixed opinions about the proposal.
Ashley Keyser said she didn’t like the idea of a tall building in the middle of a suburb.
“Aesthetically, there’s something about really tall buildings in suburbs that’s just out of place and somewhat ugly,” the Medill senior said. “I’m not too jazzed about seeing another phallic structure jutting into the sky.”
Others said they liked the idea of spicing up downtown.
“The Evanston skyline is pretty disappointing,” said Weinberg freshman Stefan Djordjevic. “So I think it needs some excitement.”
Some students, like Ravi Umarji, said they didn’t really care.
Umarji said he hadn’t heard the debate surrounding the tower. When he heard about both arguments, the McCormick junior said he was not particularly swayed by the anti-Tower points nor did he feel particularly connected to the issue.
“As a student, it’s hard to really get invested,” he said. “I’m apathetic or at best tacitly in favor, as long as it’s not breaking any laws.”
The possibility that the economy does not demand the additional housing load also did not hit home with Umarji, who noted the changing economy and the wait for the tower to be built.
“If in five years the economy doesn’t rebound, I’m pretty sure the citizens of Evanston will have bigger problems,” he said.
Sara Peck contributed reporting.
