http://www.nearwestgazette.com/Archive/0607/Newsstory060701.htm
Developer consults community on Taylor-Ashland expansion project
By Susan S. Stevens
If community residents agree, a mixed-use structure will replace a two-story parking garage on the
northeast corner of Taylor Street and Ashland Avenue.
New West Realty is working with the Campus Green Townhome Association (CGTA) and the University Village Association (UVA) to create plans everyone can approve, said Ted Mazola, president of New West. Alderman Bob Fioretti, who took office in May, also will be involved.
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This is very preliminary,” Mazola said. “Nothing has been decided or will be decided for a while.”
New West and members of a CGTA committee are working intensively on the project by phone and e-mail. “We are still in the very initial stages of negotiations,” said Dan Pattangi, president of the CGTA. Once they reach agreement, they will present the plan to the full townhouse association for a vote.
New West proposes building a
four-story structure along Taylor, with businesses on the Taylor Street side of the first two floors and parking behind the shops and on the third and fourth floors.
On Ashland, the building would rise to about 16 stories and contain about 185 condos, Mazola said.
The taller section would be adjacent to and roughly the same height as two existing rental apartment buildings in the Campus Green complex.
“Basically, we are trying to set the tone with a building that both relates to the existing apartment buildings and taller structures west on Ashland and relates to the lower rise retail buildings existing on Taylor Street,” Mazola said.
The shorter or “step-down” component would be about the same height as the buildings containing restaurants along Taylor Street, Mazola noted. An award-winning architectural firm,
Pappageorge and Haynes, has been working on drawings the firm’s leaders hope will be acceptable to the community.
“We also are talking about building single-family homes and townhomes on the corner of Polk and Ashland,” Mazola said.
Six single-family houses and 20 townhouses are planned.
The townhouse association has a voice because its 46 units are part of the Planned Unit Development created decades ago to control land use in the area.
UVA President John Chandler said his group will support the townhouse association’s decision. Nonetheless, UVA leaders expressed concern that the new building might be higher than existing apartment buildings, that the retail space might be too extensive, and that not enough green space would be included. Chandler described drawings he saw of the proposed townhouses as “almost barracks-like.”
Mazola rejected the criticisms, saying he believes the building’s height will blend into the community, the new townhouses will be attractive, and “at last blush, there is not that much retail.” He said 40 parking spaces would be set aside for the businesses.
As a lifelong resident of the Near West Side now living across the street from a building that has been in his family since 1909, Mazola understands the neighborhood’s concerns. He opened New West 28 years ago, and the company has been involved in all types of development, he said, including new construction in Central Station, affordable housing at Kedzie Avenue and Harrison Street, and rehabbing existing structures.
“That does not mean we please everybody all the time,” he said, but for the Taylor-Ashland project, “What we are proposing is very nice.”
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