CHICAGO | Boom rundown - everything over 12 floors. v5 - Page 19

spyguy · #**361** Posted **Apr 14, 2007, 7:03 PM**

http://chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/mag/article.pl?article_id=27580&bt=condo&arc=n&searchType=all

Hotel firm checks in on Michigan Avenue
Planning 50-story tower across from Hard Rock

By Alby Gallun and Thomas A. Corfman

A Florida real estate developer is drawing up plans for a 50-plus-story luxury condominium and hotel project on Michigan Avenue just south of the Chicago River, adding competition to a crowded high-end hotel market.

Peebles Corp., one of the country's biggest black-owned development firms, has signed a contract to pay about $32 million for 300 N. Michigan Ave., according to people familiar with the deal. It's currently the site of two buildings that house a Walgreens drugstore, Subway restaurant and Radio Shack store.

The company's chairman and CEO, R. Donahue Peebles, plans to raze the structures and build a 400,000-square-foot tower that would include a 200-room five-star hotel, about 35 condo-hotel suites, as many as 45 condos, retail space and restaurants. The condos would be among the city's priciest, ranging from $800 to $1,200 a square foot. The most expensive unit would top out at $10 million.

Designed by Arquitectonica, a Miami architecture firm, the building would cost about $215 million, Mr. Peebles says. "We want it to be a signature project," he says. "It's a very prominent corner and Michigan Avenue is one of the great streets of the world."

Mr. Peebles says he's courting international hotel brands for the project, but declines to name them. One that has expressed interest is Regent Hotels & Resorts Inc., a unit of Minneapolis-based Carlson Hotels Worldwide Inc. that has six hotels around the world and eight more in the works, says a person familiar with the project. A Regent spokesman declines to comment.

Peebles has agreed to buy the property from a group that includes local developers Charlie and Harry Huzenis and Michael Lerner.

Mr. Peebles, 47, has projects in Miami Beach, Detroit, Las Vegas and San Francisco. He started scouting sites in downtown Chicago about a year-and-a-half ago.

Mr. Peebles isn't the only hotel developer in the neighborhood aiming at the high end of the market. Five other luxury projects are in the works within five blocks of the Peebles site, including Donald Trump's 286-room tower along the Chicago River. And investor Sam Roti says he plans to convert the long-vacant Chicago Motor Club building just west of the Peebles site into a boutique hotel.

Mr. Peebles "is not the sort of guy I would bet against," says Laurence Geller, CEO of Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc., a Chicago real estate investment trust that owns the Fairmont Chicago and the InterContinental Chicago. But "you've got an awful lot of luxury hotels in a small space in a city that's not renowned for high room rates."

Mr. Peebles is unconcerned, noting that the projects in the works are relatively small considering the size of the downtown hotel market. "That market can handle the new hotel inventory that's coming on line," he says.

Nowhereman1280 · #**362** Posted **Apr 14, 2007, 7:10 PM**

HA! I've been waiting for that site to go! Isn't that the one with the rundown looking Walgreens? I was just there the other day wondering "how on earth do such shitty, short buildings continue to exist along one of the most famous streets in the country/world?"

HK Chicago · #**363** Posted **Apr 14, 2007, 7:25 PM**

^ Same here, this has been a target of mine for years so I hope the tower is worthwhile and is done.

denizen467 · #**364** Posted **Apr 14, 2007, 7:29 PM**

That stretch of NMA from Lake to Wacker has always been oddly moribund.

Perhaps part of it is the somewhat dark spot along the east side at South Water, where you look into the black hole of Middle South Water as it goes under 233 NMA, and also the plaza north of 205/225 that has a kind of dead eastern wall.

All in all there is a lot of potential to improve this stretch.

forumly_chgoman · #**365** Posted **Apr 14, 2007, 7:32 PM**

^^^^I am asssuming this separate from the Arquitectonica tower predicted for LSE....If I recalll that was rumored to be a potential super-tall or near super-tall??

honte · #**366** Posted **Apr 14, 2007, 7:46 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by spyguy

http://chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/mag/article.pl?article_id=27580&bt=condo&arc=n&searchType=all

Designed by Arquitectonica, a Miami architecture firm, the building would cost about $215 million, Mr. Peebles says.

Damn, two of their towers possibly in a two-block radius... Glad to have them here; I hope we get their good work and not the crummy stuff (like that hotel on Times Square

).

Pandemonious · #**367** Posted **Apr 14, 2007, 7:46 PM**

A long time ago, I saw a study model with a tower that appeared taller than Trump on that site, but "50 plus story" is pretty nondescript.

I am very pleased that the motor club will be renovated. It would be a shame to lose it. This is a PRIME site.... with views directly down the river to the west, and right on Michigan Avenue. I hope it has good height, but hopefully doesn't diminish the presence of Carbide and Carbon Bldg.

honte · #**368** Posted **Apr 14, 2007, 7:54 PM**

^ Would that have been the mystery 1000' building you mentioned a while back... or yet another 1000' proposal?

For $215M, I doubt they'll be able to get much higher than 50 stories, but anything could happen of course. Demand could drive them to build taller, I suppose. It is a great site.

Agreed 100% about the Motor Club. Yet another building that should have been landmarked a long time ago.

Tom In Chicago · #**369** Posted **Apr 14, 2007, 9:31 PM**

It's nice to hear that Architectonica is designing two buildings here in Chicago. . . but I'm still waiting for Sir Richard Rogers to come to town. . .

Steely Dan · #**370** Posted **Apr 14, 2007, 10:42 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by honte

Steely et al,

OK, the stuff on Evanston was actually released... but not to the public yet. I guess it is circulating around in Evanston's City Hall now, I presume for some kind of "preapproval." Facades of the landmark building will be preserved, but I gather that its footprint will be entered, and I think the building at the back of the site is a goner. I also think several green features will be a part of the development. That's all for now.

that sounds a lot like the old rozcak plan...... tear down the fountain square building and the building on the north end of the block.... facedectomy the hahn building in the middle of the block..... and basically start from scratch except for two slavaged hahn building walls. my guess is that if this is the plan they're going forward with to the city right now, it won't pass initial city hall muster.

Steely Dan · #**371** Posted **Apr 15, 2007, 12:32 AM**

in page 1 news, 403 North Wabash and its rendering (thanks for snapping that pic latoso) have been added to the great list.

Pandemonious · #**372** Posted **Apr 15, 2007, 1:36 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by honte

^ Would that have been the mystery 1000' building you mentioned a while back... or yet another 1000' proposal?

For $215M, I doubt they'll be able to get much higher than 50 stories, but anything could happen of course. Demand could drive them to build taller, I suppose. It is a great site.

Agreed 100% about the Motor Club. Yet another building that should have been landmarked a long time ago.

Different proposal. What I saw for this wasn't even a proposal really I don't think. It was just an old study model laying around. It seemed like someone has at least thought about a really tall building on this site before though.. was my point.

I am completely fine with the design, and proposal for 403 N Wabash. I think the height is just fine, and the space it is replacing I would hardly call significant open space. The parking garage structure I remember having just this big ugly box sticking out of the ground.

^What I am thinking of, I think its the gray thing on the lower right. Hopefully this tower masks that ugly thing.

TransitEngr · #**373** Posted **Apr 15, 2007, 3:14 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by spyguy

http://chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/mag/article.pl?article_id=27580&bt=condo&arc=n&searchType=all

Hotel firm checks in on Michigan Avenue
Planning 50-story tower across from Hard Rock

By Alby Gallun and Thomas A. Corfman

A Florida real estate developer is drawing up plans for a 50-plus-story luxury condominium and hotel project on Michigan Avenue just south of the Chicago River, adding competition to a crowded high-end hotel market.

And investor Sam Roti says he plans to convert the long-vacant Chicago Motor Club building just west of the Peebles site into a boutique hotel.

OH THAT'S FRIGGIN AWESOME.... two great bits of news in one article..... I actually walked on Water Street just west of Michigan today and for the first time in ages I noticed the Motor Club building (Wacker Tower) and I thought... "wow... now THAT is in-your-face art deco". Wacker Tower is an incredible art deco gem... very happy to hear that there are concepts to turn it into a hotel!

Loopy · #**374** Posted **Apr 15, 2007, 3:22 AM**

I walked by it today too. It really is some beautiful Holabird and Root Deco. I would like to hear more about the proposal though. Last year Roti announced that he wanted to tear it down to redevelop the land. So we are not dealing with an architecture lover here.

ChiPsy · #**375** Posted **Apr 15, 2007, 11:53 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SolarWind

April 13, 2007

I'll use this photo to post my question, but there are several pertinent ones above it also: I thought this was to be clad in stone (limestone?) all the way up, but it looks to me like they've shaped the concrete to simulate stone once you get above the actual stone (first 5 floors or so?) in this shot.

Does anyone know more about this? If this thing turns out to be another beige concrete tower (from the waist up) I'm going to blind myself.

honte · #**376** Posted **Apr 15, 2007, 2:28 PM**

^ Don't do anythign too drastic. But yeah, that's a "rusticated" painted concrete wall you're seeing.

BorisMolotov · #**377** Posted **Apr 15, 2007, 2:28 PM**

That does look like what they are doing - but this one won't be beige, the blue-greenness of the glass colors the gray "limestone" too much and it will look slightly better than a beige concrete one.

aaron38 · #**378** Posted **Apr 15, 2007, 3:42 PM**

A quick tidbit on X/O. I was up late last night (cause I can't sleep with this damn cold) and I saw a TV commercial for X/O for the first time.

So I don't know if it's good for the project's viability that they are advertising.
Or if it's bad that the only advertising they are running is on WCIU at 1:30 in the morning.

trvlr70 · #**379** Posted **Apr 15, 2007, 6:38 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SolarWind

April 13, 2007

This boy has taken off.....I'm loving the curves here.

honte · #**380** Posted **Apr 15, 2007, 6:55 PM**

^ A boy named "Clare." I guess it does happen, but I haven't met one yet. More evidence of Chicago's international flair, perhaps.

But looking good, definitely. The precast has me very cautiously optimistic.