By The Beachwood Special Message Affairs Desk
A special message from Northwestern President Henry S. Bienen to faculty, staff, students, and alumni who live in the neighborhood of the Chicago campus
July 2007
As you may be aware, Northwestern University has a contract to sell 850 North Lake Shore Drive, the Lake Shore Center, which was used for graduate student housing for 30 years, to a developer to build a new condominium building. The new building would meet all existing city of Chicago zoning requirements with respect to such matters as height, mass, and use. Unfortunately, there is a move to block this new construction by declaring the existing building a historic landmark. Such action would severely jeopardize Northwestern’s ability to sell the property at a fair price. That’s why I’m taking the unusual step of writing to faculty, staff, students, and alumni who live in the area near our Chicago campus. A drawing and description of the proposed project are enclosed.
I firmly believe that Northwestern University is very beneficial to the city of Chicago. Marshaling our assets in the most effective manner is critical to our missions of teaching, research, and clinical care and building a world-class medical center. Obtaining a fair price for the University’s property directly affects our ability to invest in the Feinberg School of Medicine and our other schools. In addition, restricting the University’s ability to sell its property is detrimental not just to Northwestern but also to the entire Chicago community.
We are not opposed to preservation when done in a responsible manner. The University has maintained and restored several historic structures on both its Chicago and Evanston campuses. However, landmark designation for the former Lake Shore Center, precluding its demolition and replacement, would place significant restrictions on the University’s ability to sell a property that is no longer functional as a residence hall. In a balanced review of the issue, Chicago Tribune architectural writer Blair Kamin stated, “I’m not convinced that the Lake Shore Athletic Club has the stuff to qualify as an official Chicago landmark . . . ” Our students voted with their feet in terms of deciding whether to live there – in the last few years that it was in use as a residence hall, the occupancy rate hovered around 35 percent as students chose to live in more spacious or more modern buildings.
In addition to the city’s zoning restrictions, restrictive covenants on the land limit the use of the site to a student residence hall or a private residential building, so Northwestern may not use the building for other purposes. Both the zoning restrictions and the restrictive covenants affecting the University were established eight years ago when the buildings immediately south of the Lake Shore Center were constructed.
When the University decided to sell the Lake Shore Center property, we hired a nationally known real estate broker to assist in the sale. The broker made more than 800 contacts, and offering memorandums were sent to 105 responding parties. Of the nine written offers for the property, six were for renovation of the building, but four of those six required acquisition of all or part of the University’s parking garage just west of the Lake Shore Center. The garage was not part of the offering; we need the garage to provide parking on the Chicago campus, particularly with the impending move of Children’s Memorial Hospital to our campus. The other two developers required that the property be historically designated at the federal level before they would purchase the property, something that cannot be guaranteed. (Such designation would afford the developer certain federal tax credits.) Moreover, such designation, even if granted, would not ensure the financial viability of the building’s reuse. The developer under contract with Northwestern, the Fifield Realty Corporation, has agreed to purchase the property without any such conditions and to build an attractive new structure that is no taller than the existing building and with sufficient parking on site. It is for these reasons that we selected Fifield.
Your alderman, Brendan Reilly, will have a great deal of influence on whether the building can be built. Please contact him in your own words – by email (brendan@reillyforchicago.com), letter (City Hall, Room 300, 121 North LaSalle Street, Chicago, Illinois 60602), telephone (312-642-4242), or fax (312-277-1099) – and join Northwestern in supporting the proposed new development. Alternatively, you can send Alderman Reilly the enclosed postcard.
If you have any questions or need more information on this issue, please contact me; Eugene S. Sunshine, senior vice president for business and finance, at e-sunshine@northwestern.edu or 847-491-5534; or Ron Nayler, associate vice president for facilities management, at r-nayler@northwestern.edu or 847-467-5810.
Sincerely,
Henry S. Bienen
President
*
Previously:
* Fifield Rallies Real Estate Friends
* The 42nd Ward’s New Demolition Man.
* Preservationist protest.
* Brendan Natarus item.
* Landmark Ruling item.
* Lake Shoreistan item.
Posted on July 24, 2007