Matt Duhig with R^2 and Bernie Citron & Talar Hovnanian of Thompson Coburn met with the NOWL Development Committee to discuss a proposed development at 1210 W. Lake Street. R^2 currently owns the building, which has Wizard Werks auto body shop as its sole tenant. Wizard Works expressed a willingness to vacate the building as soon as July or August of this year (their lease runs into 2017).
R^2 has other properties in the West Loop, e.g., 224 N Des Plaines, as well as their offices at 1130 Monroe.
The property is currently limited to 9,000 sq ft under the existing zoning (M2-3, manufacturing). R^2 intends to maintain the existing building structure and add a mezzanine level, which will increase the zoning to 18,000 sq ft and require rezoning (R^2 is seeking C3-5 – commercial, Type 1).
A Phase I environmental site assessment has been performed without findings.
R^2 will be seeking a single tenant (office, up to 150 employees). They are apprehensive to do the build-out before finding a tenant.
There is no parking in place for the building and R^2 does not want to add parking, noting that other properties of theirs operate without parking. R^2 agreed to provide examples of other office properties that operate without parking.
Committee Feedback
Based on the discussion, R^2 agreed to consider the committee’s input and come back with modifications to their proposal and other outstanding items.
Next Steps
The NOWL Development Committee is awaiting further information from R^2, as well as feedback from the community, before developing a position letter for Ald. Burnett.
By: NOWL Development Committee Chair, Matt Letourneau
Date: Monday, Jan. 11, 2016
Related Links
- Crain’s (8/11/15): Near West Side building fetches $11.3 million