Ben Borenstein, a long-time fixture in Chicago’s real estate construction business, likes to tell a story redolent of the piquant aroma of the building game in the city.
See, there’s this big builder named Sam who has made millions of dollars putting up high-rises in New York and Miami. One day he goes out on his enormous yacht, a storm blows up and he’s shipwrecked on a desert island that’s got nothing but a bunch of animals and birds.
Time goes by, and finally a ship comes along and sees Sam’s signal fire and comes to rescue him. But, amazingly, the island is covered with new buildings, and Sam tells the ship captain he taught all the animals and birds how to build.
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The captain says, “Sam, you were such a big builder of high-rises, how come there are no high-rises here?”
And Sam answers disgustedly, “The (bums) wouldn’t give me the zoning.”
Borenstein, who is retiring at age 68 from Babco Inc., the business he founded 33 years ago, wasn’t known for building high-rises himself (although he did do a 25-story apartment building), but it wasn’t necessarily because he couldn’t get the zoning.
“We didn’t look for those kinds of jobs, and we didn’t get them,” Borenstein said in a voice that sounds like it was hacked from a sidewalk on the West Side, where he grew up. “You wouldn’t call us to build the Hancock Building and Sears Tower.”
Babco, which will continue under the sons of Borenstein’s partners, is a midsize firm with offices in Evanston and Las Vegas that does midsize jobs, including the Berto Center in Deerfield where the Chicago Bulls train and buildouts of retail locations along Michigan Avenue such as Bulgari, Burberry, Tiffany and Gucci.
The key to carving out his niche, which has generally encompassed jobs up to $15 million, was building relationships rather than bidding on big-time projects. He became involved in numerous charities and made them a resource, Borenstein noted.
“When I first started to go out at night to meetings, I’d write down names of the people I met so I’d remember them. It was a way of promoting business so that I’d know who was doing this and that,” he said.
That personal approach and a healthy dose of caution served him well. “The guys who go bust are the guys who take on too much and can’t do it,” he said. “You need lots of luck, and you better keep your word. Otherwise, you won’t have a chance.”
Friendly persuasion: The unusual design of Klutznick Development Corp.’s building on North Michigan Avenue between Chicago Avenue and Superior Street, with its lineup of store facades fashioned in different styles, causes outrage or admiration.
Some observers think the varying streetfronts look childish, but not the Friends of Downtown. The non-profit group, which was founded in 1981 to promote good urban design, gave the building a “Best New Development” honor at its 12th annual awards event.
Food chains: Hot competition in food retailing is fueling a surge of building in the Chicago area.
A report by Mid-America Real Estate Group, based in Oakbrook Terrace, said Dominick’s Finer Foods plans 17 more stores in 1998 after opening 10 new stores and converting 17 stores to Dominick’s formats in 1997. Jewel/Osco has announced 10 new stores for this year, following seven openings last year, it said.
In addition, Cub Foods and Eagle are aggressive, and organic-oriented upmarket chains such as Whole Foods and Wild Oats are expanding their niche, said Mid-America President David Bossy.
And Meijer’s Super Centers, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based chain that combines a supermarket and a discount department store in a massive (220,000- to 280,000-square-foot) space, is targeting the area for 10 stores in the next couple of years, Bossy added.
Bossy said the Dominick’s and Jewel openings aren’t necessarily the result of growth in demand but attempts to maintain their top market shares as rivals attempt to elbow their way in.
“This has always been a two-horse town (in food retailing) and they are positioning themselves,” he said. “They are both looking to pre-empt their new competition.”