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player ready...Work will begin in spring on a $40 million redevelopment project that will convert the five-story former Wieboldt’s Department Store building on the Near West Side.
The building, which spans the block along Ashland Avenue between Adams and Monroe Streets, was the third Wieboldt’s to open in the city, and one of nine Wieboldt’s stores to open in Chicago in 1925. It was designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst and White.
Wieboldt’s closed the 334,500-square-foot store, at 100-130 S. Ashland, in the 1980s. The building has been vacant since 1994, according to Phil Levin, an assistant commissioner at the Chicago Department of Planning and Development.
“It has been an eyesore in the neighborhood,” Levin told members of the Chicago Plan Commission last month.
The City Council gave final approval to the project Wednesday.
Ashland Developer Group LLC is converting the building into the Paramount Lofts according to Levin.
That development entity is a partnership between several investors and the Ogden Associates LLC, which comprises of New West Realty principals, including former 1st Ward Ald. Ted Mazola, now a Chicago-based developer and president of New West Realty.
Ashland Developer Group is leasing the building from a private owner and has exercised an option to buy it. “We will close on the building in early 2004,” Terrie Whittaker, president of sales and marketing at New West Realty, said in an interview last week.
As part of the redevelopment, two floors will be added to the top of the building, Levin told plan commissioners.
The developer will build 207 condos, according to Barb Sepanik, Paramount Lofts project manager, who also said they are being sold from a sales center in the building.
One-bedroom to 3-bedroom units, with 795 to 1,415 square feet, are priced from $157,900 to $350,000, according to Whittaker.
Eighty-six units have been sold, according to Sepanik. “Because of the Mexican consulate next door to the south of us on Adams and Ashland, we have sold to many Latino buyers. Other than that our buyers are a good mix, coming from the suburbs and the city, some first-time home buyers and others who are moving up from one-bedroom to two-bedroom units,” she added.
There will be 285 parking spaces, 135 will be in the lower level and 150 in a new garage to go up at the rear of the building. Condo buyers will pay an additional $27,900 to $34,900 for those spaces, Whittaker said.
About 45,000 square feet of retail space is planned for the ground level, according to Sepanik. “We don’t have any tenants signed up for that space yet, but have had a lot of interest in the space. We are seeking a large user for the site, would love a grocery store or a drugstore or something of that sort . . . .”
Construction is expected to begin in April and to be completed about fall 2005.