Chicago real estate developer Paul Levy sought to create unique spaces for artists and entrepreneurs.
Through his company, Prairie Management and Development, Levy and his colleagues left their stamp on the city’s arts community, developing the Bridgeport Art Center in Bridgeport and the Rockwell on the River mixed-use project in the Avondale neighborhood.
“In 2011, when I was running for mayor, when you’re out campaigning, you say things, and I announced that the Chicago River would be the next recreational park of the city. I had no fricking idea of what I said, and while everybody scoffed at it … the only person who thought this was a cool idea and thought we could do something about it was Paul,” said former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a longtime friend. “Paul had a sense for what the potential could be, and this is from a guy who grew up in Chicago, where when you thought of water, you thought of the lake, not the river.”
Levy, 83, died of natural causes on Sept. 22 at his Lincoln Park home, said his daughter, Ali. Levy had been battling pneumonia and also had been dealing with a heart condition, Ali Levy said.
Born in the South Shore neighborhood in 1942, Levy grew up in Chicago and moved with his family to Winnetka. After graduating from New Trier High School, Levy earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Michigan, where he was a gymnast. He later earned an MBA from Michigan and a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center.
After graduating from law school, Levy practiced law with his father, a lawyer. Interested in development, he began working for Chicago developer Marvin B. Myers’ firm, M. Myers Properties. In 1973, a newly minted law school graduate, Tony Augustine, joined Myers’ firm, and the three went on to develop a variety of housing projects in the 1970s and 1980s, both in Wisconsin and locally, including buildings at 812 W. Belle Plaine Ave. and at 4827 N. Sheridan Road in Uptown. They also developed the 51-story tower at 401 E. Ontario St. in Streeterville.
Levy also was involved with Myers’ development of the moderate-income multifamily Walpole Point project, in Lincoln Park, where Levy also chose to reside for a time.
“This project is one of the best in the city in terms of charm, urban sophistication and innovation,” Levy told the Tribune in 1974.
In 1993, Levy and Augustine took over the firm from Myers, who had retired. They renamed their firm Prairie Management and Development.
Around 2002, Levy and Augustine began developing a signature project, the century-old, 500,000-square-foot former Spiegel catalog warehouse that they transformed into the Bridgeport Art Center. Developed and leased for close to a decade, the facility, at 1200 W. 35th St. in Bridgeport, was created as a multidisciplinary space housing artists’ studios and an events and gallery space.
“I think there are synergies in putting artists working in various art forms together,” Levy told the Tribune in 2012. “They all help each other.”
Augustine recalled one of Levy’s frequent expressions: “Good things aren’t cheap, and cheap things aren’t good.”
“There are some guys who like to do the deal, and they don’t care what it is, but Paul — Paul would do something and there was no question that it would be done aesthetically as well,” Augustine said. “You know what I mean? He had a sense for the aesthetic and he had a sense for quality. He felt that if you’re going to do something, you should do it right.”
In the mid-2010s, Levy and Augustine led the redevelopment of Rockwell on the River, a former tannery in Avondale consisting of multiple buildings. The mixed-use project, at 3057 N. Rockwell St., contains a distillery, a barbecue vendor, a ceramics studio, a coffee shop, some offices and an events space, along with offering kayaking and electric boat rentals.
”He loved developing Bridgeport and Rockwell and supporting the arts,” Ali Levy said.
Former Cook County Assessor Jim Houlihan, a longtime friend, said Levy’s “real passion” was working on the Bridgeport Art Center and Rockwell on the River.
“Paul brought an energy and an enthusiasm to those efforts,” Houlihan said. “One of the things he loved was working with architect Patrick Rosen, who designed (Rockwell on the River’s) riverfront patio and boat docks. Patrick was a young architect who brought some real skills to the process.”
Levy never retired from full-time work.
Levy served on the boards of the Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance and the Arts & Business Council of Chicago, and he also was involved in Chicago’s political community, hosting fundraisers for U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth and U.S. Reps. Bill Foster and Mike Quigley.
Levy also enjoyed skiing, fishing and sailing. He traveled widely with friends, including with Emanuel and his family. Levy first encountered Emanuel shortly after Emanuel had graduated from college in 1981. The future mayor recalled that he was working as an organizer and fundraiser for Illinois Public Action, a consumer rights group, and “somebody mentioned (Levy’s) name.” So Emanuel cold-called Levy, hounding him for three months straight before Levy inadvertently picked up the phone.
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“He spent three months trying to avoid my phone call. By accident, he finally picked up, and I begged him not to hang up on me, and it ended up that we built a friendship from that day,” Emanuel said. “Our families traveled for 20 years consistently every year — we went from India to Tanzania to Laos to Argentina to Chile to Czechoslovakia to Jordan and Israel. We went all over.”
Emanuel noted Levy’s spirit of adventure.
“Doesn’t everyone take four kids under the age of 12 — mine and his — on a Class 5 rapids down in Chile that is three days away from any rescue operation?” Emanuel quipped. “He introduced me to my passion of fly fishing. I can’t say enough both personally and professionally. He had the kind of impishness and inquisitiveness of a 7-year-old, and he never lost that. That’s what drew me to him as a dear friend.”
Judy Wise, a longtime friend, called Levy “a passionate adventurer who was always pushing the boundaries.”
“He was always up for trying something new,” she said.
A first marriage ended in divorce. In addition to his daughter, Levy is survived by his wife of 35 years, Mia Park; and a sister, Barbara Isenberg.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.