Purchasing the former Blumberg Furniture building on Genesee Street in Downtown Waukegan nine years ago, real estate entrepreneur Mikki Schuk sensed people wanted to live in an area with an “urban vibe” with views of Lake Michigan and two modes of public transportation nearby.
After gut-renovating four apartments in the Blumberg building, Shuck said he learned that people will pay market rent for granite countertops, new appliances, hardwood floors, proximity to the beach, and more.
Now Shuck owns buildings with 33 apartments and roughly 50,000 square feet of commercial space downtown, and the city of Waukegan is joining the effort, soliciting developers for a mixed-use building on a city lot at the southeast corner of Clayton and County streets.
“We’re very close to finalizing a (deal with a) developer who will help the city build a template of what market-priced housing will look like in Downtown Waukegan,” Mayor Sam Cunningham said.
Schuk and Cunningham cut a ribbon celebrating completion of renovations to a pair of downtown buildings containing apartments, retail and office space Tuesday on Washington Street, between Genesee and County streets, adding residents and businesses to the downtown area.
Before Shuck acquired the two side-by-side buildings on Washington, the upper two floors were offices. Now one side contains a pair of one-bedroom units on the second story and a two-bedroom apartment on the third. Next door is a studio, one- and two-bedroom dwellings.
“They’re all rented,” Shuck said. “We didn’t even advertise. Everything is new — the kitchen, the bathrooms, everything. They have washers and dryers.”
Though the ground floors remain commercial, they too were renovated and are leased. Longtime Waukegan attorney Albert Wysocki and his son, Daniel, share a law office in one of the buildings.
Albert Wysocki has practiced in Lake County for 45 years, including six years as an associate judge of the Lake County Court between 1985 and 1991. He said he likes the way the offices he and his son occupied for the past 10 months were redone.
“I like the way he respected the antiquity and history of the building,” Albert Wysocki said.
While everything is new in the apartments, Shuck said he took pains to make the office interior look historic while maintaining the quality of a modern workplace. Walking into the office, it had wood trim from another era but freshly finished.
“I kept the square trim and other things,” Shuck said. “We wanted to show an old-fashioned decor.”
The Crystal Flower is in the building next to the law office and offers “a unique blend of homemade personal care and beauty products, handcrafted jewelry, graphic design services, custom airbrushing, crystals, minerals and more,” Shuck said.
Along with operating Real Invest, Inc., on his own, Shuck is part of the Waukegan Community Development Partnership, which has plans for a number of downtown buildings. It has already renovated 38 North Genesee Street and is in the process of completing the same to the former YMCA at the northwest corner of Clayton and County.
Lowell Jaffe, the lead developer of the partnership, led the effort to engineer a transaction with the city to receive funds from a downtown tax increment financing (TIF) district on the two buildings depending on meeting certain goals.
Once the former YMCA is done, Jaffe said the partnership will announce its plans for the long-vacant eight-story Waukegan Building at the southwest corner of Genesee and Washington.
While Shuck and the partnership are working on their projects, Cunningham said the city issued a request for qualifications from developers to put a mixed-use building on the southeast corner of Clayton and County, kitty-corner from the former YMCA. They are now negotiating a development agreement.
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Cunningham said the steps and risks Shuck took when he bought the Blumberg Building in 2017 were a key part of the genesis of downtown redevelopment. Bringing residents to live in the area is a precursor to more businesses and additional population.
“Small steps over time have created the first wave of increasing the population of downtown,” Cunningham said. “This is showing us what Waukegan can be and it makes us proud.”
Shuck said he was nervous when he renovated the initial apartments on Genesee Street. He credits “small steps” to his success, making sure everything worked before making the next move. He always believed Downtown Waukegan was a good place for people to live.
“It has the vibe of a city,” Shuck said. “You have the lake and the trains and the buses. When the people come, the businesses will follow.”
A week before Shuck cut the ribbon on Washington Street, he did the same on a building at 7 South County Street. He renovated it as he has with other projects. There is a business on the first floor and four studio apartments above, already rented for $1,350 a month.
On Washington Street, Shuck said the studios rent for $1,350 a month, one-bedroom units cost $1,450 monthly, while the two-bedroom apartments cost $1,950.