Recently in Wilson Yard Category

Operating agreement between Holsten and Target signed October 15, 2008.

Friday, June 1, 2007

Wilson Yard Development I LLC files an Economic Disclosure Statement (EDS) with the City in conjunction with the amended redevelopment and loan agreements.

Wilson Yard Development I LLC Economic Disclosure Statement (PDF, 15 pages, 1.2M)

City set to boost subsidy for Wilson Yard project
By Eddie Baeb

The city is poised to increase its subsidy for the long-delayed Wilson Yard development in Uptown to offset rising construction costs for the project, which is to include a Target store and 178 units of affordable housing.

The Daley administration agreed to raise the subsidy to $43.1 million from $35.6 million in a deal that goes before the Chicago City Council on Wednesday and would allow construction to begin no later than July. Costs for the 5-acre development are now expected to be about $150 million.

In addition to rising costs, the Wilson Yard project has endured the pullout of a movie theater and concerns that Target might walk over the controversial "big-box” ordinance.

Located near Broadway Street and Montrose Avenue, Wilson Yard includes a former CTA maintenance facility. Redevelopment of Wilson Yard has been contemplated since two fires at the site in 1996. The development, considered vital by some for the gritty Uptown neighborhood, has also been a source of controversy in an area that's become a fierce battleground over gentrification.

Since the original redevelopment agreement was struck with the city in December 2005, the project's costs have jumped 15% to $150.1 million, primarily because of rising construction costs.

The administration has agreed to raise its TIF (tax-increment financing) subsidy to help offset the increased costs. The project's developer, an affiliate of Holsten Development Corp., agreed to defer some of its fees until the completion, now planned for 2009.

"It'll be a huge boost that will bring a lot of people to the area," says Peter Holsten, president of Holsten Development, who was marketing the development's retail space this week at a trade show in Las Vegas. "It will spill over and help the stores up and down Broadway."

Minneapolis-based Target Corp. has an agreement to buy its 180,000-square-foot store. The additional retail component involves moving the existing Aldi grocery store to an adjacent site, where the discount grocer is to open next week, Mr. Holsten says.

The project's residential component includes two apartment buildings, one with 80 units of affordable housing for families and another with 98 units of affordable housing for the elderly. Plans also call for a multi-level parking garage that can accommodate 382 cars and an additional 173-car surface parking lot.

Kerasotes Showplace Theatres LLC last year dropped its plan for a 12-screen movie theater, citing the high construction costs of plans to build the theater atop the Target store. Mr. Holsten says the economics of the theater didn't work, and that its withdrawal meant parking could be downsized from the original plan, which called for a 700-car garage.

The Wilson Yard project hit another speed bump last year when the City Council voted in July to mandate a new minimum wage requirement for large retailers, a move that had Target mulling whether to drop its expansion plans in Chicago.

Mayor Richard M. Daley vetoed the bill in October with help from local Alderman Helen Shiller (46th), the only City Council member who didn't vote on the original ordinance. She then voted against overriding the mayor's veto.

Ms. Shiller, whose office estimates the project will create about 200 new jobs, didn't return a call Tuesday afternoon seeking comment.

Mr. Holsten says he's confident the City Council will approve plans for Wilson Yard when it votes Wednesday, which he says would put completion at about 22 to 24 months from now.

"We've done everything the city has asked of us, so we'll be fine," says Mr. Holsten, who has also done mixed-income redevelopment projects near the Cabrini-Green public housing project. "It's going to be a good thing for the area."

UNC E-News, February 17, 2007

Wilson Yard--Good Urban Planning? Or Urban Nightmare?
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In the past two decades since Helen Shiller became the 46th ward alderman, she's been called many things...  A smart urban planner is not one of them.

The Wilson Yard TIF project, located on one of the most desolate stretches of Broadway, has amplified how Helen Shiller keeps the 46th ward retail streets dark, empty and dangerous, while every ward bordering the 46th has developed thriving retail areas.

With the aldermanic election right around the corner, Helen Shiller has pulled out her campaign check book to bamboozle voters with a glossy Wilson Yard mailing that promises to beguile residents hungry for some decent retail shopping within the ward.  The rendering shows an appealing tree-lined street with lots of brightly-lit store fronts, a Target store, plus an Aldi's with welcoming windows for shoppers.

What's really going into Wilson Yard?  Not much right now besides the low income housing and Aldi's.  No movie theaters.  No small retailers have signed leases. And now it is extremely questionable whether Target will ever be a part of the development.

If the new Aldi's, which is currently under construction, is a sample of what's to come, the plan is in serious trouble and will only further depress the 46th ward's retail corridor.  The glossy Wilson Yard rendering shows Aldi's with windows all along Broadway. What has actually been built is a solid 100-foot concrete and brick wall that closes off the interior of the store from Broadway, thus perpetuating the stark street environment that will be unwelcoming, forbidding and unsafe.

Compare this actual photo of the new Aldi fronting Broadway to the glossy campaign material sent to you by Helen Shiller.  You will never know the truth about Wilson Yard if you continue to buy what Alderman Shiller has been selling you...

Once promised to be a "thriving mixed-use, mixed-income development", Wilson Yard has fallen prey to Helen Shiller's personal agenda. First to fall was the mixed-income housing that suddenly became 100% subsidized housing for extremely low to very low income residents.  Helen Shiller has once again double-crossed low-income residents who were told they would be able to purchase their housing units after 15 years, thus giving them the chance to actually own their homes.  Click here to see the entire Illinois Housing Development Authority's Low Income Housing classification of Wilson Yard housing.

The housing is the largest portion of Wilson Yard. The rendering below, created by the developer, shows how massive this building will be along Montrose and Broadway.  This prominent corner, that should be gateway for vibrant retail, falls prey to Shiller's misguided planning.  Click the image below to see the full sized rendering.

Helen Shiller was also deceptive when she told residents that Wilson Yard would have a movie theater complex as a key component.  In reality, the theaters were never viable in the plan presented to the public.  Soon after the community meeting, the theaters were quietly killed in a backroom deal and the community was never informed.  Helen Shiller's response: "It's no big deal." Dave Roeder, Sun-Times reporter, covered a community meeting where hundreds of outraged community residents showed up expecting a long-overdue Wilson Yard update.  Helen Shiller and developer Peter Holsten ignored the community and blew the meeting off. Click here to read the entire Sun-Times article

And Target? According to Shiller and Holsten, Target is coming for sure, yet they have refused to produce any written documentation verifying this.  The date for Target's ground-breaking mysteriously keeps moving to the next year. Several residents and a reporter have made inquiries through various Target contacts; all have been told there is no Target in the building plans for the near future.

"The (Wilson Yard) development is a future slum for Uptown. The current design is deadly for neighborhood safety and building a vibrant retail area." 

A reknowned ULI (Urban Land Institute) planner reviewed the plan.  His critique clearly states, "The (Wilson Yard) development is a future slum for Uptown.  The current design is deadly for neighborhood safety and building a vibrant retail area. There is no active street frontage and without it, the street becomes a place for crime."

The poor planning doesn't stop there.  The soil in Wilson Yard is contaminated and requires a clean-up plan that has not been properly addressed by the developer since their initial Wilson Yard Site evaluation report was denied by the EPA in 2004.  Building cannot proceed without addressing the required toxic cleanup to assure residents'  and shoppers' health.

A savvy 46th ward resident obtained documents sent by the EPA chastising the City's Department of the Environment for their sloppy work on submitting required Wilson Yard Environmental Site Evaluation report.  Apparently the Wilson Yard site has lots of hazardous chemicals, like arsenic and lead, and how these toxins are going to be sampled and cleaned-up has yet to be defined. The EPA denied the 2004 evaluation and clean-up report submitted.  If you'd  like to read more on the toxic clean-up reports, click here and here.

The Wilson Yard plan, ten years in the making, gobbling up millions of property tax-supplied TIF dollars, seems to have lost its way in the convoluted world of developer greed, personal political agendas, and just bad urban planning.

Get informed! 
Vote smart on February 27!
Learn more by visiting www.uncchicago.org

The Uptown Neighborhood Council staged a rally at Clarendon Park on Oct., 21, commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Wilson Yard fire and what the community groups calls "dead promises" to redevelop the five-acre site that has remained empty since a fire destroyed a CTA maintenance barn Oct. 26, 1996.

The group of concerned Uptown business owners and residents has been at odds with Ald. Helen Shiller's (46) plans to redevelop the site that they say has changed drastically since plans were first presented to the community in 2004. Original plans called for a Target store, 78 subsidized housing units and 99 senior suites, as well as a multi-screen movie theater that pulled out of the project last April.

Shiller wants the site used for stores, and for-low income and "affordable" housing. The UNC says plans to include moderate-income families are nowhere to be found in the latest Illinois Development Housing Authority's 2005-2006 Low Income Housing Tax Credits Reservations rent structure breakdowns.

"Wilson Yard plans continually change for the worse," UNC president Randy Lehner told 150 Uptown residents gathered at the rally.

"We're here to tell our current city leadership that this neighborhood will not tolerate the bad urban planning that's been saddled on Uptown for the past 10 years," Lehner said to the cheering crowd.

Waving signs reading "Wilson Yard -- Ten Years of Broken Promises" and "46th Ward -- 20 years of despair" and marching to a boom box blaring New Orleans jazz, protesters carried a casket past shuttered store fronts and the Wilson Yard site to the 46th ward office at 4544 N. Broadway.

While the 46th ward office is closed on Saturdays, protesters gathered in front and inserted handwritten "broken promises" into the casket, spelling out their frustrations and what they characterize as Shiller's attempts to shut out community input into the changed Wilson Yard plans.

"Let's not look at this as a death, but as a transition to a vibrant community," UNC member and rally organizer Katharine Boyda said.

The more than 1,200 members of the UNC as well as other community groups say they want to honor the original plans of affordable mixed-housing and a movie theater.

"Alderman Shiller asks me for money, but she doesn't want to hear what I have to say," said Susan Jendrezak, who lives in Buena Park.

"People should have a stake in the community. Low income people shouldn't have to rent all their lives. It perpetuates poverty," Jendrezak.

The Wilson Yard redevelopment project is part of a $50 million tax increment financing, TIF, district, which permits the city to acquire vacant land and make infrastructure improvements so that the area becomes productive again. Plans call for two, nine-story rental buildings to be located at 1036 W. Montrose Ave. and 4400-4428 N. Broadway. One of the buildings includes 99 one-bedroom, low-income senior rental apartments, and 78 units of 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom rental units in the other.

"Affordable" units in the family building have been described as suitable for families of four, earning 80 percent of the area median household income or up to $54,000. The "affordable" housing component has been touted by the alderman and other community groups, such as Organization of the North East, ONE, as suitable for families living on a "firefighter's" or "teacher's" salaries.

The latest IDHA rent structure breakdown for the Wilson Yard project includes 16 units in the family building for families of four earning 60 percent of the area median income. The remaining 62 units are being set aside for "very low income" or "extremely low income" renters.

Further, the IDHA 2005-2006 Low Income Housing Tax Credits Reservations dated Oct., 16, 2006, does not include rent breakdowns in the family building for moderate-income families.

"Basically, you're warehousing people who range from low income to extremely low income. When you bring in the mixed-income factor you see middle-class people living with people of limited economic means, it changes the dynamic. Instead of (low income residents) feeling a sense of opportunity, it creates a sense of loss and hopelessness," said Boyda.

A petition signed by more than 2,500 46th residents opposed to what they term as "100-percent subsidized rental housing in Wilson Yard," was submitted to Mayor Daley, IDHA, the Department of Planning and Development, Shiller and other members of the Chicago City Council in 2004 and 2005.

Ten Uptown block clubs also oppose the current housing plans. The Uptown Chicago Commission has also stated in a position paper that its first preference for Wilson Yard is "housing for ownership, including affordable home ownership."

Construction of the new Aldi's supermarket has already started at the Wilson Yard site, with plans to open in December, according to developer Peter Holsten's web site. Construction on the other pieces of the project, including a Target, ancillary retail and the residential buildings, is expected to start in 2007.

Dearly Beloved, neighbors & friends…

As Randy just stated, we are gathered here today to mourn a great loss.  The Wilson Yard development—in the heart of Uptown, was supposed to be a vibrant mixed-used development, instead it’s become a mixed-up nightmare.

What’s killing Wilson Yard?

It’s dying a slow death….it’s choking on a cock-eyed design the shuts out the community and creates what one urban planner called—A future slum in Uptown.

It’s suffocating under years of neglect, poor public policy, and misguided leaders who work against the residents, not with them.  It’s drowning in a sea of political abuse of our taxpayer dollars.

We mourn the loss of sensible planning…

Where we should be welcoming a thriving new town center with brightly-lit storefront windows, outdoor cafes, public spaces….we have shear 130’ wall.

Where we should have a sparkling rehabbed Wilson El station that’s a safe Gateway into Wilson Yard…we have the dubious honor of having the stinkiest, filthiest, most neglected & dangerous El station on the north side.

We mourn the loss of good local leadership…

• Who instead of building community builds walls.
• Who instead of listening and collaborating, polarizes and shuts people out.
• Who instead of creating a thriving neighborhood through thoughtful planning, shoves her personal agenda down residents’ throats.
• Who does not know the meaning of respect, accountability and responsibility.

And so let us pray…

• That new leadership will help us focus on the quality of life in our community.
• That our alderman will stop pouring $50 million of our TIF dollars into only low income housing and use the money for other important community projects.
• That we’ll see money going to a new park field house for families & kids.
• That our El station will be restored and become a welcoming gateway to Wilson Yard and Uptown. That our community will heal and flourish with enlightened leadership

And for all of this, we can say AMEN!!!!

And now ladies &gentlemen, let us prepare to lay the Wilson Yard virtual casket to rest.  We will proceed to the Alderman’s office, down Montrose, and then north on Broadway where you’ll have the opportunity to personally express your broken promises and dreams.

Go in peace...

Click Here for an Adobe PDF of the Flyer for this event.
A full color/high ink version and a low ink usage version are included.

Please post the flyer in your buildings and help encourage a huge turnout for the event!

Location: Clarendon Park @ Montrose and Marine Drive
Date: Saturday, October 21
Time: 10:00 AM

You're invited to a very special rally commemorating the Wilson Yard 10 Year anniversary since it burned to the ground.

In October 1996, the Uptown sky was a blaze of fire as the crowds on the street watched the Wilson Yard bus barn burn to the ground.

10 years ago...the largest undeveloped piece of real estate on the north side of Chicago was created. 10 years and what do we have to show for it? Broken promises, boarded up buildings, and public drinking at the bus stops.

Show your support, speak your voice and come out to the rally:

~ Saturday, October 21
~ 10 am
~ Clarendon Park, Montrose & Marine Dr.

Let's gather together and keep the pressure on for sensible development in Uptown.

Thank you and see you at the rally!

UNC Uptown Neighborhood Council
www.uncchicago.org

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, that's all that ever has.

Listen to Randy Lehner, the UNC President, featured on a WBBM NewsRadio story about Helen Shiller's non-vote on the Big Box ordinance.  Here is the first quote from Randy - it only gets better as the story goes on...

"She chose a cowardly way out by not voting at all,” said Uptown Neighborhood Council President Randy Lehner.

Big-box debate too hot for Alderman Shiller 
From the Crain's Chicago Business Newsroom
July 27 17:02:00, 2006
By Lorene Yue and Greg Hinz
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(Crain’s) — Helen Shiller was nowhere to be found. 

As the Chicago City Council was voting on the controversial proposal to mandate a minimum wage for large-format retailers, the alderman from the 46th Ward was absent.  The measure passed 35-14, an outcome that likely robs Mayor Richard M. Daley, who opposes the ordinance, of a veto. A mayoral veto can be overridden by 34 votes.

Ms. Shiller, who is entangled in an ambitious and contentious mixed-use development in her ward, did not return phone calls Thursday for comment about her absence. A spokeswoman from her office said Ms. Shiller was not commenting to the media until after she issues a statement to her constituents. But remarks made prior to the vote suggest she was conflicted on the issue.

She told Crain’s Chicago Business on Wednesday afternoon that she couldn’t vote against the ordinance because doing so would help a “predatory” Wal-Mart Stores Inc. At the same time, Ms. Shiller said the ordinance, which phases in a minimum wage for so-called big-box retailers of $10 an hour plus $3 an hour in fringe benefits, could unfairly hurt other companies that have a better track record treating their employees than does Wal-Mart.

She said she wished both sides had sat down and negotiated a proposal that would have satisfied all involved, but the issue became polarized by Wal-Mart’s involvement.  Retailers affected by the ordinance, those with stores of at least 90,000 square feet and with $1 billion or more in annual sales, have cried foul.

Target Corp. has halted its Chicago expansion efforts, including development of a store in the Wilson Yard project located in Ms. Shiller’s ward. The project, expected to cost about $110 million, is planned for Chicago Transit Authority’s Wilson Yard property, a nearly 6-acre site at Montrose and Broadway avenues. Community residents have battled over the housing component, which would accommodate low- to moderate-income individuals. Kerasotes Theatres recently pulled the plug on a movie theater in the development, but construction is moving forward on an Aldi grocery store.

Target officials have told developers and alderman that the chain won’t open any Chicago stores should the wage ordinance pass.

UNC E-News, July 14, 2006

Wilson Yard seems to be shrinking once again.  The Kerasotas Movie Theaters' pull-out earlier this year left a big hole in the Wilson Yard Plan and that hole seems to be getting even bigger.  Target Corporation is seriously re-thinking their expansion plans for new city stores, including coming to Wilson Yard.

No movie theaters, maybe no Target.  What's left?  Not much.  Only a new Aldi's and 200 units of low-income housing remain on the drawing board.  The alderman and developer are mum as usual, leaving the community in the lurch. 

For more detail, please read the article from Crain's Chicago Business below...
___________________________________________

Target halts expansion, citing wage measure
From the Crain's Chicago Business Newsroom
July 13 18:40:00, 2006
By Alby Gallun
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(Crain's) — Target Corp. is halting plans for new stores in Chicago in response to a proposed city law that would set minimum wage and benefit levels for employees of big-box retailers.

The decision by the Minneapolis-based discount chain represents a setback for at least two high-profile retail projects in the city that were to be anchored by a Target, one on the Wilson Yard site in Uptown and another next to Interstate 57 in Morgan Park. Target told the developers of both projects last week that it won’t open stores if the law passes.

If Target pulls out, “we’d be at ground zero,” says Arturo Sneider, a partner at California-based Primestor Development Inc., which is building the 443,000-square-foot Morgan Park project. “I don't even want to think about it.”

Target has largely avoided criticism of its wage and benefit policies in the debate over the big-box ordinance as supporters of the measure have focused their ire on Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Both chains aim to expand in cities like Chicago, but union and community activists have made an example of Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart, which will open its first store here this summer.

The city has been more welcoming to Target, which has six stores here and one under construction.
Target representatives didn’t return several phone calls for comment. A Wal-Mart executive has said the company would drop its plan to open as many as 20 stores in Chicago if the proposed ordinance passes.

The measure would require that retailers with stores of 90,000 square feet or more pay employees who work there at least $10 an hour and provide minimum benefits of $3 an hour. The city council’s finance committee passed the measure June 21 and the full council is expected to vote on it July 26.

Mayor Richard M. Daley has criticized the proposal, but sponsor Alderman Joe Moore (49th) says he has enough votes to pass it and, if necessary, override a mayoral veto. He dismissed Target’s decision to suspend new development in Chicago as an idle threat.

“They obviously couldn’t win the argument on the merits so now they’re resorting to threats and scare tactics,” the alderman says. “Chicken Little is alive and well in the city of Chicago.”

Yet if Target follows through with its threat, it could hamper retail development in neighborhoods that have been largely ignored by retailers. A shopping center is hard to pull off without a large anchor tenant to bring in traffic—and attract smaller retailers.
“If Target goes, the whole thing falls apart because a lot of these tenants are contingent upon Target,” Mr. Sneider says. “It’s kind of like a house of cards.”

For Target, added costs created by the measure “would be sufficient to where this project wouldn’t work out for them financially,” he says.

The city has approved $22 million in tax-increment financing (TIF) for the Primestor project at 119th Street and I-57. Called Marshfield Plaza, the shopping center also would include a Home Depot. The home-improvement chain plans to push ahead with new stores in Chicago despite the proposed wage ordinance, a spokesman says.

Losing Target would be a big blow to the Wilson Yard project, which was supposed to include a 12-screen movie theater until Kerasotes ShowPlace Theatres LLC pulled out earlier this year. The city approved $35 million in TIF subsidies for the project, which will sit next to the Wilson Avenue elevated train station and include an Aldi grocery store and 177 affordable apartments.

“We’re just hoping that some kind of compromise can be worked out,” says Peter Holsten, developer of the Wilson Yard project.

In a new Pioneer Press News Star article, Alderman Helen Shiller shows a complete lack of respect and utter contempt for her own constituents wants and wishes for a vibrant, successful Wilson Yard development plan.

With the Wilson Yard plan being rocked by major changes, including the loss of a major anchor tenant - Kerasotes Theaters, the exiting of all developers except for Peter Holsten, and dissent from 10 area block clubs surrounding Wilson Yard, reasonable people would expect their elected officials would react by taking community members' needs and wishes to heart.  Afterall, it is these very people who are paying for the Wilson Yard development with their incremental TIF tax dollars.

Help us fight to make Wilson Yard a viable, vibrant, mixed use development everyone in Uptown can be proud of.

The text of the article...

Now that the 2,500-seat movie multiplex has pulled out of the Wilson Yard project, local leaders say the controversial redeveloment plan has changed so fundamentally that plans should be discussed from scratch.

Uptown Neighborhood Council President Randy Lehner vowed to "continue the fight through any means possibe -- legal action, protests, going to higher authorities. Whatever it takes."

Original plans called for a Target store, 78 subdidized housing units, and 99 senior suites, as well as the multi-screen theater, said Lehrer. The theater pulled out in April, claiming it needed more space and didn't want to be located above the Target store, which is now also an "iffy" proposition, Lehner said.

"The theater was the one part of the project the community was solidly behind, while the (low-income) housing was the thing that divided the community the most. So the theater gets dropped and the housing is pushed forward," Lehner said after a recent meeting with Alderman Helen Shiller, 46th, and city Planning and Development Commissioner Lori Healy.

Unfortunately, he said, "the bottom line is that the alderman and the city don't see the need for any more public meetings on this plan," even though Lehrer says the plan is not the same one the community has been discussing for more than five years.

"There are no major changes in the plan" even though the movie house is out of the picture . "It's not a big deal. You replace it (the theater) with retail," said Shiller.

The future of Wilson Yard has split the Uptown community since a 1996 blaze destroyed the CTA repair barns beween Broadway, Montrose, the McJunkin building, and the Red Line tracks. Shiller wants the site used for stores and low-income and "affordable" housing, while the UNC has been pushing for a mixed-income development with mostly market-rate units.

But the fight is far from over, said Lehrer, who vowed to mobilize his 1,200-member organization to use "any means possible."

"To plunk down 180 new units of subdidized housing in the middle of a census tract that is already about 40 percent below the poverty level, and a much higher percentage of renters than owners is just poor urban planning," he said.

"So what. He (Lehner) seems to think there's a problem with people who are poor. I don't think so. If he wants to live in an exclusive community, he should move somewhere else," Shiller said.

"Even though the Planned Development allows for 195 units, (developer Peter Holstein) is sticking with 178 units. The majority of them, nearly 100, will be one-bedroom apartments for seniors. God forbid we should have 100 poor seniors running around Uptown.

"The other building has one-, two-, and three- bedroom apartments at levels ranging from low-income to affordable, with guidelines elastic enough to allow a family of four making $45,000 a year to live there," Shiller said.

Lehner said the UNC wants an urban planner to take an impartial look at the Wilson Yard project, a "truly representative oversight committee made up of people from the block clubs, not just those who agree with the alderman," and also wants a "whole new public approval process."

Shiller said the plan came out of at least 10 community meetings beyond what was legally required, and that everyone with something to say had a chance to be heard.

"It's not a big deal. You replace it (the theater) with retail."

Alderman Helen Shiller, 46th

Randy Lehner, President of the Uptown Neighborhood Council, responded to Helen Shiller's recent comments in the Pioneer Press Star-News regarding Wilson Yard and the 1200 member-strong UNC. 

Please support the UNC and Randy today through a small donation...

Randy's letter to the editor:

To the Editor:

After reading the May 31, 2006, News Star front page article, "Wilson Yard causes community clash," I was stunned and dismayed by Ald. Helen Shiller's disgusting and unprofessional comments that personally attacked me.  To tell any member of her constituency that "he should move somewhere else," if he disagrees with her policies and plans for the neighborhood is wrong.

Shiller's role, as an elected official, should be to build consensus around important community issues, like Wilson Yard.   So what does she do instead?  She repeatedly tries to divide this community and demonize those who do not agree with her policies and plans. Shiller was elected to represent all 46th ward residents, not just those who share her personal philosophy.

Shiller's statement that I "seem to think there's a problem with people who are poor," is wrong and completely unfounded.  The problem that many Uptown residents have, including myself, is with Shiller's complete lack of urban planning for this ward and her attempts to exclude those people in the community who do not agree with her. Shiller's plan for Wilson Yard, which will continue to concentrate poverty in Uptown, hurts all residents, including the thousands of low-income people in our community.

While the rest of the City has recognized the benefits of real mixed-income housing as a component in revitalizing neighborhoods, Shiller continues to promote the failed idea of the past -- that concentrating the poor in large apartment buildings is the right thing to do. By doing so, she continues to ignore the views of many Uptown "stakeholders," one of her favorite terms, as she forges ahead with her own personal agenda that guarantees Uptown will continue to have failing schools, limited job opportunities, and empty storefronts.

Thousands of Uptown residents, including myself and all UNC members, will continue to fight against the terrible urban planning and policies that Shiller has pushed upon this community.   We will continue to do so in a respectful manner.  We only hope she will do the same in the future.

Working for a revitalized Uptown,

Randall D. Lehner
Uptown Neighborhood Council President

To all UNC members and supporters:

Randy Lehner and Abby Sullivan met with Commissioner Lori Healey from the Dept. of Planning, Ald. Helen Shiller and Don Hoehnadel assigned to the Wilson Yard Project, this past Friday, for what was hoped to be an honest discussion about Wilson Yard and community concerns.

Randy and Abby reviewed the key concerns about the Wilson Yard Plan:

• Loss of the #1 requested tenent, the movie theaters
• Extreme density with a 140' sheer wall along Broadway
• Winter traffic study that doesn't reflect peak summer traffic grid-lock
• Further concentration of neighborhood poverty with 5,600 subsidized rentals by bringing more very low-income rentals - see the Illinois Housing Development Authority's rent structure breakdown for Wilson Yard here
• Lack of communication on these major changes

Did Shiller and Healey really want an honest dialog?  We don't think so. Their repeated responses sounded like a broken record, commenting that we were misinformed about the project, yet responded with silence when Randy asked them to provide information on how we were misinformed?

When asked why there has been no community meeting for almost two years, Shiller stated she didn't need to hold community meetings because she talked to the people in the community.  When the graphic was presented showing 10 Uptown block clubs, representing over 2,000 residents, who submitted letters opposing the housing -  see the block club opposition graphic here - Healey responded that the block club presidents were misinformed by UNC. Again, when asked how we were misinformed, the response was dead silence.

Randy and Abby asked that the entire WY plan be sent through the public reapproval process in light of these significant changes, especially since the last amended changes to the plan clearly state that Kerasotes would be an anchor tenant. Healey replied that the framework was in place, they were happy with it, and the plan would move ahead. Shiller stated that the movie theaters were never a major component of the plan--they were always just an after thought. 

Healey was silent again when asked why all the submitted questions on Wilson Yard had never been answered in writing.  Her second favorite response was to state that UNC had continually misinformed people and that's why so many people sent her letters.

UNC has always carefully taken its information from the numerous Wilson Yard amended changes, since the Alderman and Department of Planning don't care to keep us informed. Randy pointed this out to Healey and was once again met with dead silence.

The we-don't-care-about-the-community tone continued as Randy asked that a TIF oversight board be created and all the Wilson Yard block clubs' presidents  be invited to join. Shiller replied that she had formed a WY task force make up of the "stakeholders" in the community that include ONE, COURAJ, the Uptown Chamber and others.

It's crystal clear that Commissioner Healey and Ald. Shiller don't believe that Uptown residents deserve a real voice in what goes into Wilson Yard in the heart of our community.  They believe there's no need to keep us informed on the major changes to the plan, and they will not submit the WY plan to any reapproval process.  They have our TIF tax dollars and they'll spend them as they choose.

The meeting ended abuptly when Healey got up and walked out of the room without any comment.  So where does that leave us? It's clear how little our Alderman and City officials care about community participation in the TIF planning process.  They brushed off the #1 requested movie theaters, and continue to push for more subsidized housing.

What's next?  It's clear that Uptown citizens writing letters doesn't matter.  As we see it, here are some of the most obvious choices:

• Explore grounds for a lawsuit.  This will take money to hire a zoning attorney. Is this something you are willing to support? 
• Get serious about finding and electing a new alderman who truly listens, communicates and builds community consensus
• Target is not committed to Wilson Yard, no letter of intent.  Any community campaign to discourage Target from Wilson Yard would topple the entire plan.

A survey will go out next week for your ideas and input.  In the meantime--if you want to express your opinions, outrage, whatever, you can post a comment at www.uncchicago.org on the home page comments.  Or for a more active dialog, visit www.buenaparkneighbors.org message board under Wilson Yard.

And remember....Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, that is the only thing that ever has.

Uptown Neighborhood Council
P.O. Box 13324
Chicago, IL  60613
Email:  unc.chicago@gmail.com
Web:  www.uncchicago.org

Working for balanced economic development, cultural and arts enrichment, and sensible community planning in Uptown

It appears the city's Department of Planning and Development has been sending replies to the Wilson Yard letters sent to Lori Healey.

An Adobe PDF of the letter can be found Here.

Feel free to use the comments feature of our web site to express your thoughts...

David Roeder of the Sun Times has written an article that we think everyone should read.  There have been many changes to the Wilson Yard plan, both physical and financial.  Mr. Roeder notes the latest change.

Shiller on tightrope over development plan in Uptown

April 12, 2006

BY DAVID ROEDER SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

Ald. Helen Shiller (46th) is a defiant warrior. Elected in 1987 with the backing of Mayor Harold Washington, who needed another vote in the City Council, Shiller has proven herself as a political survivor, toning down her old leftist rhetoric as her ward has gentrified but without alienating her core support, lower-income voters for whom Uptown has been a refuge.

She's being put to the test now with Wilson Yard, a development site at Montrose and Broadway that is empty. The emptiness scares residents on either side of the gentrification issue. It's only about 5 acres, yet it contains 500 acres worth of neighborhood aspirations, jealousies, political agendas and developer calculations.

In an agreement larded with government subsidies, the city sold the former Chicago Transit Authority property to a partnership headed by Holsten Real Estate Development Corp. Or at least it once was a partnership; others have dropped out and now Holsten is pretty much all that's left.

A respected builder of mixed-income housing, Holsten has been unable to get a project started there, despite the grease of city- and state-backed loans. Work on the site has started for an Aldi grocery store, a separate land deal, but Holsten cannot begin construction on the housing because his part is all one big design. He's negotiating details of commercial space with Target, but no contracts have been signed.

Last week, a group organizing around the new wealth in the ward, the Uptown Neighborhood Council, drew about 300 people to a meeting about Wilson Yard, an impressive feat. Shiller and Holsten were invited but didn't show. The group's president, Randy Lehner, assailed the project for its reliance on subsidized rental housing, the lack of definition for its retail component and its dependence on public money to allegedly shove something down the public's throat.

Most in the crowd agreed. They were mostly young, educated and some spoke of being fairly new to the neighborhood. There was talk about writing protest letters and registering to vote for the aldermanic election next year.

Shiller's ears must have burned in absentia. She knows an aldermanic candidacy is lurking in the tweeds.

In an interview, she offered two reasons for not showing up: a family responsibility and certainty that it was a kangaroo court. She said council members adopted a bullying tone in trying to get the appointment with her staff. "I would have been at their meeting if they hadn't threatened me, if they had stopped their lying about this project," Shiller said.

Chief among her objections is their use of the term "low income," or close variations, to describe the housing. It's meant to conjure images of Chicago Housing Authority high-rises. "The CHA won't rent to people who earn more than 30 percent of median [Chicago area] income," she said. "This project will rent to people with 30 percent, 50 percent and 80 percent of median income."

She said a family of four can qualify for the apartments with an income of up to $54,000, twice as much as the upper limit for living in public housing.

Shiller also insisted that the retail aspect is financially secure, with the Target deal as good as cinched. Despite numerous alterations to the project, "Target is still at the table, spending money. Their commitment is there," she said.

The alterations took place because a movie complex was added to the mix, then it dropped out on rising costs. Critics of Wilson Yard wanted the theaters and also think they've been sold a bill of goods on the housing. Endless planning meetings and "charrettes," the favored term of those who confuse dialogue for decisiveness, produced agreement on "mixed income" housing for Wilson Yard.

That implies some market-rate homes. But Holsten's partner as a market-rate builder, Kenard Corp., exited the deal. Holsten said it was because the costs "didn't pencil out." With the level of subsidies in this deal, $35 million in tax-increment financing for a $115 million project, it's hard to imagine why.

Aldermen, with extraordinary power over zoning, can steer projects to their liking. And I've talked to developers who bypass Uptown because of the hazards of dealing with Shiller.

She insisted that she's true to her promises of giving Uptown's diverse groups something, but not all, that they want out of Wilson Yard.

Her goal, she said, is to foster "development without displacement."

Her critics will portray Shiller as showing tolerance for conditions many other neighborhoods would rise up against. The neighborhood group's meeting last week displayed the contrasts: privilege and property ownership inside the Wilson Avenue meeting space. Outside, vagrants and a transient hotel owned by a Shiller supporter that in past elections has been a convenient receptacle for suspicious voter registrations.

I asked Shiller if she will run again, as many residents I encountered were unsure of her plans. "Yes," she said. "I made the decision more than a year ago. I need another term to finish several important projects."

Crime is down, she said, and for those who complain about the panhandlers, "we have less of that than downtown does," she said.

Shiller will have to take that stance to voters who, like those in many Chicago neighborhoods, often feel there's no real alternative between pricing out the poor or living with drive-bys and board-ups.

How can we keep up the momentum we've experienced in the past week? We have three action items we are working on at the UNC, and we need you to participate in all of them:

1. Voter Registration - Make your voice heard at the ballot box!
2. Letter Writing/Faxing Campaign - Let your city officials know that you support the UNC and our cause regarding Wilson Yard.
3. Fund Raising - Voter registration drives, community meeting room rentals, and political advocacy require financial backing. Help us by giving a few dollars.

It has been requested that we post the slide presentation from Tuesday night's Wilson Yard meeting.  Ask, and you shall receive...

You can find the presentation here in Adobe PDF format.

At the Wilson Yard community meeting tonight, a letter was made available for concerned residents to sign and have sent to Lori Healey, the City of Chicago's Commissioner of Planning and Development, as well as other government officials.

If you were not at the meeting, or would like to have an electronic copy of the letter, an Adobe PDF version can be found here.

Please take action today!

Fax or mail a signed copy of the Wilson Yard letter to Comissioner Lori Healey and the other government officials. Let them know what action you want taken to assure the community's concerns are addressed on this imporant community development.

Fax or Mail Letters to:

Lori Healey
Commissioner, Department of Planning & Development
121 N. LaSalle St. Suite 1111
Chicago, IL 60602
Fax 312-742-9899

Mara Georges
City Hall Corporation Counsel
121 N. LaSalle Room 600
Chicago, IL 60602
Fax: 312-744-8538

Ron Huberman
City Hall
121 N. LaSalle St. Room 509
Chicago, IL 60602
Fax: 312-744-7557

William Holland
Illinois Auditor General
160 N. LaSalle St. Suite S-900
Chicago, IL 60601
Fax: 312-814-4006

Alderman Helen Shiller
4544 N. Broadway
Chicago, IL 60640
Fax: 773-878-4920

Wilson Yard Report Card

How well have our City officials, the Alderman and the Wilson Yard Developer done in honoring the Wilson Yard TIF Redevelopment Goal & Objectives as outlined in the agreement?  As a TIF taxpayer, here’s a report on how your property tax contributions are being spent as of April 2006.

Goals & Objectives

Goal:  Create a vibrant and cohesive mixed-use and mixed-income development

Objectives
Facilitate the assembly, preparation, and marketing of vacant and underutilized sites for new retail, commercial, light industrial, and residential development, and off-street parking areas, and provide for corrective actions to address environmental problems to permit development and redevelopment, as needed and appropriate

Grade: F, Complete lack of mixed-use components that clearly lays out a sensible plan for retail, commercial or light industrial development. 

Facilitate the redevelopment of the CTA Wilson Yard site in accordance with the Redevelopment Plan in a way that fits within and enhances the overall attractiveness of the community in terms of architectural style, Broadway-oriented street frontage, and pedestrian orientation, and is consistent with the McJunkin building (3-stories) in terms of height, scale and setback.

Grade:  F, This massive, 130’ structure completely overpowers the surrounding neighborhood, the stark design closes out the community with a sheer masonry wall without store-front windows, the narrowing of the sidewalks negatively impacts pedestrian safety and the Montrose/Broadway corner does not serve as a gateway to a vibrant retail street.

Support the preservation and rehabilitation of existing multi-family and affordable housing throughout the R.P.A. and support the development of new for-sale and rental housing that could include a mixture of market rate units and units for moderate, low, and very low income households

Grades:  F, No preservation or rehab of existing residential housing
F, No for-sale housing
F, No market rate housing
F, No mixture of market-rate and low-income
A, Low income housing

Coordinate the goals of this redevelopment plan with the goals and objectives of other underlying redevelopment plans and planning studies where appropriate, and coordinate available federal, state, and local resources, as appropriate

Grade: Incomplete and doubtful, No funding or discussion of rehab of the dilapidated Wilson El station as part of a broad-based transportation plan; no coordinated effort with Lawrence/Broadway TIF

Encourage the preservation and rehabilitation of retail and commercial businesses, institutional uses, and architectural and/or historically significant buildings or districts in the R.P.A.

Grade: Incomplete, Unclear if preservation or rehabilitation will be done

Retain the economic and cultural diversity of the population in the R.P.A. and support the preservation of existing community residences and businesses by ameliorating the potential negative impacts, including displacement, that new development may have on existing community residents and businesses

Grade: Not applicable for residents, since not one residence was displaced.  Incomplete, for businesses, as existing businesses have all been relocated.

Support the relocation of the CTA facilities on the Wilson Yard, as appropriate, to carry out the other objectives of the Redevelopment Plan

Grade: A, the CTA has moved out

Facilitate the improvement and expansion of existing public facilities as needed, such as Arai and Stewart Schools and area parks

Grade: C, Closing of Kenmore in front of Stewart School to create park.  No funds projected for the rehab of the dilapidated Clarendon Field House.

Encourage the improvement of the physical condition along Broadway between Wilson and Montrose Ave. including the rehabilitation of commercial buildings, the development of vacant and underutilized properties, provision of streetscaping and beautification elements, and the removal of driveways and curb cuts where possible and appropriate

Grade: Incomplete, but no plans have been presented to the community to rehab existing deteriorating buildings

Encourage streetscaping, landscaping, and screening/buffering elements to visually link the area’s diverse land uses and create a distinct identity for the area, as appropriate

Grade: Incomplete, but no detailed plans have been presented to the community to address this objective

Replace or repair infrastructure where needed, including sidewalks, streets, curbs, gutters, underground water and sanitary systems, and viaducts to improve the overall image of the neighborhood and support new development and redevelopment of the R.P.A., and provide resources for the extension of Sunnyside Ave. west of Broadway

Grade:  Incomplete

Encourage improvements in accessibility for persons with disabilities

Grade:  Incomplete

Promote opportunities for women-owned, minority-owned, and locally owned businesses to share in job and construction opportunities associated with the Wilson Yard R.P.A.

Grade: Incomplete

Support job training programs and increase employment opportunities, including welfare-to-work programs for area residents and individuals working in area businesses.

Grade: Incomplete

From David Roeder's Sun Times column today...

CALENDAR NOTE: Opinions are boiling again in Uptown over changes in the plan for Wilson Yard, the former CTA property at Wilson and Broadway. It's become a neighborhood version of the Block 37 debacle. Kerasotes Theaters and some senior housing providers have pulled out of the deal, leaving only low-income housing and an Aldi.

The Uptown Neighborhood Council is planning what it says is the first community meeting on the project in more than 18 months. It will be at 7 p.m. April 4 at Hull House, 1136 W. Wilson, and Ald. Helen Shiller (46th) and city planning officials have been invited.

The Uptown Neighborhood Council has planned a community meeting regarding the latest changes at Wilson Yard.  The meeting will be on Tuesday, April 4th, 2006 at 7 PM at Hull House, located at 1136 W Wilson Avenue.  The UNC has invited 46th Ward Alderwoman Helen Shiller, Peter Holsten, the developer of Wilson Yard, and a representative from the City of Chicago's Planning and Development Department to attend the meeting.

An excerpt from the press release...

The Wilson Yard project has been extremely controversial from the very beginning of the development process, with residents’ concerns either ignored or swept aside as the plan underwent major changes. From the very beginning of this project, Uptown residents have challenged the proposed plan that has been shoved through without gaining consensus from those who are paying for the project and will be impacted by the many problems associated with this proposed plan,” said Randy Lehner, president of Uptown Neighborhood Council (UNC), which has actively worked to assure the plan creates the “vibrant and cohesive mixed-use, mixed-income development” originally promised.

You can read the full press release for the Wilson Yard community meeting here.

Here is primer on Tax Increment Financing districts...

http://www.illinois-tif.com/faqs.htm

Are your "incremental tax dollars" paying for the Wilson Yard project?  If you live within the area decpicted below, the answer is "YES"!

Timeline and Major Activities

This is a snapshot of the major activities and timeline for the Wilson Yard TIF.  It provides a quick, easy overview of this complex 10-year process.  Please note: The Wilson Yard TIF boundaries are shown on the TIF Map. Additional resources are listed for those interested in learning more.

Additional Resources

www.ncbg.org for detailed information on TIFs—includes TIF Lowdown and Taking Action
www.uptownchicagocommission.org for details on all Uptown TIF Redevelopment Plans, including:  Wilson Yard, Lawrence & Broadway, Clark & Montrose
www.cityofchicago.org, Click on Your Ward & Alderman, go to Home page for Ward 46

• 1996—Wilson Yard CTA Bus Barn burns down
• 1997—Wilson Yard Redevelopment Task force established
• 1998-2000—Wilson Yard Discussions held on August 20, 1998 (45 participants) and August 22, 1998 (38 participants)
• Public Charettes held in 2000
• 2000—Community survey conducted, 91% of responses site retail as top choices
• October 6, 2000 Wilson Yard Redevelopment TIF Eligibility Study & Redevelopment Plan is issued.  Plan excerpts are available at www.uptownchicagocommission.org under TIFS
• October 2000—Wilson Yard TIF Redevelopment Draft introduced at CDC and City Council
• September 25, 2000—First Wilson Yard Community meeting held at Truman College
• January 2001—Wilson Yard TIF introduced to City Council
• February 2001—Wilson Yard TIF considered at Finance Committee meeting
• April 15, 2002—RFQ issued by City for Wilson Yard Developers
• October 2002—Holsten Real Estate Development is selected as the Master Developer
• February 2004—Community meeting, Shiller announces Wilson Yard housing will be 100% subsidized housing, not mixed-income housing as stated in the TIF Development Plan.
• July 2004—2,421 Uptown residents sign petition opposing Wilson Yard housing
• July 2004—Uptown residents rally for Affordable Artists’ Housing at Wilson Yard
• October 2004—Community meeting with Shiller, Holsten and Dept. of Planning & Development unveils 13-story complex with two subsidized housing developments with 141 units, 2,200 seat movie complex, Target, small retail space, with parking garage 900+ cars
• 2005—Wilson Yard goes before various City Council committees seeking additional approvals and funding.  Two senior housing providers pull out.  Holsten named senior housing operator. TIF housing funding increased to $35 million without community input.
• December 2005—UNC requests a Wilson Yard Community Meeting
• March 2006—Movie theater operator pulls out of Wilson Yard

See Wilson Yard TIF Boundary Map for details on TIF area

by Angela Caputo

News-Star March 8, 2006 Edition

The Wilson Yard project has taken off, but after several rounds of talks with cinema companies, Peter Holsten said he’s unable to get a movie theater off the ground and has decided to cut it loose.

With steadily increasing project costs—current estimates were coming in up to $8 million higher than the $18 million that the Chicago-based Kerasotes was willing to pay—the project turned out to be just too expensive, according to Alderman Helen Shiller, D-46th. Kerasotes also backed out of the deal after deciding that they wanted to develop a theater far bigger than the maximum 2,500 seats that could be squeeze into the site, Shiller added.

If the movie theater had gone in at street level it probably would have worked, Holsten said.  But the plan called for building the cineplex above the Target store, with a lobby that would draw patrons in at street-level.

“That movie theater was the single biggest thing that people wanted in the area."
-- Randy Lehner

In the absence of the cineplex, between 30,000 and 40,000 square-feet of retail space is going to be added to the project.  And that has recently sent architects “back to the drawing board” to reconfigure the site, Holsten said. With the movie theater lobby gone, “We’re hoping that we’re going to free up a considerable amount of street-level retail.” he added.

Target is also looking at reconfiguring their site to build parking above-ground, rather than below ground, he added.

The number of parking spaces, proposed to fit the theater’s needs, will stay the same, which Shiller said should ultimately be a boon for local businesses beyond the five-acre Wilson Yard..

“One of our biggest problems historically has been parking,” Shiller said.  “This is going to allow us in a domino sort of way to build support for (neighboring) retail…and create the infrastructure we need to create a healthy entertainment district.”

Pointing to a glut of unoccupied commercial space in the area already, Randy Lehner, president of the civic group, the Uptown Neighborhood Council, said he’s not so confident that the new outlets will be attractive to new retailers.

“It’s next to senior housing, what type of retail is going to move there?”  From the early planning stages, members of the Uptown Neighborhood Council have opposed the scores of affordable senior and family housing planned for the site.

The UNC is calling for the developer to dump the affordable housing component and make the theater work instead.

“That movie theater was the single biggest thing that people wanted in the area,” Lehner said.  “Now its seems that some people aren’t getting anything that they wanted.”  Considering that the theater project—aside from acquisition and remediation costs—wasn’t eligible for TIF funding, the project wouldn’t have been viable without out the housing component, according to Shiller.

And Holsten, who will own and manage the entire site, barring the Target and Aldi stores, said already he is seeing strong interest from potential retailers, including restaurants and banks, looking to move into a booming neighborhood and that he’s not at all concerned about filling storefronts.

Have you ever wondered how much money is in the Wilson Yard TIF?  Almost $10 million has been collected in property taxes as of December 2004. The 2004 Wilson Yard TIF financial data is excerpted here . The 2005 TIF Annual Report will be available in June 2006.

The "incremental" tax dollars generated by the community are significant...  Download the 2004 Annual Report Here (1.8 Mb) - Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Condensed Comparative Financial Statements

April 27, 2005

BY DAVID ROEDER SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

CTA officials were in Springfield on Tuesday looking for money. They need it, considering how they mismanage real estate assets.

The transit agency has agreed to sell to a developer, with the city as an intermediary, its Wilson Yard site at Broadway and Montrose. The overall 5.7-acre site is going for $6.6 million and includes property not CTA-owned. Most of it is, however, and the price per square foot works out to around $40.

Experts in the Uptown property market said the property went way too cheap. A check of recent land sales in the area showed an average sales price of $75 a square foot. The site will be turned over to developers who plan 141 subsidized homes, a Target, Aldi and movie theaters in a projected $113 million complex.

City officials defend the price as matching an appraised value and allowing for construction of "affordable'' housing. But the site, bounded by two busy commercial streets and the CTA Red Line, wouldn't exactly be the quietest place to live.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has refused to back a senior high-rise at the site, causing one developer to back out of the project.

The CTA played along with Uptown politics and paid for it. If it advertised for the highest bidder years ago, it would have its money, probably more of it, and Uptown would have a new retail anchor for a decrepit commercial strip.

If the CTA’s broke, how can it afford to let Wilson Yard go for below market value?

By Ben Joravsky
Chicago Reader, April 25, 2005

CTA officials say the agency is so broke they’ll have to cut service, raise fares, and fire employees unless the state bails it out. If that’s true, say Uptown residents who’ve been poring over the financial details of the Wilson Yard development, why is the CTA selling the north-side lot the development will sit on for so little?

CTA officials have been dodging that question for months. “They’re selling valuable property to subsidize a housing project,” says Katharine Boyda, a member of the Uptown Neighborhood Council, which opposes the project. “Tell me, how can the CTA afford to subsidize real estate deals when they can’t afford to run their trains and buses?”

Wilson Yard is a vacant trash-filled 5.7-acre lot bordered by Montrose, Wilson, Broadway, and an abandoned track to the west of the Red Line -- the site of a bus barn until it burned in 1996. For the past six years, 46th Ward alderman Helen Shiller has been leading an effort to build subsidized housing there, and last year Mayor Daley and the planning department signed on. The project includes two ten-story low-income residential high-rises -- one for seniors, the other for families -- along with a 2,000-seat movie theater, a parking garage, and a 185,000-square-foot Target store. It’s already been awarded to Peter Holsten, a local developer who specializes in mixed-income developments.

From the outset nearby residents have been furious that Shiller wants to cram more low-income housing into Uptown, which already has the highest concentration of subsidized housing on the north side. They aren’t happy about the financing either. The city estimates the project will cost $113 million, $26.5 million of which will come from out of the local Tax Increment Financing District fund. (TIFs freeze the amount of property taxes the city gets from each district -- money that pays for schools, parks, and other public services -- and reserve revenue from subsequent tax hikes to pay for neighborhood development.) The rest of the Wilson Yard project will be funded by various federal and state programs -- and the CTA, which will subsidize the deal by selling the lot for less than it’s worth.

CTA officials insist that they’re getting a good deal. At a community meeting in February, CTA president Frank Kruesi said the agency was selling the land at “market rates.” And in a recent press release he said the agency “has worked tirelessly to control costs and find additional avenues for generating revenue. The sale of this surplus property is an example of the CTA’s successful efforts to increase operating revenue.”

CTA board chairman Carole Brown goes a step further. “Selling Wilson Yard at market rate enables the CTA to maximize the value of this resource, as well as add much-needed revenue to its operating budget,” she said in the same press release. Without the revenue from this anticipated sale, CTA’s 2005 Gridlock budget proposal would have contained even more substantial service cuts.”

So what exactly is the deal the CTA’s making? Well, in its original request for proposals and at subsequent public meetings, the agency said it was selling 5.7 acres, or about 248,000 square feet. But Shiller told me Tuesday that it wound up selling only 3.79 acres, or about 164,000 square feet, and holding on to land west of the tracks. Either way, recent sales in the neighborhood suggest that the CTA is taking less than the market rate in hot Uptown.

At $6.6 million for 5.7 acres, the price of Wilson Yard is about $27 a square foot. For 3.76 acres, it’s about $40 a square foot. By contrast, three lots in the 4600 block of North Kenmore went for $111.39 a square foot. The two lots at 4701 North Clark went for $84.64 a square foot, the lot at 4831 North Winthrop for $98.67 a square foot. At the low end of the spectrum was the site of the old Rainbo Roller Rink at 4830 North Clark -- $54.28 a square foot, two years ago.

“Any way you look at it, the CTA sold for less,” says Boyda. “The CTA’s selling the property at bargain-basement prices at a time when it’s nearly bankrupt. If they sold all 5.7 acres for top dollar, they’d generate about $24 million -- almost half of their deficit.”

Real estate experts say it isn’t always fair to compare property prices within the same neighborhood, because each piece has its own peculiarities. “The Wilson Yard doesn’t have a lot of frontage, so that works against it -- and it’s right against the el tracks, so that has some limitations,” says one Uptown real estate salesman who wanted to keep his name out of this fight. “But on the positive side, it’s got great location. It’s next to the el stop, which. makes it very convenient for a shopping mall or residents. If the CTA had put it out for competitive bids, they’d have gotten a lot more.... Put it this way -- I wish I could have had it for that.”

Kruesi and Brown say they have an appraisal from an unnamed real estate consultant saying they’re getting a good price for the land. The Uptown Neighborhood Council filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get the appraisal, but the CTA denied it on the grounds that it can’t release “records, documents and information relating to real estate purchase negotiations until those negotiations have been completed or otherwise terminated.”

Council members protested that the CTA board had already voted to sell the land, but Olga Domeher, the CTA’s Freedom of information officer, wrote back in an email that they couldn’t have the appraisal because “the real estate closing has not taken place.”

“They say they have an appraisal that proves they’re selling the land at market rate. We say, ‘OK, show it,”” says Boyda. “They say, ‘File a FOIA request.’ So we file it and they say, ‘Sorry, we can’t show you the appraisal until after the deal is done.’ Well, what good is it then? What’s the point of publicizing information after it’s irrelevant? They’re stonewalling -- they’re waiting until it’s too late to stop them.” Developer Peter Holsten did not return calls for comment.

Politicians and other City Hall insiders say the deal is Daley’s reward to Shiller. Throughout the 90s she was one of the mayor’s sharpest critics, and she wasn’t afraid to vote against his programs or budget. But in the last election, she supported him, and he supported her. She’s voted for his last two budgets and stayed out of fights that would pit her against him. She wouldn’t, for instance, help activists a few years ago in their unsuccessful battle to save the old Plymouth Hotel. “Control over projects like this is the courtesy Daley gives aldermen -- it’s the last vestige of power they have,” says one city planner. “He’s giving her the green light on this stuff so Shiller will keep her mouth shut in the council.”

Shiller says there was no quid pro quo on the Wilson Yard deal. “It’s obviously easier for me to communicate with the administration today than ten years ago,” she says. But “I don’t play games, I don’t like being cute. The issue has always been much more broad: what’s best for the ward.” Daley, she says, supports the plan on its merits, not because she endorsed him. “Whenever the mayor sees me, he raises Wilson Yard -- ‘how’s the block going?’”

Now, it’s laudable that the city wants to build low-income housing -- though concentrating so much of it in this corner of Uptown is at odds with Daley’s general policy of replacing low-income high-rises with mixed-income, low-rise homes. But the CTA clearly doesn’t have the money to subsidize it.

Despite Daley’s support, the project isn’t a done deal. The not-for-profit that signed on to manage the seniors’ building recently pulled out rather than deal with all the federal regulations governing the site. And the state hasn’t yet agreed to finance the family high-rise.

Holsten and Shiller’s people say they hope to break ground in the fall. Boyda and her allies hope the deal falls apart so everyone can start over -- including the CTA.

April 5, 2005

E-mail send by Shiller Chief of Staff Maggie Marystone:

Open Letter from Alderman Shiller to the UNC

Do you want a Target and/or a Movie Theater? If you do, affordable housing is part of the package at Wilson Yard. The three are inextricably connected because each is necessary for the other to make the financing work. A recent email from the UNC encourages people to contact IHDA to oppose the tax credits for this project. At least know that saying no to the tax credits is also saying no to the movie theaters, the Target, 16,000 square feet of small retail and a small business incubator.

Helen Shiller
Alderman, 46th Ward

December 6, 2004

Market Rate Sale Provides Significant Revenue for CTA Operating Budget

“Selling Wilson Yard at market rate enables the CTA to maximize the value of this resource, as well as add much needed revenue to its operating budget,” said Chicago Transit Board Chairman Carole Brown.

Ten Uptown Block Clubs that oppose the 100% subsidized Wilson Yard housing, representing more than 2,000 residents, signed and presented letters to Mayor Daley, Alderman Helen Shiller, and the Chicago Department of Planning & Development in 2004.  The block club boundaries are depicted in the 46th Ward Map below.

Roeder's column in the May 4 2004, Sun Times continues to question the CTA on selling this valuable property for below-market price.  How can the CTA give away its real estate while begging for money to keep operating its trains and buses?  Roeder would be wise to pursue Shiller's comment responding to the plan's subsidized housing--"that element allows for financing techniques that make the commercial aspects of the development viable."  Since when did Target depend on subsidized housing for financing?

RIP TIDE: Your friendly real estate columnist is either in a bad mood, or there are too many targets out there worth ripping.  Here goes:

CTA--My thanks to the many readers who responded to last week's rip of the CTA for selling its Wilson Yard property in Uptown for what appears to be a below-market price, even as the agency is pleading poverty before state lawmakers.  Uptown neighborhood groups are livid that the CTA sold the land based on an appraisal, but won't say who performed it or release a copy.

Ald. Helen Shiller (46th), doesn't like the CTA secrecy, but she defended the deal in a chat with me on Tuesday.  For selling 3.7 acres ( a correction, not the 5.7 acres I reported last week), the CTA got about $40 a square foot, far below the market value of other comparable sales.  Shiller said the price is fair compared with what private owners are getting for their two acres that also make up the site.  Those parcels, unlike the CTA's, have frontage on Broadway near Montrose.  Critics focus on the plan's subsidized housing, but Shiller said that element allows for financing techniques that make the commercial aspects of the development viable.

But there's much about this deal that's alien to how a private transaction works. The private owners are getting about $78 a square foot, according to figures from Shiller's office.  There's too great a disparity between that and the CTA's $40, when the CTA land is as essential to the deal as anything else.

And this is from an agency with a record of shady land deals, notably a 1999 transaction that let Mayor Daley dining chum Michael Marchese spend $1 for 20 acres at 4801 W. North that he turned into a busy shopping plaza.