Nov. 12–A key parcel on the south end of Chicago’s Magnificent Mile appears headed for redevelopment in an ambitious project that would include a high-end hotel, condominiums, offices and stores between North Michigan Avenue and Wabash Avenue.
The National Association of Realtors’ board of directors unanimously voted Monday to move forward with a preliminary plan to replace the group’s headquarters building, 430 N. Michigan Ave., and space to the west with 1 million to 2 million square feet of building and plaza space, confirmed Stephanie Singer, a spokeswoman for the association.
The project would turn the building “into a world-class property that is intended to become the next destination building in the iconic Chicago skyline,” Singer said in an email.
Singer declined additional comment, saying that many details need to be worked out and that no decisions are final.
A partner on the project was not identified, but much of the land involved is owned by a consortium led by BDT Capital Partners, which acquired 1.5 acres bordered by Hubbard Street, Illinois Street, Rush Street and Wabash as part of its $33 million purchase of the Wrigley Building in September 2011 from Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. That parcel, which includes a parking lot and the shuttered Lakeshore Athletic Club building, is included in a map of the proposed project that was shown during the Realtors’ meeting.
A spokeswoman for BDT Capital Partners, the investment firm headed by Byron Trott, did not respond to a request for comment.
The national Realtors’ group owns its 50-year-old building, the exterior of which was immortalized on television in the 1970s as the office where Bob Newhart worked in “The Bob Newhart Show.” In late 2011, the association acquired the building just behind it to the west — it houses the restaurant 437 Rush — from Wrigley for $1.45 million.
A redevelopment would temporarily force the Realtors to relocate, but ultimately, the association would own 180,000 square feet in the redeveloped project, in addition to an undetermined ownership stake, Singer said.
The Billy Goat Tavern, which has been in its current subterranean location under Michigan Avenue since 1964, also would be at least temporarily displaced, Singer said. But she said board members at the group’s San Francisco meeting Monday were reassured that accommodations would be made for the tavern. Owner Sam Sianis was not available for comment Monday evening.
The Realtor Building is one of the few premium sites left along the Magnificent Mile that has not been developed in recent years.
“The center of gravity has shifted south,” said Gail Lissner, a vice president at Appraisal Research Counselors, Chicago. “Ten years ago, the preference would have been to be farther north. With all the development that has taken place in the Loop, with the development of Millennium Park, the Nordstrom development, with all the higher-end residential development, it’s in the hub of all this high-end development.”
mepodmolik@tribune.com
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