Wilson Yard Developer Lands Financing for Uptown Project
By Andrew Schroedter, Oct. 24, 2008
(Crain’s) — After years of delays, Chicago developer Peter Holsten has finally nailed down the financing to complete his long-awaited $151-million Wilson Yard project in Uptown. The city of Chicago has already agreed to provide Mr. Holsten with $51 million in tax increment financing for the Target Corp.-anchored project on Broadway between Montrose and Wilson avenues. And Minneapolis-based Target is contributing about $33 million.
But with the credit markets in near lockdown, Mr. Holsten scrambled to piece together the remaining $67 million to finance the mixed-use project that's been slow to get off the ground. The Aldi Inc. store that opened in June is all that stands at the 5.7-acre site, formerly a massive Chicago Transit Authority train repair shed.
On Wednesday Mr. Holsten closed at least two loans totaling $40 million with community and affordable housing lenders Alliant Capital Ltd. and Enterprise Community Investments Inc., according to spokeswomen for both firms. The remaining $27 million comes from a group of lenders, including J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and Local Initiative Support Corp., a New York-based non-profit community development organization, the Enterprise spokeswoman says.
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Interesting devlopement....
ReplyDeleteThey need to file an injunction if the lawsuit is going to work and stop construction.
ReplyDeleteI just looked on Target's website and I still don't see any confirmation from their side. I find it interesting that Crains is stating that Target is kicking in $33 million. I assume that they must have verified with Target directly or confirmed through multiple sources?
ReplyDeleteI just think it's odd that there still is no press release from Target regarding its intent. We'll see if something comes out in the next couple of days...
We heed to move forward with legal action!!
ReplyDeleteTarget won't issue a press release about this. They will announce it as a new store opening one year to six months prior to it actually opening for business, but they don't issue releases for intentions.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it said Target was kicking in anything it was another bank/finance company that was kicking in for the retail portion but they said Target.
ReplyDeleteIn other words a vacant storefront part of the development or a Dollar Store Super Mart.
They hadn't secured financing until just now?! I have little experience with property developments, but it seems odd that it took this long since Holsten (and Shiller) had YEARS to nail things down.
ReplyDeleteIt also seems like some other investors must have pulled out, considering they dug a big hole with a flurry of activity then things went really quiet...
It's easy to secure investors when the City gave them a blank check and can't stop or slow payment up.
ReplyDeleteI might add the window for the lawsuit is slowing tightening up.
ReplyDeleteEither file it with and injunction or don't waste anymore time on it.
I actually just read this on Crain's and wondered if it was up here already.
ReplyDeleteThe lawsuit needs to be filed.
I'm wondering if the lawsuit was filed it would scare the banks that would give out loans. She won't be stopped without a lawsuit.
ReplyDeleteAnother development announced on Friday in the afternoon.
ReplyDeleteThink they are trying to avoid publicity?
I just got this back from Target corporate. I sent them an e-mail asking if there was any truth too the rumors that a Traget was going to be built in Uptown (I mentioned Broadway and Montrose specifically). I cannot say that I am terribly surprised by the response.
ReplyDeleteLooks like the same old, same old. Holsten says Target is coming, and Target has no idea about what Holsten is talking.
"Thanks for your e-mail regarding a new Target store in the Uptown area of Chicago, IL.
As you might imagine, a lot of time and work goes into determining where and when to build a Target store. There's involvement by people in the private and government areas and it may take months or even years to build a store. Sometimes Target is mentioned as an example of a possible store anchor for a project by a developer or city. I don’t have any information about a store in the area you mentioned.
Have more questions about Target stores, products or services? Write back, call us at (800) 440-0680, or visit us online at www.target.com. Either way, we'll do our best to help you!
Thanks for your interest in Target. We'll keep looking for more ways to serve you.
Sincerely,
David
Target Guest Relations"
Without an anchor tenant, there should be no developement. And they can't blame the credit crunch, because that only just happened, this has been in the works for years. ON WITH FWY!
ReplyDeleteThe first deception/miss-step, was the Aldi opening with the prison-like facade, and the actual door being in the back.
ReplyDeleteEverything has gone so wrong on this project.
What are the next steps? Can FWY make a difference?
I really hope so.
It seems like time is slipping away.
Time will tell on whether the FWY folks are successful.
ReplyDeleteI think the lawsuit will be successful on the not giving proper notice of the changes requirement to the public. One outcome of that is it just goes back to the City Council and they do the same thing again.
Given the amount of anger in this city towards rising property taxes and political corruption Mayor Daley may not like some of the things he sees.
This whole thing is amusing.....in a bad way.
I just picture "hizzoner" pulling out a wad of taxpayer cash with a gold money clip around it until they finally got a number high enough to find someone to finance the project.
Here is how it may have gone:
Daley:
Won million
To million
Tree million
For Million
Until it hit tens of millions and the banks jumped in.
Then he tells Helen Shiller to sit up and beg for him and he gives her a dog treat. However, other nearby aldercritters see the treat and cause a stampede rushing for it. It ends with a city council of compliant hacks sitting at the mayor's feet with treats being passed out by non elected city employees.
Can we hear from the FWY folks???
ReplyDeleteI don't know anything about Crain's, but are they known for inaccurate reporting? It seems strange to me that they would report, on multiple occasions, that Target was coming if there was no proof or sources saying so.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I hope that Target does come. I am more concerned about the presence of low, very low, and extremely low income housing than I am the absence of Target.
Also, by the way, my display name has been updated to distinguish me from the other andy that posts on here. No offense to the other andy, i just felt like it might make things easier. Oh, and other andy, maybe we should meet up sometime. You have an awesome name.
This whole thing with all the financing falling into place right after the mysterious stealth amendment of a few weeks ago makes me loathe Ald. Shiller's "truth" even more. "A technical amendment that will save the banks and taxpayers $4 million." No wonder Vi Daley said she was so happy to see it pass. It was another way to get Holsten his tottering house-of-cards financing.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice if at least 1 thing about WY that Shiller has told us turns out to be true.
ReplyDelete~How ever Target was never my beef with this project. $450,000 to house people who don't work as hard as I do is a reflection on everything that is wrong with this City and this country to me.
This city is laying off hard workers. It may even come down to Police and Fire (the lifeline of your safety) because of it's deficit. Our taxes are jacked and DaMare and Alderman are letting us get robbed blind by Corporate investors and Developers who in turn will donate the max amount to their compaigns under every derivitive of their corporate name possible. And when the extremely poor move in they'll piss in the over priced elevators and tag the stairwells just like they do in the Hillard homes (Holsten project), Icke homes, Lowe Holmes, Dearborn Homes, Ida B....I'm not even gonna touch on Cabrini, R.Taylor, Rockwell Gardens (Mega shitholes). I've been to them all......and for every 1 decent God fearing law obiding family praying for change that you'll find in them their are 10 felons feeding the rats because they don't understand chicken bones go in the garbage....hell they don't even know what a garbage can is.
Concentrated very low income is a historical nightmare every resident of uptown from the row houses to the condos and even the shelters would be better served with a more responsible use of OUR Tif money.
I agree with the problems of concentrated poverty. So does research. Here's how Helen will use your argument: "The people who detest Wilson Yards believe that most poor people are bad. You need me as your alderman because I will protect you from all these selfish condo owners." Poor people will be in agreement because they don't like having a negative label. Really, who could blame them for getting upset?
ReplyDeleteThe $450,000 spent on just 1 unit of housing is money that could do an extensive rehab for 45 other subsidized apartments where Uptown people already live. The money spent on all the housing in WY could do extensive remodeling of every single subsidized unit in Uptown. Now if I was poor, that would get my attention.
I think most of us are for some type of subsidized housing although I know there are some out there who don't believe in having any. But I could go for some mixed-income housing with some aspects of homeownership in areas where the poverty rate is low. I'm not saying we should do extensive rehabbing of every single subsidized unit in Uptown, but I'm open to doing a 150 units. That would equal the cost of 3 Wilson Yards housing units. Everyone wins, except for Helen who must keep the class war going for her own ego.
So I was wondering...does this new development with the financing put the City on the hook even more than we think? Let's say he decides to move ahead without a major commercial tenant under the "build it and they will come" approach. But, a lawsuit stops him or slows down the progress. Looks to me that the city has given up a lot of its oversight with this technical amendment. Didn't Holsten have deadlines he was supposed to meet in order to get certain portions of the funds? What would prevent him from missing them and then just billing the TIF after work commences? Didn't this technical amendment just insulate him and his investors from all sorts of risk ranging from a lawsuit to not being able to secure the retail tenants?? If so, I had no idea the city was so flush and able to underwrite like that. Maybe we should bail out the bail out! :)
ReplyDeleteFirst, to Andy G., Crain's is viewed as very reliable. I work for a large business downtown and Crain's & The Trib are viewed as these two sources of business news in the city, with Crain's as primary.
ReplyDeleteAs for Cebolinha, the response you got from Target was a standard response. I got the exact same message, word-for-word, from them a year ago.
"The city of Chicago has already agreed to provide Mr. Holsten with $51 million in tax increment financing for the Target Corp.-anchored project on Broadway between Montrose and Wilson avenues. And Minneapolis-based Target is contributing about $33 million."
ReplyDeleteThere is no publicly available information to support either of these claims that is not 3 years old nor revised in conjunction with the revisions to the WY project. Crains isn't citing sources either.
Do they know anything new or is this just lipstick on the same old WY pig?
The reporter Andrew Schroedter is a freelance reporter. He works on demand.