A reader sends in the following photo and info from tonight's meeting:"I went to the both the Sedgwick Properties and the Uptown Neighborhood Council meeting this evening. The Uptown Neighborhood Council Meeting had a representative from Sedgwick Properties who took notes through the entire meeting while residents hammered him with questions about the development plans. Most of the concerns from residents revolved around parking and green space. It was a full meeting with standing room only."
I gathered these names at the Sedgwick Properties Presentation:
* Marty Paris from Sedgwick Properties (martyparis@sedgwickproperties.com)
* J Friedeck (Sedgwick Rep at tonight's meeting) - jfriedeck@sedgwickproperties.com
* Jay Camp (Koenig & Strey Realtor who will be selling space at the Megaplex) - jcamp@koenigstrey.com
* Dean Young (Koenig & Strey Realtor who will be selling space at the Megaplex) dyoung@koenigstrey.com
* Luay R. Aboona, PE - Principal (Transportation and Parking Planning Consultants) - laboona@kloainc.com
* William R. Woodward - Senior Consultant (Transportation and Parking Planning Consultants) - wwoodward@kloainc.com
Oh hey, that's an awful photo of me. *cringe*
ReplyDeleteFriedeck was a sacrificial lamb sent by Sedgwick - the poor kid didn't look like he was more than 24 years old and definitely did not look like a decision maker for the company. Sedgwick is not taking the residents' concerns seriously. The letter-writing campaigns suggested by one of the organizers will be a good start, but you'll need more than that to get any sort of protest off the ground. Uptown community representation is currently too fragmented into tiny block clubs to build momentum and ease communication. If you want action, you need solidarity.
At the Sedgwick presentation earlier in the evening, the developer told me that the kiosk-style setup was done deliberately to "prevent any one person's views from dominating the entire gathering."
One of the more senior developers - I believe his name was Marty? told me about their parking studies. They know that the area around the planned development has far lower than the prescribed amount of parking space to person ratio due to the number of old buildings like Harbour Pointe, etc without any parking. I asked him how adding more people to the area (despite the 1100 parking spaces) would help matters and he had no answer.
If this goes through, demolition will start this fall and the project will take five years to complete. Phase 1 will be "parking and retail" and phase 2 will be the "senior housing" on Agatite - these will be up within a year. I would suggest that some folks target the real estate analysis divisions at Sendik's and other companies that have been noised about as anchoring the complex and inform them about the community attitude towards their upcoming entrance into the Chicago scene.
The grocery store is going to be Sendik's??? Really? I don't know how I feel about that. I was hoping for a Trader Joe's, but part of me is proud that another Milwaukee business is expanding. A Trader Joe's or Whole Foods would be a nice specialty grocer for the neighborhood, Sendik's is more like Dominick's but with smaller stores.
ReplyDeleteWas anything mentioned about the type of housing being built? Is it market rate rental, condo or more unneeded subsidized housing?
So glad to see a good turn out there tonight and some good representation. This "Jay" guy is going to go bcack to his company and they'll just kind of brush off the information he is relaying to them, devise some plan to make it appear to the neighborhood that they are "cooperating" and that they are "taking our concerns into account..".... BUT THEY WON'T. We need to call them out on it, beginning with the OPEN MEETINGS ACT, per what James Cappleman spoke about this evening. Uptown, lets not sit here and let these money-hungry "officials" and "executives" give us their "humm-ing" and "hawwing" and "bullsh*tt"ing..... IT REALLY NEEDS TO STOP! NEED MORE BE SAID????
ReplyDeletePlease join Facebook page 'Neighbors Against Lake View Station' so we can rally to block this abomination
ReplyDeleteDon't you know part of the game is to dangle the prospect of a Sendik's market or a Trader Joe's in front of you just as a feel good. Sigh, everybody pauses, and thinks for a moment, maybe this won't be too bad.
ReplyDeleteTruth is Sendik's and Trader Joe's have made no commitment and probably have never even been approached by these developers.
Silly rabbit, trick are for kids.
How many people were persuaded to support Wilson Yards on the prospect that there were to be movie theaters in the mix?
ReplyDeleteBait and switch. Watch out.
Does anyone know what the residential component will be? Is it more subsidized apartments or will it be market rate condos? Everyone at the meeting was very concerned about parking, traffic and aesthetics. And although those are all valid concerns, my fiance told me after the meeting "They can drop the empire state building in there for all I care, as long as it has condos and not low income housing"
ReplyDeleteIn today's SunTimes is an article about Target's big push for it's stores (including the one at Montrose and Broadway) to sell groceries. We will have a food paradise. So much for the mom-and-pop stores, right Hellon-earth? "Screw'm," she said, as she spread her (our) TIF $$. "Big is better."
ReplyDeleteHi and I tried to email Sedgwick properties from the ones listed here but they all failed to go. Maybe they decided to shut off their emails knowing all the concerned residents from yesterday that do not like how they are trying to destroy our neighborhood will be writing them. Does anyone know how to call them as the boarded windows now are being spray painted by the gangs on the boards they put over the windows and it really looks like hell.
ReplyDeleteI really hope this does not turn into a Wilson yard project and we can do everything possible now before it is too late.....
"Target's big push for it's stores (including the one at Montrose and Broadway) to sell groceries. So much for the mom-and-pop stores..."
ReplyDeleteI not a fan of the alderman at all, but c'mon, there's a huge Aldi right next to the Target entrance. If the neighborhood folks that currently shop at mom-and-pop stores don't frequent Aldi or Jewel, Target (or for that matter, a Sendick's) isn't going to make a difference.
TIF abuse, public safety, fish farms and other ridiculous policies on the other hand...
They can dangle the prospect of high end condos and a hotel in front of you and switch the nature of the project when it goes down to the plan commission.
ReplyDeleteHaven't you learned this before.
You're as likely to get a 7-Eleven in there as a high end grocery store.
Here's the conundrum as I see it...
ReplyDeleteDevelopers are in it for the money and there's not a damn thing wrong with that. They're not in it to improve a community; that's not their job. It's the job of the neighborhood and its alderman to be concerned about the community. The developer isn't concerned with the ramifications of their project on the community. Once they've closed their deals and collected their money, they're outtahere. So what if there are local businesses forced out? That's not their problem. Their market research probably shows the neighborhood will support a big name grocer or two. They're throwing their hat in the ring to compete with Jewel at Montrose/Sheridan and Dominick's at Foster/Sheridan. Their client believes they can prevail. If the Jewel becomes a boarded up vacant parcel so be it.
Make no mistake though, Sedgewick is not investing in Uptown. Investing is a long term proposition. They won't be around long.
And remember...every dollar of T[ax]IF they receive is a dollar less they need to spend on the project. (Daddy needs a Bentley.)
Toto is right. How many times is everyone going to buy this bait and switch crap? As long as Helen is in office, this is not going to be a development that will benefit the community. She cares nothing about the surrounding area and will continue to pack as much low income housing as she can. The only way to stop this is at election time.
ReplyDeleteI would have a thousand times less of a cynical outlook and be willing to consider this TIF with an open mind if James Cappleman were alderman. With Shiller in charge though, NO WAY!!!!! She's proven that she can't be trusted.
ReplyDeletequietlyconscious, I have to agree. This deal may be totally above board and honorable, but the bad taste of how Wilson Yard was and continues to be handled, and the fact that the community was hardly notified about this TIF, certainly don't lead me to believe that the leopard has changed its spots.
ReplyDeletePlus, the "TIF Transparency" page on the alderman's website doesn't reflect that the Maryville TIF is planned or currently exists. In fact, that page hasn't been updated since winter 2009. That tells me that transparency is just something Ald. Shiller pays lip service to, rather than bases her conduct on.
Again, if Wilson Yard had been handled better, I doubt much of this opposition, doubt and anger would be happening regarding Maryville. Karma has a way of biting you in the butt.
Crate and Barrel??!!
ReplyDeleteHahahahahahahaha!
There will be housing of all sorts
ReplyDeleteThere has to be market rate housing to pay for the other housing
We've identified funds for moderately priced rental housing
- Helen Shiller, 3/31/2008
I credit Sedgwick for sending a rep to take notes and get back to them with residents' reactions. (That's more than I've seen our alderman do, except for the one-time-only-because-the-press-are-here reps she sent to the CAPS meeting last August after the "attempted fisticuffs.")
ReplyDeleteBut I wish the big Sedgwick muckety-mucks had walked a couple blocks from their "official" meeting and answered questions themselves. Their rep, Jay, was there to take notes for them, not to explain the decisions made by those who are far senior to him. I felt bad to see him put on the spot like that, and I wish his bosses had made an appearance instead.