Former Borders & Adjoining Retail Bought

Good news!  The former Borders building and the adjoining retail spaces have been sold to a new owner.  No renters yet, and the owner doubts he'll be able to rent the Borders area to one tenant without subdividing.  But according to the Sun-Times, he promises "that whatever businesses move in will be 'in keeping with the neighborhood, and something the neighborhood would ultimately need and want.'"

Here's the beginning of the story; click here to read the whole thing.

The former Goldblatt’s department store in Uptown — vacant since the Borders bookstore moved out last year — has a new owner.  Joshua Mintzer, head of Saxony Capital LLC, said he closed on the elegant old building and adjoining real estate in the 4700 block of North Broadway earlier this month, paying $3 million to the previous owner, Cole Taylor Bank.

Mintzer, who said he typically buys “‘C’ buildings in ‘A’ locations,” said he was attracted — among other things — by the building’s location to a host of music venues, including the Green Mill, The Riviera Theatre and the Aragon Ballroom — and Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s talk about possibly turning the area into an “Entertainment District.”

Update: Here's another article about it, from CBS2 Chicago.