Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Fish Farm No More!

The building at 1025 W Sunnyside, right across from Target -- the one that was the Tom Seay Salvation Army overnight shelter until 2008, and was later envisioned by former alderman Helen Shiller to become a fish farm/green center/social justice incubator for $54 million in TIF money -- is now slated to become office space and a company's headquarters.  From Crain's---
Apartment investor buys Uptown building for HQ. Real estate investment, development and management firm Cedar Street Cos. plans to move its headquarters to a long-vacant Uptown building it bought July 19 from the Salvation Army for $1.2 million.

Cedar Street plans to gut the three-story, 38,000-square-foot retail and office building at 1025 W. Sunnyside Ave., across the street from the Wilson Yard Target store, said Managing Partner Alex Samoylovich. Cedar Street will add a fourth floor with about 10,000 square feet of offices for its 150 employees, as well as a green roof deck, and plans to move from its current offices at 351 W. Chicago Ave. by Jan. 1, he said.

The firm is seeking tenants for ground-floor retail and offices on the second and third floors. Cedar Street owns about 1,600 apartments in and around Uptown and is under contract to buy another 400 units, Mr. Samoylovich said. Alexandria, Va.-based Salvation Army used the building as a community center before moving out in 2008, a spokeswoman said.
We are delighted. This beautiful building started its life as an office building for the phone company, many years ago, and it's nice to see it get back to its roots. We understand that Cedar Street Cos. is also the developer of "Magnolia Flats" and we hope to be able to get some additional information from them about both projects before long.

17 comments:

  1. This is great news. The building and the location have so much potential. This could really be a turning point for additional redevelopment. There definitely are a lot of good things happening on Broadway from Montrose to Lawrence when you consider the new Wilson and Lawrence CTA stops and the potential redevelopment of the previously occupied Boarders space.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would have still liked to see another entertainment venue in that location or maybe a restaurant/entertainment venue. I guess this is better than an eternally empty building with scaffolding surrounding it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is great news. Another good development to that area on Broadway between Montrose and Lawrence is the addition of a Lurie Children's Research unit focused on HIV prevention which will open on 4711 N. Broadway in the store front

    ReplyDelete
  4. WELCOME - And welcome 150 employees!
    Guys - We talk about all these things we want for our community, and letting market forces work is the way we are going to see progress!

    With regard to affordable housing, I think some reasonable level of safe, responsibly managed affordable housing is and needs to be here to stay. Having said that, by letting market forces and proven best practices help Uptown adjust the level of affordable housing to a more fair and reasonable level, all who have and will continue to invest here will benefit.

    By the way, investment in our community does not just mean money!

    ReplyDelete
  5. This will be pretty good news for a lot of the surrounding restaurants. Guaranteed lunch customers!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Adding hundreds of new employees to the neighborhood will drive retail development more quickly, and more successfully, than public money and subsidies ever will. Great news!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Awesome, this isnt just great for Uptown, its great for the whole CITY...

    ReplyDelete
  8. This makes the Spot closing even more confusion

    ReplyDelete
  9. I thought maybe it would be another Target Store.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Fantastic news! A great occupant and bringing 150 employees (not to mention the additional benefit of more floor space available in the same building).

    Though curious about the 4th floor addition and green roof deck...I gather that's to be done in the upcoming years, as opposed to bay the January 1st move in date.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Such great news! This is exactly what the area needs - more foot traffic during the lunch hours and a long term commitment (I don't imagine you make the decision to move your headquarters without some thought). Very nice!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anyone else notice that NOTHING seems to be happening here? And it is supposed to open January 1st? If this is the timeline for their headquarters, wtf are they going to do with buildings in neighborhoods where people actually live? Just putting up a flag of warning here...

    ReplyDelete
  13. Everything about Cedar St has been a let down recently...red flags indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  14. SEVEN months later... nothing... exactly the same. Still looks like crap and the owners have done nothing in months and months on their new 'headquarters' What a major disappointment..

    ReplyDelete
  15. Perhaps they overextended themselves? I mean they did buy several properties really quick.

    There's a property they have apparently been working on on Kenmore north of Argyle.. but other than that pretty quiet.

    ReplyDelete