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  #401  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2009, 2:08 PM
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FINALLY!

now the fate of this project is entirely in the hands of the economy. they've got 5 years to hope things turn around.



Fountain Square tower approved
Tuesday, Mar. 24, 2009, at 7:12 am
Bill Smith

The Evanston City Council Monday voted 6-3 to give final approval to plans for a 35-story condominium tower at 708 Church St. on the Fountain Square block downtown.

The vote came after approval of one final amendment to the proposal, offered by Alderman Anjana Hansen, 9th Ward, at the suggestion of members of the Network for Evanston's Future.

full article: http://www.evanstonnow.com/story/new...tower-approved
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  #402  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2009, 6:29 PM
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This is ot but there is construction going on east of chase in evanston....on Davis ....I thought that that was going to be a highrise tower


Does anyone recall that?
Also how tall was that proposal supposed to be
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  #403  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2009, 6:36 PM
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^ that is the Mather Lifeways senior living facility. it is a two phase project, the first phase of which is currently under construction. the first building will stand 11 floors/141'. the second building to the south of davis will be roughly the same height. here's a small rendering of the completed project.

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  #404  
Old Posted Nov 10, 2009, 7:47 PM
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Any news on this project since it's approval at the beginning of the year? Have they started marketing for it yet? Is there a sales center? I am keeping my eye on this one. Would be great to see downtown Evanston head upwards.
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  #405  
Old Posted Nov 10, 2009, 7:52 PM
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^nope, nothing at all. my guess is that they won't even attempt to get this one geared up until the economy and housing markets start showing better signs. according to the approval granted by the city, the development team has 5 years from the date of the approval to get construction started, otherwise the approval will be void and they'll have to go through the whole process again. and if that happens, i would imagine that the project would likely fail in a second pass after the elections earlier this year that brought a couple new NIMBY-backed alderman into the city council, shifting the balance of the council from pro- to anti-development.
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  #406  
Old Posted Nov 10, 2009, 8:27 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Dan View Post
^nope, nothing at all. my guess is that they won't even attempt to get this one geared up until the economy and housing markets start showing better signs. according to the approval granted by the city, the development team has 5 years from the date of the approval to get construction started, otherwise the approval will be void and they'll have to go through the whole process again. and if that happens, i would imagine that the project would likely fail in a second pass after the elections earlier this year that brought a couple new NIMBY-backed alderman into the city council, shifting the balance of the council from pro- to anti-development.
That is sad that there are so many people that are against new development especially in a growing area such a downtown Evanston. Thanks for the update though. I will hope for the best on this one. If they have 5 years there is no reason they cant accomplish this. The housing marketing shouldnt take that long to come back around...hopefully!
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  #407  
Old Posted Dec 17, 2010, 11:24 PM
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sorry, no news on this project, just a very quick sketch i put together showing the massing of this proposal in the evanston skyline from a shot i took while out kayaking this fall. yeah, it's cartoonish, but i literally spent about 5 minutes on it. height and placement are pretty accurate. i might have drawn it on the narrow side in retrospect.



source: me
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  #408  
Old Posted Oct 30, 2013, 2:46 PM
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I'm not sure what to make of this, but it's news none-the-less.



Quote:
Developers not giving up on tower
By Bill Smith on Tuesday, October 29, 2013, at 3:17 pm

Long-dormant plans for a 35-story residential tower on the Fountain Square block in downtown Evanston aren't dead yet.

The Evanston Review reports that members of the tower's development team have told city officials they will soon seek a three-year extension of the planned development approval the project received in 2009.

..........

With the housing market in sharp decline by that point, the developers persuaded aldermen to give them until the end of this year to begin construction.

The request for the extra time extension will require action by the Planning and Development Committee and the full City Council.
source: http://evanstonnow.com/story/real-es...ng-up-on-tower
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  #409  
Old Posted Oct 31, 2013, 1:27 AM
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I've learned not to write off a project just because it's "old". Granted, they sometimes come back in a completely different form and even smaller, but they have here at least, and from the same team of companies.
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  #410  
Old Posted Oct 31, 2013, 3:40 PM
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^ well, i had written this one off because the approval that the project received from the city council back in march of 2009 was valid for only 5 years. meaning that if construction had not started on the project by march of 2014, the approval would be rescinded, and the developer would have to restart the whole approval process all over again. with absolutely no signs that the developer was gearing up to start construction any time soon, i had assumed this project would just die a quiet death like so many other proposals that fizzled out during the great recession.

the reason the 5 year window to get construction started is so important is because after this project was approved by a close vote on the city council, a huge NIMBY wave of outraged citizens voted out a handful of pro-development aldermen and replaced them with anti-development NIMBY-backed candidates in the next election cycle, thus altering the make-up of the city council.

the play by the developer to ask for a 3 year extension is clever, but it might be just as DOA as starting the approval process all over again now that the city council has taken on a much more anti-development attitude.

it will be interesting to see if anything comes of this.
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  #411  
Old Posted Oct 31, 2013, 7:16 PM
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Prediction:

The developer will start 'construction' by the deadline, but said construction will consist of moving dirt from one side of the lot to the other until they're ready to begin actual construction.
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  #412  
Old Posted Oct 31, 2013, 8:11 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by scalziand View Post
Prediction:

The developer will start 'construction' by the deadline, but said construction will consist of moving dirt from one side of the lot to the other until they're ready to begin actual construction.
that kind of ruse could possibly work if we were talking about a vacant lot, but we're not. there's an existing two story limestone building currently on the proposed site, fully occupied with retail and professional services tenants. there is no way that the city will give the developer a demo permit until they can prove that they have acquired all of the necessary financing to complete the project. and given that this project has been dead silent for 4-1/2 years with nary a peep about marketing, pre-sales, and so forth, i have a hard time believing they'll be able to get all of that lined up in the next 6 months, hence their plea for a 3 year extension.


the site as it exists today:


source: google streetview
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Last edited by Steely Dan; Nov 4, 2013 at 3:56 PM.
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  #413  
Old Posted Nov 11, 2013, 3:23 PM
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it sounds like a vote on the proposed time extension will happen tonight. if the 3 year extension is not granted by the city council, then i don't see evanston ever granting a future approval for any building that would rise significantly above the city's current skyline height. tonight's vote could literally be a now or never moment for a building to ever really poke above the current 275' height of evanston.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Evanston Now

Aldermen to debate tower time extension
By Lee V. Gaines on Monday, November 11, 2013, at 6:57 am

Evanston aldermen are scheduled to vote tonight on giving developers of the proposed 35-story condo tower on the Fountain Square block an extra three years to start construction.

The planned development at 708 Church St. was initially approved in March 2009 on a 6-3 vote -- the minimum required for the project, which needed a super-majority, two-thirds vote by aldermen.

Since then the composition of the council has changed dramatically.
full article: http://evanstonnow.com/story/real-es...time-extension
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Last edited by Steely Dan; Nov 11, 2013 at 4:54 PM.
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  #414  
Old Posted Nov 12, 2013, 3:47 PM
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well, the vote on the time extension was postponed last night due to 2 alderman not being present. there are 9 aldermen on the city council, and the approval would require a super-majority of 2/3 of them. so 6 aldermen need to vote yes. there are still 3 aldermen left on the council from when the project was first approved; 2 tower supporters and 1 tower opponent. of the 6 new members of the city council, 1 is a known tower opponent who came into office because of NIMBY backing, beating the tower supporter incumbent. how the other 5 new aldermen will vote is up in the air. 4 of the 5 of them will need to vote yes if the project is to have a chance. it will be a tight vote.

the vote is now scheduled to take place at the next council meeting on Nov. 25th.
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Last edited by Steely Dan; Nov 12, 2013 at 6:09 PM.
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  #415  
Old Posted Nov 13, 2013, 4:29 AM
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thanks for the updates, steely. i'm really pulling for this one... evanston is one of the extreme few suburbs that really 'gets' TOD, and it's ideally suited for this type of dense development.
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  #416  
Old Posted Nov 20, 2013, 4:56 PM
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from evanston now.com

Quote:
Analyst says tower could succeed in recovering market
By Bill Smith on November 20, 2013 - 10:08am

Gail Lissner, a vice president at Chicago-based Appraisal Research Counselors, says the planned 708 Church St. condo tower in Evanston has a good chance of success as the real estate market continues to recover -- if Evanston aldermen approve a requested three-year deadline extension to start construction.

Lissner, whose firm produces quarterly reports on the state of the Chicago and suburban apartment and condo markets, says there's no surplus of new condo inventory left in Evanston, with only one building -- One Evanston, the former Winthrop Club, at 1570 Elmwood Ave. -- still marketing new units to individual buyers

- See more at: http://evanstonnow.com/story/real-es....OoUsD33l.dpuf

the city council vote on approval of the timeline extensions is scheduled to take place next monday night.
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  #417  
Old Posted Nov 26, 2013, 2:39 PM
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well, not too surprisingly, the city council denied the time extension. the developer's rep stated that without the extension they would abandon the project as opposed to starting the PD process over again, effectively killing this project once and for all.

too bad. evanston's little skyline seems like it will be held below 300' for the foreseeable future.
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