Children’s Hospital bidding hits key stage

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Updated: June 30, 2011 2:13AM

Expect sweaty palms today among developers vying to take over the Children’s Memorial Hospital property in Lincoln Park.

The hospital’s lengthy bid evaluation for its six-acre property has hit a crucial stage. Three development teams in the running for the deal will make final pitches today to a committee of hospital directors.

The committee, in turn, will recommend a winner to the full board. Martin Stern, executive vice president of U.S. Equities Realty, said the board could settle on a winner by late July.

The hospital is negotiating on price and on which buyer it thinks can craft a proposal acceptable to its neighbors. Children’s, at 707 W. Fullerton off the busy Fullerton-Halsted-Lincoln intersection, sits at the heart of one of Chicago’s wealthiest neighborhoods.

“Making the right decision [on a buyer] is more important than the speed of the decision,” Stern said.

He said he has been working with the bidders to ensure that priorities stated during a 2009 community planning process are addressed.

Those priorities included preserving some hospital buildings, avoiding high-rises and providing for a variety of income levels in any new housing. But whomever the hospital picks as the buyer is bargaining also for extended wrangling with citizens groups known for battling developers.

“We’re looking at this as where a Lincoln Park town center ought to be,” Stern said. Children’s is selling the property to raise money for its new hospital under construction at 225 E. Chicago Ave. in Streeterville.

Three development teams, all Chicago-based, are in the running. They are Belgravia Group Ltd. with architectural firm GREC, McCaffery Interests with architectural firm Antunovich Associates, and Related Midwest with architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP.

Stern said a fourth bidder, a venture that included downtown developers Hines Interests LP and Magellan Development Group LLC, has been dropped from consideration. He declined to discuss details of the proposals.