Draper and Kramer makes no big plan for Gold Coast

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PDF: Map of proposed Gold Coast apartments

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David Roeder reports on real estate at 6:22 p.m. Thursdays on Newsradio 780 and 105.9 FM WBBM. The reports are repeated at 10:22 p.m. Thursday and 7:22 a.m. Sunday.

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 PDF: Map of proposed Gold Coast apartments

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Updated: December 24, 2011 8:18AM

In the old Chicago story of developers vs. neighborhood groups, there might not be a longer skirmish than the one over a parking lot at 1320 N. Lake Shore Drive. There were countless court fights lasting 12 years over the patch controlled by Draper and Kramer Inc., which wanted to put up a residential high-rise at the premier location.

The lawyering by the company and wealthy Gold Coast neighbors finally ended a year ago in the residents’ favor. The Illinois Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a decision that upheld the city’s right to place restrictive zoning on the site.

Two sources said Draper is making plans to build there, but under rules that limit it to a nine-story building. It had fought for the right to put up something in the 40-story range on what was long ago part of the Potter Palmer estate.

Unable to build tall, Draper wants to build rich, the sources said. It’s looking at something with super-exclusive appeal, perhaps similar to a building it owns at 1420 N. Lake Shore Drive that features only two apartments per floor.

Draper executives did not return calls.

TURNING PURPLE: The blight of Lincolnwood, the old Purple Hotel at 4500 W. Touhy, may at last be facing checkout time. Timothy Wiberg, village administrator for Lincolnwood, said he expects he’ll have a demolition contract to bring to the village board for approval in December. Lincolnwood has had the legal right to tear down the place, and put a lien on the property to recover costs, since February.

Wiberg said Highland Park-based Tucker Development Corp. is interested in acquiring notes on the property and pursuing a development. Company President Richard Tucker could not be reached. Randy Podolsky, managing principal of Podolsky Northstar Corfac International, the firm marketing the loans, declined to confirm Tucker’s involvement.

Podolsky said he’s selling two loans on the property and expects to close on one by yearend. Hotel owner Donald Bae owes at least $4.6 million on a mortgage to First Midwest Bank.

GOING UP: And the apartment buildings keep on coming. There are two new high-rise entrants in the field, braving a market that is giving off signs of a slowdown, which might mean rents that are a little lower in a couple of years.

One is to be called Optima Center Chicago, a venture of Tampa-based DeBartolo Development LLC and Optima Inc. It promises 325 apartments in a 42-story building at 200 E. Illinois, the northeast corner of Illinois and St. Clair. The design is by Optima’s David Hovey, whose Optima Old Orchard Woods condo complex in Skokie has been widely acclaimed despite its massive size—some 646 units—overlooking the Edens Expressway and Harms Woods.

For the Chicago building, Hovey is promising “larger than average” one- to three-bedroom units, floor-to-ceiling windows and a fancy rooftop deck with hot tubs. It’s also promising delivery of the first units in about 15 months.

LaSalle Investment Management has an equity stake in the $114 million project, and PNC and HSBC banks syndicated the construction loan.

The other project is by Habitat Co. and would go at 360 W. Hubbard, a parking lot next to its East Bank Club. The company has told River North residents it will build 450 units in 43 stories.

DOING THE DEALS: The accounting firm Sikich LLP has moved into an 80,000-square-foot home at 1415 W. Diehl Road, Naperville, in a relocation from Aurora. . . . Philipsborn Co. arranged $11.4 million in a first mortgage for a century-old building at 910 W. Lake that in 1999 was converted to 89 loft apartments. . . . The Management Association of Illinois leased more than 11,000 square feet at 3025 Highland Parkway, Downers Grove, under the guidance of Podolsky Northstar Corfac International. . . .

Colliers International represented Valspar Corp. in its 18,000-square-foot lease expansion at 8725 W. Higgins, where it now occupies 40,000 square feet. . . . At the same Higgins location, CH2M Hill, a construction firm, leased 17,000 square feet with help from Cushman & Wakefield Inc. . . . Peerless Network Inc. signed a lease for more than 12,000 square feet at Server Farm Realty Inc.’s data center at 840 S. Canal. Cushman & Wakefield Inc. represented Peerless. . . . Lee Associates of Illinois LLC represented JAS Forwarding in its industrial lease of 78,000 square feet at 1400 Algonquin Road, Mount Prospect.