Purple Hotel sold
REAL ESTATE | Classy-then-trashy landmark reportedly went for $27 mil.
The Purple Hotel in Lincolnwood, legendary home to decay and debauchery, is being sold. The deal could lead to the demolition of a classy place to stay in the 1960s that 40 years later became better known as a host to rodents and sex parties. In the Tony Rezko political corruption trial, government witness Stuart Levine confessed to preferring the Purple for drug parties he organized with similarly addled pals.
And no report on the hotel is complete without a mention of the mob hit in the parking lot 25 years ago. Allen Dorfman was the victim of the unsolved crime.
By 2007, the Purple was finished. Owner Donald Bae closed the 293-room operation as village officials pressed him to roust the rodents and clean up festering mold.
Timothy Clarke, community development director of Lincolnwood, said the village has zoned the parcel at 4500 W. Touhy for a mix of retail, office and residences. Asked when he'd like the hotel torn down, he answered, "Yesterday."
Clarke said he will meet with the buyers next week. They are an affiliate of Inland Real Estate Acquisitions Inc. and Bannockburn-based TMK Development Ltd., a developer of shopping plazas.
Joel Cunningham of Inland, spokesman for the joint venture, said the sale contract is contingent on approvals from village officials. He declined to discuss what the partners plan for the location.
Cunningham would not confirm a report on the Web site of Crain's Chicago Business that the sale price was $27 million. Bae, who could not be reached, previously tried to sell the site for about the same amount.
The 8-acre site figures in a broader plan by Lincolnwood to create a pedestrian-friendly "town center" near the intersection of Touhy and Lincoln. Clarke said zoning for the hotel site forbids any new construction taller than five stories.
The Purple gets its name from the color of its bricks, said to be the result of a brickyard's error. It opened and operated for years as a Hyatt, slipped downmarket to affiliations with the Radisson and Ramada chains, then finally shed all franchise tags in 2004 in an attempt to save money. By that name, it was relying on such events as the Midwest Fetish Fair & Marketplace for business, and the police regularly were called to the hotel to quiet disturbances.
The hotel used to segregate the sex parties from other guests, but a former general manager once told the Sun-Times that complaints arose from people who "got on the wrong elevator."
AUCTION ACTION: Look who's selling properties via auction -- McDonald's Corp. The burger chain has retained Rick Levin & Associates Inc. to auction five excess properties. Four are in the Chicago area: 5057 S. Wentworth, 10245 Roosevelt in Westchester, 130 S. Virginia in Crystal Lake and 5377 Broadway in Merrillville, Ind.
Auction company president Rick Levin said this is no sign of distress at McDonald's or of expansion plans being jettisoned. In this instance, McDonald's built new and larger operations nearby and now has excess real estate to sell, he said. Levin said he hopes others in the fast food and retail businesses will consider auctions as a way to get a "date certain sale" on land that's hard to value. The auction is scheduled for June 19 in Rosemont. See ricklevin.com for details.
CLEARING THE AIR: AMLI Residential, which owns apartment buildings around the country, has heard the complaints of tenants who can't stand the cigarette smoke that wafts beneath doors and through vents. So it has decreed its new building at 900 S. Clark, called AMLI 900, to be a smoke-free zone.
Tenants in the 440-unit building, due for occupancy in June, won't be allowed to smoke. Management promises to enforce the rule with fines that it will donate to charity. AMLI said the program builds on success it has had with smoke-free buildings in Seattle and Atlanta.
LAND OF THE CHIC: LG Development Group, an increasingly active firm around the North Side, has purchased 2116 N. Halsted for $1.8 million. It plans to renovate the property to include ground-floor retail and a residence on the second and third floors. HSA Commercial Real Estate represented LG in the transaction and Chody Real Estate Corp. represented the seller.
CALENDAR NOTE: The Real Estate Investment Association hosts a program about lending and the capital markets May 22 at Maggiano's, 111 W. Grand. See reia.org for details.
DOING THE DEALS: Epic Realty Partners/TCN Worldwide negotiated a lease of 260,000 square feet at 4100 W. 76th St. for Rapid Displays Inc. The Chicago-based producer of point-of-sale displays for Microsoft, Jim Beam and other products is consolidating its local distribution operations. ... Navistar International Corp. expanded its lease by about a third, to 83,000 square feet, at 425 and 475 Martingale Rd. in Schaumburg. . . . Steve's Deli, a Bloomfield Hills, Mich., institution, is coming to Chicago. It has leased 7,000 square feet at 354 W. Hubbard, bringing the building to 100 percent occupancy.
