By Susan Fong
Alhambra Palace Restaurant's proposal to expand its late night hours was the main topic of business at the West Central Association (WCA) May 21 meeting at Jefferson Tap & Grille, 325 N. Jefferson St.
WCA Board President Thomas Broderick opened the luncheon meeting, noting that this year marks the WCA's 90th anniversary, and offering his opinion that the WCA and Executive Director Robert Wiggs have been instrumental in development of the West Loop area. The WCA's anniversary will be celebrated in a dinner and presentation event at the Metropolitan Club of Chicago in the Sears Tower on Thursday, Sept. 25. In preparation, the WCA will print a picture book as a memento.
Attorney Dean Maragos from Maragos & Maragos Ltd., General Manager Justin Rolls, and Operations Director Sam Khalil, all from the Alhambra Palace Restaurant at 1240 W. Randolph St., then presented a 15-point "Community Action Plan" to work with the community as the restaurant seeks to extend its late night hours. Restaurant management hopes to expand weeknight hours from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. and weekend hours from 4 a.m. to 5 a.m.
The year-old Alhambra Palace caters to a mixed crowd of domestic and international clients. On Tuesdays it offers salsa night, with approximately 800 patrons in attendance. Over the weekend it offers flamenco and belly dancing as well as Middle Eastern musicians and performers. The kitchen stays open until closing.
Maragos explained that the request comes “as an effort to meet the demands for late-night entertainment and dining from Chicago’s quickly growing international population.”
He noted that all the major cities outside of the U.S, in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, have restaurants and bars that have either late night hours or run through to the morning.
Maragos, Rolls, and Khalil also addressed questions about parking, maintenance, security, and noise.
Rolls noted that unlike many other businesses with late night licenses, the Alhambra Palace Restaurant is not a club, but is a late night dining restaurant with entertainment and dancing.
The 24,000-square-foot restaurant with a seating capacity of 1,200 is marketed as a unique cultural experience. All of its interiors and furnishings have been imported from various parts of the Middle East, including Syria, Morocco, and Egypt.
Rolls also said that the restaurant has been working with schools, offering itself as a field trip destination for students to learn about the Middle East.
As stated in the Community Action Plan, the management wants to work with all members of the community, both business and residential, in an effort to build and improve community.
The final presentation, on the Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center on Halsted and Van Buren Streets, came from the David Wallach, principal of W Developments LLC and developer of the Hellenic Museum. On hand also was John L. Marks, chairman of the board of Mark IV Realty Group Inc. and former president of the Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center.
The Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center, founded in the late 1800s, opened to the public in 1992. In its new building on Halsted, the museum will work with the Greek government to preserve a sense of history by providing exhibitions, theater, and music, among other cultural offerings.
Wallach explained the challenge of the museum was how to develop it so that it could become a revenue generator.
Last year in Phoenix, AZ, Wallach met with managers from Dolce International about some of his developments there. At the time, Dolce International managers mentioned an interest in working with the Chicago market. Dolce International is a hospitality developer of smaller boutique hotels, resorts, and conference centers.
From this meeting, Wallach arrived at the idea to combine the Greek Museum project with a small hotel to make it a final destination point.
“A major advantage for the museum/hotel idea is that Greektown is an upscale area already filled with its circuit of restaurants," Wallach said. "The hotel will be providing limited food service, so as not to compete with Greektown businesses, and the museum will be offering its space for use during conferences--a win-win for all."
He added that Dolce International is a company that "brings its own business," unlike other hotels that are reliant on the conference business already in the area.
One of the preliminary plans for the project combined the museum center and hotel into one building, but national accreditation required that the museum center stand as a separate entity.
In subsequent renderings, the hotel building became more slender with the largest portion of the building changed to face the Kennedy Expressway rather than Halsted, offering more light.
The hotel building will offer 225 rooms with the first nine floors of its 30 stories committed to parking. The parking was a requirement of the Greektown Special Services Area. Of the 350 available parking spaces, 110 will be allotted for the community as required by the City.
Construction for the museum/hotel project is targeted to begin around November. Phase one will include the museum center and parking space and phase two will include the hotel.
Wallach hired RTKL as the architectural company for the museum and Hirsch Associates LLC for the hotel. Hirsch will be working with VOA Associates Inc. on the hotel and hospitality development.
Wallach closed by thanking Alderman Walter Burnett for his longtime support of the development of the Greektown and the West Loop streetscape "so the City of Chicago is able fulfill its world-city status," Wallach said.
For more information about the West Central Association and its projects, contact officewca@aol.com or call (312) 902-4922.
