Ald. Balcer updates community on various projects

In an interview with the Gazette, 11th Ward Alderman James Balcer updated the community on several Bridgeport projects.

            Concerning the Ramova Theater at 3518 S. Halsted St., Balcer said the City is reviewing a proposal from a developer to transform the theater into a banquet hall and restaurant. The City also is entertaining other offers for the theater’s redevelopment.

“Demolition of the theater is prohibited—it will be remodeled and rebuilt,” Balcer asserted. “We have to sell it to the people who have the financial means to see the project through.”

            The City is negotiating with “an established grocer,” Balcer said, to acquire the site that hosted a Jewel-Osco at 31st and Halsted Streets that closed last year. “We will be meeting with a potential purchaser to discuss possible TIF [tax increment financing] incentives,” Balcer said.

            Balcer noted the Chicago Park District anticipates the 27-acre Stearn’s Quarry Park between Halsted Street and Poplar Avenue and 27th and 29th Streets will be completed by the end of this summer. Construction began in April 2005 on what used to be a limestone quarry and later a “clean” (non-contaminated) construction materials landfill. The new park will include acres of plantings with about 300 trees, a fishing pond and terraced wetland areas, an athletic field, a sledding mound, and multi-use open space for community events. It also will offer a unique attraction in the form of 400,000,000-year-old fossils.

            The park will incorporate environmentally friendly elements such as a stormwater containment system, where rainwater will be collected and channeled to the park’s wetlands and pond. Native plantings will minimize the need for fertilizers, herbicides, and irrigation.

            Recently, workers have planted trees and created the entry plaza layout; both projects are nearly complete, Balcer said.

            --Sarah Severson

 

Bids exceeding budget delay park expansion

The Printers Row Book Fair in early June was to be followed almost immediately by another festive South Loop occasion: groundbreaking for the expansion of Printers Row Park, located between Dearborn and Federal Streets and north of Polk Street. Bids for the project exceeded the Chicago Park District’s budget, however, delaying both the groundbreaking and the expansion.

                The Chicago City Council in early 2006 allotted $100,000 for environmental remediation of the parking lot that will become part of the park and $900,000 for constructing the park. Officials did not reveal amounts of the bids they received but said in mid-June they would solicit new bids.

                Construction could take up to five months, subsequent to a month of discussions between park officials and whichever contractor wins the bid. Once the expansion is finished, the City will transfer ownership of the property to the Park District.

                -- Susan S. Stevens

 

City Council approves Children’s  Museum site 

The Chicago City Council on June 11 rubber-stamped the wishes of Mayor Richard M. Daley by voting to approve the most recent design for the Chicago Children’s Museum and its location at the current site of the Daley Bicentennial Plaza fieldhouse off Randolph Street east of Michigan Avenue in Grant Park.

The vote was 33 to 16, despite opposition by residents, community groups, and 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly. Previously, the Chicago Plan Commission passed the measure by a vote of 13 to 2 while the City Council Zoning Committee passed it 6 to 3.

The Chicago Park District would maintain ownership of the land while the museum would donate a new 37,000 square foot, $15 million fieldhouse. The museum would encompass 95,000 square feet; an additional 5,000 square feet would serve as a common area. The museum would fund the entire construction; in return, the Park District would maintain all the structures.

            Bob O’Neill, president of the Grant Park Advisory Council and Grant Park Conservancy, said, “We are very pleased with the outcome, and we firmly believe that the public will be as very happy with the Children’s Museum as they are with Millennium Park.”

Reilly and the other opponents, however, are considering lawsuits and a temporary restraining order to block construction.

Museum attorney Ted Novak predicted court battles "that can take a number of years," Novak said.

            --Marie Balice Ward

 

Commission approves Columbia College media center project

Chicago’s Community Development Commission voted unanimously to recommend to the City Council that the City sell a parcel of land on the southwest corner of 16th and State Streets to Columbia College Chicago so it can build a 38,000 square foot media production center.

Designed by Studio Gang Architects, the center would be the first new construction for the college and feature two sound stages, a studio, an animation lab, classrooms, and spaces for production design and costumes. The project will cost an estimated $21 million.

Alderman Pat Dowell of the 3rd Ward said, “I am delighted to support the sale of City-owned land to help create the media production center for Columbia College. We are proud to have this leading educational institution expand in the South Loop in the 3rd Ward. I will continue to work with Columbia to assure minority hiring and contracting for this project and to provide community access to the facility and address parking needs.”

                                                                                                                    --Marie Balice Ward