The city is selling the developers two properties totaling 39,000 sf, recently appraised at $376,000, for $1. The sale to W.J. Management, Inc., which hopes to have the project done by early next year by using an "aggressive construction schedule," was endorsed recently by the community development commission.
"This development will certainly add value to the Austin community," says 29th Ward Alderman Isaac S. Carothers. "One of the things we need in the Austin community is a full-service restaurant with table service."
Despite an apparently wide-open market, the site has attracted little interest except for W.J. Management, which owns more than 700 multifamily units on the West and South sides. In addition, the partnership has experience running restaurants and banquet halls in west suburban Wheaton, Aurora and Naperville.
The department of planning and development got no responses to its 2003 request for proposals, according to project manager Michael McCarthy. Likewise, the city found no takers at the Chicago Restaurant Show that same year, he adds.
W.J. Management told the community development commission they are talking to several prospects for the retail space, including Washington Mutual and Subway. In addition, Cole Taylor Bank has agreed to finance nearly $3 million of the project's costs.
The restaurant and retailers will be able to tap a market that includes officers working out of the Chicago Police Department's new precinct house about six blocks west on Madison Street.
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