CHICAGO—The old North Shore Retirement Hotel, a building for senior citizens in Evanston at 1611 Chicago Ave., sits in a very desirable area and a developer could easily choose to transform it into luxury student housing or high-end rental apartments, but Horizon Realty Group, a local developer, has opted to preserve it as a retirement community.
“Because of its location, there were many options for this parcel, and we looked at it from every angle, but in the end, we didn't want to displace the seniors,” says Jeffrey Michael, the chief operating officer of Horizon, which bought it last year. “The building has gotten kind of tired and it has not been renovated in many years,” and even though that has caused it to lose tenants, Michael says it remains one of the few places in Evanston and the surrounding towns that provides seniors with comfortable homes they can rent, instead of purchase, a key housing need Horizon wants to continue providing.
“This is for active, agile seniors who want to take advantage of everything that Evanston has to offer like its theaters and restaurants, but don't want to make the kind of commitment you need to buy. We're going to do really high-end luxury living, but in a rental atmosphere.”
The existing 68,000-square-foot building was constructed around 1920, Michael says, and was turned into a retirement community sometime back in the 1970's. In Phase I of the $19 million reconstruction, which Horizon started this week and hopes to finish early next spring, they will remake its public spaces, and provide residents with a new dining room, kitchen, library, lounge and bistro. The current 185 units will get cut down to 140 as Horizon expands the tiniest rooms that date back to the building's origin as a hotel.
And on August 12, the Evanston City Council approved Phase II, a new 65,000-square-foot, eight-story building, which beginning in January, will start rising adjacent to the old. Here, over the course of about 16 months, Horizon will add 65 new units, for a final total of 205.
Other additions will include an indoor pool, theater, card room, wellness center, two-story atrium and more ground-level retail space.
“When you walk in, it will be like walking into a five-star hotel,” Michael adds. Residents will pay between $2,000 and $2,500 per month, although that will also include meals, housekeeping and furniture.
Although Horizon has done hotel renovations before, this is their first foray into senior housing. But they were drawn into the project by something more than a bottom line calculation. “We have sentimental ties to the building as well,” says Michael.
When they first toured the property together, Danny Michael, Jeffrey's father, and the company's founder and chief executive officer, got a shock when he stepped into the old hotel ballroom and realized this was where he got married. “He assumed the ballroom did not exist anymore,” and for the Michaels, seeing this now-underutilized space restored to grandeur will be a great pleasure.
“Right now, it's a very tired building; it's certainly clean, but it really needs this shot in the arm.”
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
