Local citizens say that rehabilitation of the former Plymouth Hotel is possible.
William Hersh, a member of the Uptown Chicago Commission, would like the aldermen to push the city to conduct its own inspection of the Plymouth Hotel building before granting developer Joseph Freed license to tear the 91-year-old structure down.
“The building is a very good building and should be used as opposed to being destroyed,” Hersh said.
Hersh worries that Freed, whose current development portfolio hosts mainly suburban strip malls, has no appreciation for the historical aspects of the Uptown Historic District Community.
Located at the corner of Broadway and Leland Ave., the Plymouth Hotel is at the southern tip of the Goldblatt’s complex, which extends from 4700-4740 N. Broadway and is currently owned by Lou Wolfe. Last April, the building was partially damaged by an arson fire set by a homeless man.
Freed’s $22 million project includes 37 condominiums as well as a 42,000 sq. foot retail space. He has already received a letter of intent from Borders Books and Music to occupy 25,000 sq. feet of the complex. He has requested $15 million from the TIF district but has not yet turned over the required financial and engineering studies to the Community Development Council (CDC). This will be discussed at the CDC meeting on Feb. 5.
Paul Fehribach, a member of the Edgewater Uptown Greens, said the exterior of the hotel building is in very good condition.
“They’ve used tuckpointing to seal up mortar and bricks in recent years,” he said.
His concern is that the area’s low-income residents would be driven out if a condominium complex and Borders were to be added. Fehribach would like to see Ald. Helen Schiller do a housing inventory of the 46th ward. A Border’s, he said, would threaten the diversity and affordability of the 46th ward.
“Uptown is the last neighborhood where people of low income have housing resources, with Cabrini being torn down. Low income residents would be priced out of the neighborhood,” Fehribach said. “A project that uses $5.5 million of taxpayer money is unacceptable when it threatens the [pre-existing] businesses that give vibrancy to the neighborhood.”
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