The Planning and Development committee of the Edgewater Community Council ( ECC ) voted their approval of a combination Art Bar and residential apartment loft use to occupy the former Com Ed substation at 1128 W. Ardmore at a meeting Oct. 14. This was after hearing a detailed proposal from its East Lansing, Mich., developer Tom Donnel with his Chicago attorney Bill Donahue.
However, at the ECC's executive board meeting the following night, Oct. 15, all but three board members voted the proposal down. The three board members abstained.
Tom Donnel, an East Lansing developer, bar owner and metal sculptor, came prepared to the Oct. 14 committee meeting. He brought along a letter of recommendation from the mayor of East Lansing, photographs of his past projects and architectural renderings of his plans to rehab the old electrical substation into loft apartments and an Art Bar. Donnel specializes in preserving and revitalizing historic buildings in economically depressed commercial districts. The money he invested in the substation came from his own work revitalizing a blighted area of downtown East Lansing.
The Edgewater Chamber of Commerce strongly supports Donnel's plan in order to bring money and people back into Edgewater. Area police attending the Oct. 14 meeting voiced support for Donnel's plan as a solution to clean up the drugs and gangs.
A source from the Edgewater Community Council told Windy City Times that before the Tuesday board meeting Clara Tobin, executive director of the ECC, called the board members asking them if they realized that this bar was a gay bar and telling them to vote the proposal down. Although, the main reason the ECC board cited for voting it down as not wanting to lift the liquor moratorium in the area.
Sheli Lulkin, president of the Edgewater Chamber of Commerce, feels the Donnel will bring life back into the community. When asked about the alleged homophobic phone calls going on behind the scenes at the ECC, she had no comment but to call the ECC board "a bunch of control freaks."
"The perception of the ECC is they have to control everything. They say they do everything possible to get people in the neighborhood to get along. They say they celebrate diversity. They don't. They want to gentrify the area and control. Tom told me this bar was a mixed bar for straight and gay folks. It will be open to everybody in the neighborhood," she said. "We are not going to turn our back on him. He bought the property in good faith. We feel this development is important to the business district in Edgewater. Ald. Patrick O'Connor brought us the Raven Theatre but besides that there is nothing to do in Edgewater. You can't even get a decent mixed drink."
She pointed out that the ECC board on Oct. 15 voted without seeing Donnel's presentation, even when their own committee, which had seen it the night before, had approved it.
Lulkin also said that the ECC has had a history of questionable political moves dating back to the June 15, 2000 resignation of past ECC board president Kimberly Bares-Montiel. Some have said that Bares-Montiel was forced to resign because of her sexual orientation. However, most believe that Bares-Montiel, openly lesbian, had made strides while serving for 14 months in reaching out to the diverse communities. They cite that there were political pressures from other board members who wanted to preserve and maximize their residential investments with little concern for the character of the neighborhood. Bares-Montiel refused to be beholden to these pressures.
Donnel researched many real estate prospects throughout Chicago for his project before he fell in love with the old substation site and had an architectural vision for it. Friends of his in the area, who had visited his bar in East Lansing, encouraged him to move to Edgewater, an area in need of development. He purchased the property and received a building demolition permit to clean out the interior of electrical equipment that Com Ed left behind, which he received from the city Oct. 17. The substation, a former hangout for gangs and prostitutes, receives frequent visits from CAPS officers trying to chase out the gang members. Donnel has already spent hours removing the gang graffiti on the inside walls of the building.
"This building is an art piece," he said. "They don't make anything like this anymore. It's going to be an Art Bar all done by other artists and myself. Everything in it will be hand built. It will be used for parties, community functions and other different functions."
He added, "I'm not just someone who is going to open a bar and not be part of the community. I am planning on living in one of the apartments next door. I spent a lot of time looking around Chicago at properties and this is an area people are moving into."
Donnel's plan for is to build an Art Bar on one side of the building, an open courtyard and four loft apartments on the side closest to the senior citizens' residence. He plans to reside in one of the apartments and rent out the others. He is working with architect Ed Weber, designer of Sidetrack, a long-standing Halsted Street bar. He wants the bar to be a gathering place and art gallery for his work and other artists. The space would have a capacity for 500 people.
There are eight on-site parking spaces, which will be first made available to tenants. Donnel has made arrangements with a neighboring insurance company to lease 90 off-site parking spaces, for nights and weekends, and will offer a valet service, which will direct traffic around the building, through the alley behind the Broadway Armory to arrive at the parking without using the street. But most patrons would come from the nearby neighborhoods by foot, el, bus or bike. The el tracks run directly behind the building. Engineers have examined the building and have said with its massive walls and steel/concrete roof that inside noise would not be heard by the neighbors. There are no immediately adjacent residences. All are separated from the club by a street, railroad track or alley. The club would apply for a 2 a.m. license.
Currently, the zoning of the building is B4-3. Operation of the art bar would require the lifting of the liquor license moratorium for taverns in the immediate two-block area for a one-year period. They are also requesting a zoning variation that will allow them to use off-site valet parking and a special-use permit to operate a public place of amusement.
At the Oct. 14 ECC planning and development committee meeting, a letter from the TAHBS block club was read stating the block club's opposition to the bar being on that particular site. Donnel had already made a presentation to the TAHBS block club Oct. 8. Their concern was for the existing residences ( there are no adjacent residences to the property ) in the area but they thought the development might thrive in a more commercial area of Edgewater. Six people attended the TAHBS meeting. Four voted against the proposal and two abstained. One TAHBS member left early but told another member that he felt bad because he would have voted to support the proposal.
Lulkin posed a question to Michael Hecht, the author of the TAHBS letter and in vocal opposition to the proposal, "Why would a guy fight so hard to stop this when he is moving out of Chicago to Arizona in three weeks?"
Hecht was unavailable for comment.
Donnel said the Edgewater Chamber of Commerce is going to help him win the community's approval. If his proposal does get the approval of all the community groups and City Hall, he expects to begin construction in February.
A moratorium on the issuing of liquor licenses for packaged goods and taverns in the 48th Ward was imposed through an ordinance introduced by Ald. Mary Ann Smith and passed by City Council Oct. 23, 1991. Issuing of new licenses in a moratorium area also requires an aldermanic ordinance. The moratorium must be lifted within the same boundaries designated in the moratorium ordinance—generally two contiguous blocks on both sides of the street. During the 12-month period in which the moratorium is lifted, any existing business may apply and be issued a liquor license after undergoing the city approval process. Also, new businesses may apply for a package goods or tavern license after undergoing a city approval process. If the moratorium is lifted in a given area allowing for a packaged goods store license, another ordinance would be required to lift the ordinance on taverns and vice versa.
The ECC's planning and development committee voted to approve an application for an incidental liquor license by Ann Sather restaurant, 5207 N. Clark. This will be used for after-hours parties and banquets. However, there was only a brief mention of additional parking considerations for the area before it was approved.
A group made up of ECC members and Edgewater Neighbors block club members have planned a meeting to work on voting the east end of the Granville/Winthrop block dry, which would mean shutting down the two liquor stores on the corner. The meeting will be Nov. 9 at 6044 N. Broadway.
