Miracle on Chicago Avenue: Update

Well, that didn't take long.  Word on the street (literally -- I ran into someone on the street with the answer) is that the demolition of the Dunkin' Donuts, Tony's, the vacant storefront, and the sidewalk newsstand on Chicago Avenue is a Loyola project.  Considering that explosive growth of that institution's physical plant, I guess we shouldn't be surprised.

The existing building has the address of 24 East Chicago Avenue, and was built in 1989.

I'm told that it's going to be ground-floor retail, topped by offices, and five stories of classrooms.  There will be a walkway connecting to the Loyola University Law Center at 25 East Pearson Street.

As for the stores that are soon-to-be-demolished -- they're welcome to return when the new building is finished in 2010, if they want to pay many thousands of dollars in higher rent to be in the new building.  The Dunkin' Donuts franchisee is expected to decline.

This is just the latest in Loyola Universtiy's rapid expansion of its Water Tower campus.  It also recently purchased the 1890 Chicago-State Building and the surface lot next to it for $40 million.  While that building is scuzzy, too, hopefully it can be rehabilitated instead of demolished.

Progress Report: The Clare at Water Tower

Every time we think this building is done, we wait a week and still work continues.  The Clare at Water Tower Place has been chugging along since 2006.  Back in the spring, construction crews put on the top -- a four-story space that looks like it's going to be part mechanical and part some kind of massive solarium.



For those of you who forget what the fugly four-story office building that used to be at this location looked like, there's a video of the demolition over at the Clare's web site.



We can't wait to see what happens at the fanciest old folks home in the Midwest.