One Fewer Vacant Spaces at Water Tower Place

Getting around Water Tower Place has been pretty confusing this year.  Lord & Taylor's exit brought massive renovations, the American Girl Place,  and a big shuffle of many of the stores.  Things are starting to settle down now, and if you've browsed around the mall lately, you've noticed that the stores seem to be arranged in zones now.

There's a zone for cougar/soccer mom fashion stores, a zone for watches and jewelry stores, a zone for stores specializing in peddling prostitution wear to 12-year-olds, and even a zone for the occasional dad or boyfriend who gets dragged into the place.

One of the newcomers is a place we haven't heard of before until we saw a sign for it.  Aritzia is described by Michigan Avenue magazine as both "fashion forward" and "Canadian."  Take that for what it's worth, we'll welcome an import from Canuckistan if it means filling up a vacant space.

Good luck to them.

The high architectural price of Diesel

Everyone knows gas is expensive.  And diesel is more.  But the people running the Diesel store on Rush Street should ask for their money back.

After being closed all Spring and most of the Summer for interior and exterior renovations -- this is what it looks like.  Exposed screws in the facade, and a paint job that looks like it was done by pigeons with the runs.

Maybe it's supposed to look gritty, or industrial, or urban.  But it just doesn't work.  It looks dirty, and it certainly doesn't fit in with the surrounding buildings or the squeaky clean Gold Coast.

Progress report: The Elysian

How's that Elysian coming along?  Take a look for yourself.  The combination hotel and residential tower at the corner of Rush Street and Oak Street is really having an impact on the Gold Coast skyline.



Down below, it's starting to shape up pretty nicely, too.  Walking past, you can clearly see the area where the circular driveway will be.   That's being put in in order to reduce congestion on Rush and State streets from idling cars.  The faux-French rooflines on the lower floors are coming together nicely, and it seems like it's going to be a much nicer tower than everyone feared.



Oh, and there's a note in Women's Wear Daily that a Marc Jacobs Collection boutique will be part of the ground floor retail space.  Just in case you hadn't already heard.

Oak Street diamond may shine again

The former diamond of Oak Street may get a chance to shine again.

The Chicago Tribune reports that South Africa's DeBeers company is thinking about opening a boutique in the former Esquire Theater building.  

The Esquire has been vacant for quite some time.  Plans to redevelop it into a hotel were nixed by the neighbors who worried about traffic and noise.  A quiet upscale diamond merchant, however, would fit in nicely.  After all Harry Winston and Graff have both been welcomed to Oak Street with open arms recently.

It's worth noting that Chicago is a little behind on getting a glance from DeBeers.  The company has operated a shop in Houston's Galleria mall for at least a year, and probably longer.

Another note -- the same Tribune article reports that Penguin in the 900 North Michigan Annex (Rush Street) will open on July 30th.  But there are signs up inside the mall stating that Penguin is already open for business.  Hmmm...

Another VACANCY sign at 900 North Michigan

It's probably not that surprising, but another big store is closing at the Shops at 900 North Michigan.  The Magnificent Mile's northernmost mall is losing Waldenbooks.  The book seller has sent out "store closing" e-mail messages to thousands of (soon to be former) customers.

To be honest, the location wasn't that great for the store and we're surprised it lasted as long as it did.  900 doesn't get as much foot traffic as the rest of the Boul Mich, and as you get higher up in these vertical malls the number of people wandering by dwindles.

It's just the latest in a series of changes at the mall.  Ultra-high-end crystal purveyor Lalique closed its shop a few weeks ago.  That doesn't appear to be the Chicago store's fault, though.  Lalique has closed a number of its boutiques recently, including one at the Louvre in Paris that will become an Apple Store.  The Lalique space at 900 is being taken by an expanded Mont Blanc pen store.  But for the expansion, Mont Blanc is closed.  Just before the closing, Lalique's manager was telling customers that it would re-open, possibly on Oak Street.

Also closed for renovation is the Oak Tree restaurant.  Oak Tree closed for a little while last year, too, but not for renovation.  At the time the wait staff told customers it was going out of business.  Now the staff is saying that it's a renovation and Oak Tree will be back in the September/October time frame.

Also currently closed is the first floor of what used to be Club Monaco.  The store is keeping its second floor, but the first floor is becoming a Michael Kors store.  Closing the lower half means there is no longer any men's items at that location.

Michael Kors also has its eye on the current Stewart Weitzman space for a second boutique.  We hear it will be a while before Weitzman moves out, possibly up to a year.

While you're updating your 900 North Michigan chess board, don't forget Tucci Benucch was replaced by Frankie's, and King Cafe replaced Corner Bakery.

Overall it looks like a major play by the mall to make itself more upscale to compete or blend better with Oak Street and set itself apart from the riff-raff chain stores popping up all over Michigan Avenue (Best Buy, Crate and Barrel, etc...)  What might accomplish this better is if 900 figured out a way to convert its Oak Street-facing loading dock into a mall entrance.