The John Buck Co. is probably best known for its high-rise building projects that help keep Chicago looking up. But John A. Buck II also has his down-to-earth side aimed more at pedestrians.
He is trying to sell fellow downtown property owners on three improvement plans:
— A $2 million to $7 million beautification of Wacker Drive between Van Buren and Lake Streets that would include extensive landscaping and building a major fountain.
— A more than $6.5 million underground retail mall/tunnel system linking Buck`s 190 South LaSalle Building, which is under construction at Adams and LaSalle Streets, with the Palmer House at State and Monroe Streets. The mall would connect into the First National Bank Building at Clark and Madison Streets and also could include a spur to the Everett McKinley Dirksen Federal Building at 219 S. Dearborn.
— A multimillion-dollar landscaped ”River Walk” that would include shops and restaurants, and would extend from the South Loop River City development along the Chicago River, skirting the downtown area.
Of those projects, Buck said he sees the Wacker Drive beautification as the most likely to become reality.
”We`re close to getting that plan off the ground,” Buck said, adding he has been working on it since the mid-1970s. He had Loop architects Skidmore Owings & Merrill draw up plans for the project.
”It is exclusively a private (funding) effort,” Buck said. ”We also have full support from the city with everything but funds.”
Buck said he and other property owners are working out details of paying for the project. He said the formula probably will be based on a combination of relative assessed valuation, square footage of buildings and lineal footage fronting on Wacker Drive.
The property owners had considered having the city put up the money through a bond issue, which would have been paid off by creating a special taxing district composed of the Wacker Drive buildings, but the property owners decided to pay for it themselves.
If completed according to the Skidmore plan, the project would include:
— Landscaping with mature street trees in raised planters and flowers and ground cover. The landscaping would be concentrated along the median ramps and openings to Lower Wacker Drive and would include major plantings at Van Buren and Lake Streets that would create entryways into the corridor. Sidewalks also would have landscape elements.
— Repaving of sidewalks and crosswalks in varying colors and patterns.
— New light fixtures similar to the ones installed on the east-west stretch of Wacker Drive. The fixtures would lend themselves to attaching colorful banners to announce civic events, such as performances at the Civic Opera Building at 20 N. Wacker Drive.
— A major fountain on the median between Madison and Washington Streets
(in front of the Opera House) that would include a pool containing sculptures by prominent artists.
Buck, however, said it is likely the project would be scaled back, eliminating the fountain and other construction elements. That would bring the cost down to about $2 million.
Buck said he also has hope for the underground mall development, which is being drawn up by the Skidmore firm.
”Most of the owners are interested,” Buck said. ”Then we have to figure out the financing.
”It`s a long pull–I`m working on it part-time–and it doesn`t give any immediate cost benefit. But I think this would be fairly interesting to the city, and useful, too.”
Buck said the benefits would include linking the buildings along the mall`s path with the subway lines along Dearborn and State Streets and providing an east-west walkway through downtown during inclement weather. In addition, the Dearborn Street spur would give the many lawyers in the office buildings along the mall`s path a direct link to the federal courts in the Dirksen Building.
The mall would lend itself to specialized retailers, such as shoe repair and shoe shine shops, pharmacies and tailors, who cannot afford the high rents of ground-level space.
The River Walk plan, Buck admits, is the most fanciful, but not beyond completion.
Buck envisions a walkway along the east bank of the river north from the River City development that would lead into small city parks on the south bank of the river at its bend in the North Loop. The walkway would require some major construction along buildings that are built right up to the river, such as the Opera House. Buck said he had no estimate of the total cost.
But three sponsors–his company, Illinois Bell and River City–have agreed to share the cost of preliminary plans for the project.
”It`s such a romantic idea,” Buck said. ”It does have some hope. If it happens, you can bet your boots it would spur retail (development).”
Buck acknowledges that getting diverse groups to work jointly is complicated, but the more intricate the deal, the better he likes it.
Witness his development at 190 South LaSalle St., where Buck had to work with a score of property owners and some skeptical prospective tenants and financial backers before he could get it off the ground.
”That was a very interesting job for me,” Buck recalled. ”It was a very complex land acquisition.”
The site of the new building, which included the former home of Exchange National Bank, was divided into two parts–about three-fourths owned jointly by some 17 descendants of the Trude family, which owned it since 1912, and the rest owned by the Otis family, through a land trust with Continental Illinois National Bank.
Trying to buy up all the interests was complicated by the fact that the exsiting building was on land about split between the two families, with a parking garage on the rest of the land owned by the Trude family. Exchange National Bank had a long-term lease in the existing building. While Buck was working on the deal, the bank bought the Otis family piece.
But after extensive negotiations with the bank and the 17 Trude decendants, Buck closed the deal for an option on the land. He was aided by Exchange National`s purchase of the next door Central National Bank, which gave the bank a new home.
But that only gave Buck half a deal. He still needed to find a major tenant to commit to the new building so he could secure financing.
Enter Mayer Brown & Platt, a major Loop law firm looking for a new office.
The firm already had been in the market for about two years and had narrowed its choices to two other new developments. But Buck, through a friend at the firm, was able to get a meeting with the real estate committee to present his proposal.
”That was the toughest meeting I ever had,” Buck recalled. ”I spent most of the time trying to convince them it (the building) would really get done.”
After clearing that hurdle, Buck similarly had to convince the firm`s partnership of the viability of his development plan. He succeeded.
”That deal actually sprung us and made it (the construction)
financeable,” Buck said.
Today, structural work on the 42-story office building has been completed and Buck has commitments on 30 percent of the 800,000 square feet of office space. The commitments include the 200,000 square feet Mayer Brown & Platt will occupy.
He hired the well-known architectural partnership of Philip Johnson and John Burgee for the project.
Buck faced similar obstacles in the development of the block bounded by Wacker Drive, State, Dearborn and Lake Street. Several ambitious plans for the city-owned block had been advanced over the years, but none materialized.
Buck said he intially entered the project as a consultant to the advertising firm of Leo Burnett Company Inc., which wanted to relocate to about 500,000 square feet of office space. Buck had planned to move the firm to an office tower on that North Loop block, with Leo Burnett being a joint-venture partner in the construction.
But the developer with the option to buy the land defaulted, apparently setting Leo Burnett and Buck back the approximately one year they had worked on finding the firm a new office.
”We finally recommended that they (Leo Burnett) go after that block themsleves,” Buck said. The advertising firm was successful.
Although Buck had been hired only as a consultant, Leo Burnett decided later to build without a partner and to hire Buck`s firm as the developer. Buck won the contract over several competitors and, in addition, will be leasing agent for the approximately 500,000 square feet of office space that Leo Burnett will not use.
Characteristically, Buck hired another top architect for that project:
Kevin Roche, head of the successor firm to the late, world-renowned architect Eero Saarinen.
Another firm is developing the 400- to 600-room hotel and about 100,000 square feet of retail space to be built on the block.
Buck, 42, a native Texan, formed the John Buck Co. in 1981. He moved to Chicago in 1971 to join Cushman & Wakefield Inc., where he was a senior vice president until 1978.
Buck was a partner in the development of 200 South Wacker, a 40-story, 860,000-square-foot building that now houses his firm on the top floor.
Although Buck`s construction projects provide his greatest visability, he said development only accounts for about one-fifth of his firm`s income.
Buck`s early background in real estate was in leasing, including an assignment as co-manager of the leasing program for Sears Tower, the world`s tallest building.
Today, building management plays a large role in the company`s activities. The firm handles about 2 million square feet of space.
The company also acts as a consultant for clients such as the American Medical Association in its revitalization plan for its prime Near North property and the Sante Fe Corp.
The John Buck Co. also includes a financing section.
