Groundbreaking for the new central library will be this fall, the city`s commissioner of planning said Thursday. Commissioner Elizabeth Hollander, panelist at a bag-lunch meeting of Friends of Downtown, also said the contract between the city and developer, the SEBUS Group, was ”imminent.” She provided no dates, however. Robert Wislow, chairman of U.S. Equities Realty Inc., lead firm of SEBUS, said later that groundbreaking would be ”late fall” but no date had been set. Wislow and Cindy Pritzker, a member of the library board, also sat on the panel, which discussed how the block immediately north of the new library should be developed. ”Open space is really not the answer,” Pritzker said, but added that ”indoor atrium space” offered potential. All three panelists agreed that part of the block should be devoted to retail space and that whatever is built should house a terminal for CTA subway and elevated trains.
