Hank Zuba is not an ordinary real estate developer.
The 48-year-old former priest, missionary in Panama, linguist, fair housing activist, urban planner and Oak Park village trustee has emerged as one of the Chicago-area`s leading promoters of suburban downtowns as an ideal location for new residential developments.
Since 1986, first as an official of Rescorp Development and now as president of Merriam/Zuba Ltd., he has been involved in building more than $85 million of apartments, condominiums and retail space in downtown Arlington Heights, Evanston and Rolling Meadows.
Urban housing became a career goal for then-Father Zuba, a graduate of Quigley Preparatory Seminary North and St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, while completing work on his graduate degree in social sciences at the University of Chicago Center for Urban Studies.
Fluent in Spanish and Polish, he served for a time as a missionary in Panama, eventually returning to Chicago to work in non-profit housing programs.
At the age of 27, Zuba left the priesthood and served as coordinator for suburban areas and director of assisted housing for the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities.
Since 1977 he has been senior urban planner for Urban Investment and Development Co., vice president-project manager of Madsen Corp. in Madison, Wis., vice president of Rescorp Development and now head of his own real estate development firm.
Throughout his career, Zuba said, he has been convinced of the value of multi-family living within walking distance of transportation, shopping and social amenities, a lifestyle he described as ”carefree and car-free.”
”Moving the concept to suburban centers for a long time was thought to be `contrarian` by residents already in the suburbs and especially by lenders who viewed suburban multi-family residences strictly as garden developments away from the center of town,” he said.
He first recognized downtown potential while working from 1977 to 1986 as an urban planner for Urban Investment and Development Co., specializing in development of ancillary land around Urban shopping centers.
During his involvement with the firm`s mixed-use projects in Santiago, Chile; Panama City; Los Angeles; Boston and Denver, Zuba sought unsuccessfully to interest Urban in a project for downtown Arlington Heights.
It wasn`t until 1986 when he joined Madsen Corp. as vice president-project manager that he found a developer to share his enthusiasm for downtown.
Co-financed by Rescorp Development and Cragin Federal Savings, Madsen developed Dunton Tower, 50 S. Vail St., the first of several such projects that have reshaped the skyline of downtown Arlington Heights.
The high-rise Dunton Tower encompassed 216 apartments and 14,000 square feet of retail connected by a sky bridge to an 800-space municipal parking garage.
Its success prompted Zuba to join Rescorp as vice president of its development arm and ”begin to really focus on the suburban downtown.”
Completed in 1988 were two major projects:
– 200 Arlington Place, Northwest Highway and Evergreen Street, Arlington Heights, with 40,000 square feet of retail space and 409 apartments connected by a sky bridge to 800 enclosed parking spaces.
– Evanston Place, Church Street and Chicago Avenue, Evanston, with 170 apartments on air space over and in front of a five-story, 800-space parking garage.
Zuba met the late former Chicago Ald. Robert E. Merriam and discovered the two shared a common interest in the concept of downtown housing. Early in 1988 they formed a partnership, Merriam/Zuba Ltd., and began work on two northwest suburban projects: Evergreen House, 28 condominiums at 110 S. Evergreen St., Arlington Heights, and Kirchoff Meadows, 124 apartments at 3365 Kirchoff Rd., Rolling Meadows.
Although Merriam died five months later while the projects were still in the planning stages, Zuba has continued with the development firm.
The six-story Evergreen House was completed in March, 1990, with 18 of its 28 condominiums sold and occupied.
The 1,200- to 1,800-square-foot units have two bedrooms and two baths;
some also include dens. They are priced from $120,000 to $198,000 for the largest ”penthouse” units, which include 600-square-foot roof decks that overlook downtown Arlington Heights. Other units have balconies.
Each unit includes full-size washer and dryer, fully applianced kitchen, large closets, private storage room, wood parquet or ceramic tile entry floorings. There are 46 parking spaces, half of them indoors. Monthly assessments range from $75 to $110.
”Location is the key to this and other downtown residential projects,”
Zuba said. ”The convenience of walking distance to shopping, services and transportation have special appeal to empty nesters as well as to young professionals. They no longer are enslaved by reliance on cars.”
Typical of new downtown residents are Ed and Lorraine Reuter, a retired couple who moved into their new Evergreen House condo last June.
”We spent 43 years in our home in Niles, which we loved, and I was apprehensive about the move,” said Lorraine, formerly general manager of Progressive Lithoplate & Supply Co. in Chicago. ”But we`re happy. We can walk to everything, the village has made the downtown area very attractive, and we feel very secure, not only in the building but on the streets. We very quickly came to like Arlington Heights.”
The discovery of Evergreen House came only after the Reuters searched for three months-”to as far as Vernon Hills and Crystal Lake”-to find a townhouse or condo that met their requirements.
”Space was our top priority,” said Ed, who worked 43 years as a senior technician in platemaking for R.R. Donnelly & Sons Inc.
”Originally, we wanted a townhouse but couldn`t find any with adequate room sizes,” he said. ”Lorraine was concerned about being stranded too far out if something happened to me or we couldn`t drive anymore. And so many of the complexes were too massive, almost institutional-like.”
It was their daughter, Susan Franz, of Arlington Heights, who told them of Evergreen House.
”As soon as we walked in, I knew right away this was what who told them of Evergreen House.
”As soon as we walked in, I knew right away this was what I wanted when I saw the 475-square-foot living room,” laughed Lorraine. ”We do a lot of entertaining and need a large dining area. We seated 16 for Thanksgiving and Christmas and weren`t crowded at all.”
Her daughter has three children, and her son, Steve, of Valparaiso, Ind., has four.
In addition to the room sizes and downtown location, Lorraine said their new home has other advantages.
”With only six units on our floor, there`s no depressing long hallway, and I look out my windows at a residential neighborhood. There`s a mix of young and old people here that also makes it nicer,” she said.
”I hated to leave our single-family home, but we`ve really enjoyed watching someone else shoveling snow.”
Zuba said similar profiles can be found at his newly opened Kirchoff Meadows apartments located in ”downtown” Rolling Meadows near the shopping center, park, senior citizen center, post office and library.
”The city has no traditional downtown except the shopping district, but this residential project is helping to create a core, a sense of neighborhood and activity,” he said.
The three-story elevator building has eight efficiency, 73 one-bedroom and 43 two-bedroom units that rent from $600 to $900 a month. Fifty-six apartments have been leased since the opening in October, 1990.
Tenant amenities include a washer/dryer in each unit, hospitality and exercise rooms, private pool and sun deck. Pets are allowed, and one-third of the tenants have them.
”Originally, we targeted this building to older tenants and empty nesters, but half of our tenants turned out to be younger people who work in the suburbs,” Zuba said. ”The rental market is pretty active. We`ve averaged 15 to 20 leases a month.”
Zuba said his Arlington Heights projects brought several thousand people into the downtown area ”as residents and customers, creating the focal point for quality business. Downtowns are dead at night without residents.”
Since 1970 Zuba and his wife, Dr. Marge Zuba, dean of students at Oak Park-River Forest High School and an instructor at Northern Illinois University, have lived in a 70-year-old Queen Anne home in the Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District. They have two sons, a freshman at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., and a junior at Oak Park-River Forest High School.
Despite his success as a developer, Zuba continues to pursue public service. An Oak Park village trustee since 1988, he also is a board member of the Northwest Housing Partnership, a non-profit housing development corporation now working on elderly housing in downtown Palatine.
What of the future?
”I want to continue turning downtowns back to pedestrians,” Zuba said.
”The area is more than just commuters and shouldn`t be just car-driven.”
In addition to another downtown residential project in Arlington Heights and expansion of Kirchoff Meadows, Zuba said he is looking at development sites in Oak Lawn and West Chicago as well as assisted housing programs in Chicago.
”Suburban downtown land costs have not inflated as much as outlying areas and these locations are being discovered,” he said. ”Whether development is condo or rental depends on what`s financeable. Right now, lenders are more willing to put money in rentals.”
