The Clark Construction Group and its joint venture team have been selected to build Miller Park, the new home for major league baseball’s Milwaukee Brewers.
The massive 1.1 million-square-foot project is scheduled to be ready in time for Opening Day 2000.
The stadium, which will seat 43,000, has a classic, turn-of-the-century design, with the addition of a modern retractable roofing system which will allow the ball club to play on the natural grass field regardless of weather.
Along with the requisite clubhouses, suites and restaurants, the new park will have a distinctly Wisconsin feature–a tailgate party facility. And the new park will also have its own microbrewery.
The architects for the project are a joint venture of HKS Inc. of Dallas, NBBJ Sports and Entertainment of Los Angeles and Eppstein Uhen of Milwaukee.
Playboy plant
Playboy Enterprises last week officially opened its new catalog headquarters in Itasca, a 129,000-square-foot facility that will increase the operation’s office and warehouse space.
The company’s catalog group, which includes merchandising, marketing and customer service, moved into the new building earlier this month.
In addition to state-of-the-art radio frequency inventory tracking, the new facility will include a retail outlet store, set to open later this year.
Depot deal
The Home Depot has leased 90,000 square feet in the former Honeywell office and manufacturing facility in Arlington Heights and will relocate its expanded Midwest headquarters operations there from Schaumburg.
CB Commercial Real Estate Group, which represented the home supply retailer, said the move will entail conversion of 60,000 feet of warehouse space into offices at the site on Illinois Highway 53 and Dundee Road.
Home Depot will more than double its headquarters space in the move.
Fit facility
The Village of Niles has broken ground on a 97,000-square-foot Health and Wellness Center that is designed both for the suburb’s large senior population and for younger families.
The multi-generational project will bring under one roof the village’s full range of recreational facilities, Human Services Department, a senior center and family services professionals.
Burnidge Cassell Associates of Elgin is the architect for the new facility, set to open in September, 1998.
Art acquisition
Kendall College has purchased the former Terra Museum of American Art on Central Street in Evanston and will use the buildings to create a new site for its Mitchell Indian Museum.
When the collection moves next month, it will free up space in Westerberg Hall on Kendall’s campus that will be used to accommodate growing enrollment.
The acqusition and renovation of the former museum was made possible through a series of recent donations to Kendall, including a $1.1 million gift that was the largest in the college’s 63-year history.
Deal of the week
Wausau Insurance has leased 62,000 square feet at Executive Towers I in Downers Grove and will relocate there from Lisle.
U.S. Equities Realty Inc., which negotiated for the tenant, said the lease is one of a handful of recent west suburban transactions by the duo of Rob Salbego and Sven Sykes, both company vice presidents, who have notched more than 400,000 square feet of activity in the last year and a half.
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Chicago Tribune real estate editor Steve Kerch reviews realty news and answers your questions on housing and other topics on The Real Estate Show every Friday from 9:40 to 10 a.m. on Channel 26-WCIU.
