LaSalle National Bank has issued a $9.7 million letter of credit to developers renovating the Ginger Ridge apartment complex in Calumet City. The total $33 million rehabilitation effort will result in the eventual ownership and management of the complex by a mutual housing association of residents and community partners.
The complex will be reduced to 469 units from 934, providing for larger apartments with a more community-oriented design. Public funding will allow Low-income residents to remain in the complex.
Construction of a community center, which will provide day care, a computer learning center and space for recreation and community activities, is also part of the project.
The long troubled Ginger Ridge complex had a history of failed redevelopment efforts before falling into foreclosure. In 1996, the mutual housing association–including residents, New Cities Community Development Corp., South Suburban Action Conference and the City of Calumet City–was formed to buy and renovate the property.
Kristin Faust, senior vice president in LaSalle’s community development banking division, said the innovative housing partnership also includes the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Illinois Housing Development Authority and Cook County Department of Planning and Development.
Screen doors
Springfield-based Kerasotes Theatres has hired Birtcher Construction Services to build 200 new cinema screens in several multiplexes across the Midwest.
The first 12 screens in the venture have been completed in north suburban Lake in the Hills, and complexes are under construction in Rockford, South Bend, Edwardsville and Poplar Bluff, Mo., and Coon Rapids and Invergrove Heights, Minn.
An additional 104 screens are set to be built over the next 24 months in unspecified locations. All of the projects will feature stadium seating, where the screen is set at ground level and all the seats are terraced upward from there.
Plenty of penne
Chicago-based McClier has been awarded the design/build contract for Barilla’s new $137 million, 400,000-square-foot pasta production and distribution facility in Ames, Iowa.
The facility, which will produce more than 200 million pounds of product a year, will rank as one of the largest pasta plants in the country when it is completed in next June.
The project, which includes a durum wheat mill to make semolina, the flour used for pasta, is set on 240 acres along Interstate Highway 35. The site was one of seven considered nationwide for the plant. Barilla expects to add nearly 150 jobs to the Ames area when the facility is fully operational.
Golden opportunity
Baird & Warner has joined the ranks of realty firms with upper bracket specialty groups with its opening of a Luxury Residences Division to market high-end and distinctive properties in the Chicago area.
Called Golden Doors, the new division will provide enhanced direct mail and high-impact media marketing for homes whose value is generally in the top 10 percent of the market.
Homes must be priced at $500,000 and over to qualify, although other listings with particular cultural or historical significance could be considered.
Stephen W. Baird, Baird & Warner president, said the new division was created in response to the growing sophistication of the luxury residential market, where more targeted promotion is the order of the day.
Heading the Golden Doors development team is Linda Shaughnessy, who has more than a decade of experience in the Chicago luxury property arena. She said the program would integrate print, broadcast and interactive media in a multidimensional marketing strategy.
Coat rack
Burlington Coat Factory has opened a new off-price superstore in south suburban Lansing. The 80,000-square-foot store is being added to the lineup in the Landings Shopping Center at 16895 S. Torrence Ave.
The Lansing store will also house the company’s Baby Depot, Luxury Linens and Shoe departments. The store, one of about 250 nationwide for Burlington, will employ about 150.
Retiring with a victory
Victory Health Services, a Waukegan-based non-profit organization, is developing The Village at Victory Lakes, a 68-acre continuing care retirement community in north suburban Lindenhurst.
The retirement community will feature 100 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, 60 assisted-living units and 40 two- and three-bedroom cottages. Planned amenities for the project include a 30,000-square-foot community center that will house health and fitness facilities, a library, theater, convenience store and restaurant-style dining.
Victory Health Services is affiliated with Victory Memorial Hospital in Waukegan. The project is scheduled for completion next fall.
Deal of the week
DSC Logistics, one of the country’s largest materials handling firms, has expanded its lease at the former Allsteel headquarters in Montgomery, Ill., and now occupies 750,000 square feet in the project.
Podolsky Northstar Realty Partners, which handled the transaction, said DSC also negotiated facility renovations in the deal.
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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.
