Evanston, the historic gateway to the North Shore, is refusing to show its age. What’s happening is more than just a facelift. The downtown of the city of 75,000 is being rebuilt, block by block, and humming with a new vibrancy.
Two new projects will be major additions to the emerging urban ambience. They are Optima Horizons, a 248-unit condo building; and Sherman Plaza, a mixed-use development with 212 condos, shops, parking garage and health club.
“Downtown is rocking on Saturday nights,” said Judy Aiello, Evanston’s assistant city manager. “It’s not a quiet neighborhood anymore.”
The magnet for much of the action is Church Street Plaza, which opened in 2001. The mixed-use complex, located between the Metra and CTA tracks, includes a cinema with 18 screens, a Wolfgang Puck restaurant, stores and a 1,400-car parking garage.
“The Century Cinema is a strong anchor. It changed the complexion of downtown by adding an entertainment component,” said James Klutznick, a partner in Sherman Plaza LLC, the developer of Sherman Plaza, a few steps from Century Cinema.
Other recent downtown developments include a 175-room Hilton Garden Inn and the six-story 909 Davis Building, with the majority of its 195,245 square feet leased by McDougall Littell, a textbook publisher.
Private investments have totaled more than $500 million, plus more than $50 million in public investments in the last 10 to 15 years, according to Aiello.
The key to becoming a 24-hour urban enclave lies in increasing the number of downtown residents. In the last 10 years, seven new downtown residential projects have created 968 new units, a mix of rental and for-sale.
Projects expected to start this year and beyond will add another 1,000 units.
They include Optima Horizons, which is under way. The site where the condos will be built was not on the market. “It was an underutilized parking lot next to an office building. We saw its potential,” said David Hovey, president of Optima Inc., the developer, based in Glencoe.
However, Hovey had to modify his original plans because of neighborhood opposition.
He had wanted to build a 36-story structure on the parking lot, bounded by Clark Street, Benson Avenue and Elgin Road.
“We compromised by designing . . . horizontally. It’s 16 stories high and 400 feet long and will have 248 units, the same number as the high-rise,” Hovey said.
Optima Horizons should be completed in early spring of 2005.
Prices range from $195,000 to $500,000 for the one- to four-bedroom units with 700 to 1,700 square feet. The average price is $298,000 with an average of 1,075 square feet.
Views of Lake Michigan will be available from the 8th floor and above, according to Hovey. Amenities will include a garden, fitness center, party room, indoor pool, sundeck and a park.
The 583-car garage will be on the first four floors.
The contemporary look of Optima Horizons will be marked by expanses of green glass with aluminum accents, not typical of Evanston architecture. “Evanston has a lot of red brick. Some people have an affinity for the past, but we’re designing for the 21st Century,” Hovey said.
Optima Horizons is his firm’s third residential project in downtown Evanston in the last three years. The others are Optima Towers, 105 condos, in 2002; and the 28-story Optima Views, 207 condos, now nearing completion.
Hovey noted that several sales have been made to Northwestern students. “It’s not hard for business majors to figure out the advantages of buying and living in the unit while it’s appreciating at an average 8 percent a year.”
Sherman Plaza, the other major downtown project, has begun with the demolition of a Citibank structure. But further demolition is awaiting financing for the development.
When finished, Sherman Plaza will cover almost a city block bounded by Sherman, Davis, Church and Benson.
Various plans for the block’s redevelopment have been considered in recent years. At one time, a Sears department store was to have been the retail anchor and senior housing was suggested for the residential component. Those uses have been discarded.
Plans now call for 155,000 square feet of retail, a 25-story condominium with 220 units, 1,600-car garage and the 87,000-square-foot Lakeshore Athletic Club and Spa.
“Sherman Plaza will be the lynchpin in the redevelopment of downtown Evanston,” said John Terrell, executive vice president of Lakeshore Athletic Clubs, a partner in Sherman Plaza.
“It was a complicated land assemblage,” said Terrell. “We hope to start demolition of the existing garage in August. The goal is to have the new garage up in November 2004. Condo construction should start this fall, with the first move-in in the spring of 2005.”
The condos will be built by Northfield-based Focus Development, builder of Church Street Station, a condo with 105 units that opened in 2001.
“Downtown Evanston has been on the upswing in the last five years. Sherman Plaza is another piece in that puzzle,” said Tim Anderson, president of Focus Development and a partner in Sherman Plaza LLC.
The Residences of Sherman Plaza will be one- to three-bedroom units that range from 837 to 1,913 square feet with prices from $264,900 to $579,900. Penthouses of up to 4,000 square feet are priced from $989,000 to $1.7 million.
Buyers will receive a free one-year membership in the health club, accessible by elevator.
The athletic club will be targeted at a mix of family and corporate members. “We’ll be tapping Evanston and the rest of the North Shore. Memberships will total 3,500 to 4,000,” Terrell said.
The club will be on floors three and four, above the retail. A 50-foot-high climbing wall will be visible from the street. At its base will be 12-foot-high boulders for climbing without ropes. Other facilities will include two swimming pools, basketball court, squash courts and outdoor paddle tennis courts.
Terrell emphasized that separate-looking facades will suggest individual buildings in Sherman Plaza. The architectural theme of rounded corners will tie the structures together.
“The surge of economic development in recent years has made Evanston shine,” Terrell said.
This is Evanston’s scorecard for the citywide benefits of new developments: 27 percent increase in the number of businesses since 1997; a 12 percent increase in retail sales taxes from 1999 to 2002; and 1,400 new jobs.
Who is buying at Evanston’s new residential projects?
About a third are from Evanston, followed by lesser percentages from the rest of the North Shore, Chicago and other locales.
“When completed, this will be a real downtown and draw people from north and south,” Klutznick said.
Other planned residential projects include The Reserve Apartments, with 193 rental units; and Tom Roszak’s Sienna at 1100 Clark St., with 348 units.
“We’re not totally done with the housing boom. Maybe we’ll have a few more in-fill housing projects downtown,” said Evanston’s assistant city manager Aiello.
She views downtown as a work in progress: “It will never be done. Downtown is dynamic, and we will want to keep it vital and current.”
