By Chris Francescani
July 19 (Reuters) – One of Chicago’s historic Michigan
Avenue buildings has been purchased by the son of late Hyatt
Hotels Corp founder Jay Pritzker and an investment
company, a spokesman for the investment firm AJ Capital Partners
said on Thursday.
John Pritzker and AJ Capital Partners will pay $13 million
for the Chicago Athletic Association building, and another $47
million to turn it into a boutique luxury hotel, said Jeff
Broaden of AJ Capital, who manages investor relations, said in
an email message.
The Chicago Athletic Association building was once home to
the city’s premiere gentlemen’s club of the same name in the
1890s. When member William Wrigley purchased the Chicago Cubs in
1915, he adopted the club’s logo for the team.
The building’s rare Venetian Gothic fa ade, designed by
architect Henry Ives Cobb, is located along the city’s Michigan
Avenue Historic District, facing Grant Park, where President
Barack Obama’s presidential election victory rally was held in
2008.
“Whenever a building can be repurposed as close to its
original intent as possible, that’s always a plus,” said
Jonathan Fine, executive director of Preservation Chicago.
“A boutique hotel has always been the ideal use for this
building. There’s some cache in saying you stayed in a hotel
where William Wrigley once stayed. That’s why people visit
Chicago, for interesting stories like that.”
