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Crain's Chicago Business is reporting that Michigan developer Villiage Green Companies is looking to the City of Chicago to help finance conversion of a 45 story vintage office building into apartments, after private financing fell through.
The failed financing is the latest trial for the ramshackle Gothic Revival office tower, which is well-known for its crumbling terra cotta facade and has made two trips to Bankruptcy Court this decade. Village Green, which wants to convert the building into 313 apartments, is pushing ahead despite the bad economy, betting that the downtown rental market will pull out of its slump by the time the project, called Randolph Tower City Apartments, is finished.Since the Central Loop TIF district expired in 2008, the $20 million in financing disappeared, too. But that hasn't dampened the optimism of Village Green Senior Vice-president Kenneth Barnes. "It's sort of like Humpty Dumpty," Barnes told Crain's. "We've spent the last six months picking up the pieces and putting them back together again." And putting Humpty Dumpty back together again includes all of King Daley's horses and all of King Daley's men, or at least $141-million in diverted taxpayer dollars. Village Green plans to avoid private investment altogether, using instead a mix of TIF funds, Illinois Housing Development Authority bonds and federal tax credits for low-income housing. The proposed apartment complex, which will cost about $450,000 a unit to construct, will include 62 units for low-income tenants. The city is reportedly "trying to find a new way to provide TIF money to Randolph Tower."The Farmington Hills, Mich.-based developer took a big step forward last year, when the city approved a $20-million tax-increment financing (TIF) subsidy for the conversion. Then the global financial crisis hit, scaring off the private lenders Village Green was counting on to back municipal bonds for the project issued by the city.
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I don't understand...how can a michigan property use city TIF funds?
Is this not illegal?
Michigan based company, local apartment building.
What's criminal is that while the city is nearly bankrupt it is continuing to divert tax revenue through TIFs to private developers for private purposes.
always wondered about that building. so beautiful, yet so broken.
What city assets can Daley auction off to pay for this? Perhaps he can have a private company charge us for the air we breathe.
This makes me want to grind my teeth in rage. They've already gotten 20 million in TIF money, they shouldn't get one penny more.
Read the article, they were approved for $20 million but since they never moved forward with the project they didn't get the money and the TIF expired. That building is quite an eyesore, I walk past it every day. I can't believe the city allows something so close to City Hall to look like that. I hate how the sidewalks are covered with scaffolding. I think it would be better to tear it down at this point.