Block 37, Oh Cursed Ground

By Alicia Dorr in News on Mar 17, 2006 8:20PM

Remember the time when one of the most valuable pieces of property in downtown Chicago sat empty for more than 15 years? You know, the one flanked on all sides by some of the most important business, governmental, theater and shopping districts in the city? Well, we decided the place will never, ever be developed because it is obviously cursed.

That may seem dramatic, but, seriously? The latest construction, which started in November, isn't looking good as construction halted there this week.

The city sold the land at 108 N. State St. to Mills Corp. for a loss of $20 million, but now Mills is apparently having money issues. The Virginia-based developer put itself on the selling block, and now contractors are refusing to work before they are paid. Now we're starting to wonder what will happen to the mixed-use facility, what will become of CBS-2 and the other projected occupants, and why we believe this development has a chance in the first place.

We at Chicagoist will go on nurturing the idea that the organizations and groups that used the empty lot, like Gallery 37, the brat-lovers at the annual Christkindlmarket, the skaters from the now-defunct Skate on State and whatever other ones are all using Block 37 voodoo dolls to prevent any future development.

Whether or not this is true, this whole situation sort of renders the construction cam useless.

Image via Thomas Yanul