Hotel Coming to Wicker Park's "Crotch"?

By Karl Klockars in News on Sep 22, 2008 7:00PM

The Chicago Journal has recapped a bit of the legal proceedings that are in process to take the Northwest Tower Building (located at the intersection of Milwaukee, Damen, and North a.k.a. the "crotch" of Wicker Park) from commercial to crash-pad. MCM Realty knows right now that they'd like to put a hotel in there...but other than that, they're not too sure about much else.

The building would house 90 rooms, with a restaurant and lobby on the 2nd floor and lodging taking up floors 3 through 12. MCM doesn't know (or isn't saying yet) who would do the developing, nor who would be managing the hotel - and they haven't shown any other plans to anyone else, including Alderman Scott Waguespack. He's in favor of the hotel but isn't going to move forward until more details are available and public input is gathered.

"We said, until you come up with a development plan we're not going to move forward on it," Waguespack said. "You can't just throw up a hotel."

Chicago Real Estate Daily has additional info, including info about the scrapped plan by MCM to convert the three buildings north of the tower to a mixed use development which went nowhere. (If you'd like to make an offer on any of those buildings, their info is online here. Good luck flipping 'em in this market.)

Until any progress is made, if you're desparately in need of lodgings in Wicker Park, there are 33 B&Bs in the neighborhood, including the Wicker Park Inn. (Why does the idea of staying in the Blue Line Studio make us feel slightly dirty?)

Photo from Loopnet.