Turin Bicycle Wants Its Rubber to Meet the Road

By Victoria Scott

Chris Mailing of Turin Bikes says biking is an avocation for a lifetime. He shows off a custom bike he says will last that long.

Cyclists rallied in Ingraham Park behind the Civic Center at 8 a.m. today to call attention to the fact that this is Bike to Work Week. They sent a broader message as well: Evanston is a bicycling town.

Turin Bicycle, 1027 Davis St., spotted the trend early on. The shop has been catering to cyclists here since it came to Evanston in 1971 but has always "done things differently," says majority owner Chris Mailing. When everyone was selling Schwinn bikes, Turin focused on other brands; these days, it sells a full range of bikes and prides itself on service.

With a downtown population boom that skews toward people with the time and money to ride and with improved cycle technology and heightened concern about the environment and gasoline prices, bicycling is more in the spotlight than ever in Evanston.

The City's recent strategic visioning sessions, says Mr. Mailing, underscored the strong local interest. Seven or eight of the 10 groups of people attending the sessions "brought up bicycling as key to the urban lifestyle – and not because I was there," he says.

Well aware that bicycling reduces traffic and the need for parking facilities, EvMark, the downtown property owners' association, is working with the Chicagoland Bike Federation on a shop-by-bike program, he says.

These factors – along with the concentration of students and faculty at Northwestern University - provide a strong customer base for Turin, which has just completed a soaring renovation that opened the ceiling to the roof beams and freed up floor space. Lee Katz, who started the shop in Chicago in 1965, still has a minority share; he also owns Evanston-based Phoenix International, maker of Lake Cycling shoes. Mr. Mailing bought into Turin in March 2004 after years of juggling a corporate career and a cycling passion.

He started racing in high school in suburban Detroit and continued even after a move to New York City. Four years after relocating to the Chicago area in 1995, he began teaching at the Ed Rudolph Velodrome, an indoor racetrack in Northbrook.

Mr. Mailing talks with enthusiasm about Turin and the wide swath of Evanston it serves. Biking, he says, is an avocation for a lifetime, as enjoyable in old age as in childhood. While he views some other shops as "selling hardware," he says he believes Turin "has failed if our customers don't become cyclists." The shop's mission, he says, is to "make sure our customers are out riding and enjoying their bicycles."

Enjoyment begins, of course, with the bikes themselves. The shop's most popular bikes are the hybrids, which incorporate the frame, flat handlebars and drive train of a mountain bike and the wider tires of a road bike. "They are comfortable and ride well on pavement and gravel trails," he says. Prices for Trek, Bianchi and Specialized hybrids start at $300.

But Turin also features custom-made bicycles. These high-end models, which cost from $5,500 to $10,000, typically sell to cycling enthusiasts in their 20s and 30s who are in the sport for a lifetime and know what they want, says Mr. Mailing. Turin is one of the largest dealers of bicycles by Moots, a custom builder based in Steamboat Springs, Col.

Custom buyers have access to cutting-edge technology as well as made-to-measure design. They are fitted on a size cycle, a stationary bike whose every part can be adjusted. "We take measurements and then keep playing for total comfort and efficiency," says Mr. Mailing.

The bicycles are made of titanium, a lightweight metal with the flex and response properties of steel. Also beloved by aerospace engineers (and architect Frank Gehry), titanium does not fatigue over time. "It will last forever," says Mr. Mailing. But titanium is very difficult to work. "It must be welded in a nitrogen atmosphere," he says. That means the fabricator must blow nitrogen on the junctures while welding. The result: "It provides an unsurpassed ride," he says.

Technological change has come to mainstream bikes as well. Mr. Mailing says the two most crucial improvements since he began riding in the 1970s are the clipless pedal and integrated shifting.

Clipless pedals involve shoe cleats that fit into springs in the pedals. They improve efficiency and obviate the need for a toe piece. Riders can even have the cleat embedded in the soles of comfortable walking shoes, says Mr. Mailing.
With integrated shifting, he says, the shift is built into the brake levers on the handlebar so the rider need not bend over. But beyond these advances, Turin is concerned with bicycle comfort. Customers are invited to receive help with any comfort issues within the first 30 days and get help.

With the Intent to get people out riding, the shop also offers to fix flat tires at no charge the first six months. Alternatively, they will give customers a tube and tire iron and teach them to fix their own flats.

The one shop employee who does not cycle is close to converting, Mr. Mailing reports; he predicts his bookkeeper will soon be on two wheels.

The Real Estate Bubble Is Flattening

Property sales volume in Evanton has lagged year-ago levels for nine of the last 12 months, while price increases in recent months have been modest.

For the new fiscal year that started in March, transactions so far are off 11 percent from 2005-06, although they are up 4 percent from 2004-05.

In the new fiscal year so far, the average selling prices of homes and other property covered by the transfer tax is up just 1.6 percent from the same period in 2005, and 2.8 percent from 2004.

For the full fiscal year that ended in February, average selling prices were up 13 percent from the previous year.

The transfer tax is charged at a rate of $5 per $1,000 of selling price. The city expects to raise $4,000,000 from the transfer tax this year, a level it just barely reached last year.

The largest transaction reported in April was $3 million for a lakefront property at 715 Sheridan Road. The second largest was $2.3 million for an apartment building with ground-floor retail space at 904-914 Sherman Ave.

"That Blue Building" on Sheridan Road to be Replaced

By Bill Smith

A proposed seven-story condominium building at 510 Sheridan Rd. would replace a 1960-era building.

Plans for a new seven-story condominium building at 510 Sheridan Road drew a favorable response in its first review by City staff last week.

Developer Bob Horner said he had met repeatedly with Alderman Melissa Wynne, 3rd Ward, to adjust the design to meet concerns of neighbors.

The project, originally designed to have 44 units, has been reduced to 40 units, with a height ranging from 42 feet on the east end to 73.5 feet at its maximum on the west side of the building, for an average height of just under 58 feet.

Mr. Horner said the changes respond to concerns from neighbors that the new structure not overwhelm the older, shorter buildings to the east of it.

The development team also met with representatives of Design Evanston, Mr. Horner said, who suggested the west end of the building looked too massive. In response, the developer created a setback for the top floor on the west side and added more windows to the west facade.

Ald. Wynne has said she believes the latest design for the project is appropriate for the site.

The site is currently zoned R5, which limits the average height of a building to 50 feet, or five stories. However, the zoning code requires that projects of this size be treated as planned developments. For a planned development in a residential zone, the City Council can choose to increase the height limit by up to 12 feet.

The new building would have 39 two-bedroom units and one three-bedroom unit. Under City zoning, that requires 61 parking spaces.

The development would have 63 parking spaces, 29 enclosed on the first level of the building and the rest in an open parking lot behind the building.

Mr. Horner said the existing structure on the site, a four-story building constructed around 1960, is "nearing the end of its economic life."

"Someting needs to be done," he said, "and a project of less than 40 units is the minimum feasible. The land cost would not support doing less."

Mr. Horner said he planned to make a contribution to the City's affordable- housing program as a "give back" to the City in return for the requested planned development allowances. But he said he wanted to speak further with Ald. Wynne before determining the amount of the contribution.

He said he anticipates construction of the new building would not begin for at least 18 months and that given the fluidity of the marketplace it is too early to establish price points for the units.

The new building would be constructed of patterned concrete with cedar facing on the balconies and glass balcony railings. A metal panel system would be used for some upper side walls.

Assistant Community Development Director Carolyn Brzezinski said, "I think it's a really beautiful design and want to compliment you on that. You've had to balance a lot of criteria and have successfully customized the building to the site."

Because the project was scheduled only for a preliminary review, the Site Plan and Appearance Review Committee did not take a formal vote on it.

Update on Discussions of Church-Darrow Project

By Mary Helt Gavin

The subcommittee formed to try to resolve the differences among the neighbors regarding a proposed affordable-housing rental project at Church Street and Darrow Avenue continued its deliberations on May 9.

One side supports the proposal for 27 affordable apartments that would be offered for sale – with tenants given the right to purchase – after 15 years. The other side would like to see condominiums on the site, or at least a shorter route to ownership.

While development costs and parking were the main topics on the table, the subtext still appeared to be the rental aspect of the proposal, which neighbors oppose because they believe renters will not help strengthen the area.

At present, Housing Opportunity Development Corporation, in partnership with Evanston Community Development Corporation, is asking the City to relax its parking requirements for this development, which will provide housing for 27 low-income persons or families.

The Plan Commission rejected the proposal, and the Planning and Development Committee of City Council – the next step in the approval hierarchy – appointed a subcommittee to try to work out the differences before it came to Council for a vote.

At a previous meeting, both sides agreed that they would like to see a library on the first floor of the development – proposed for the northwest corner of Church Street and Darrow Avenue – although the mechanics and the precise nature of that have not been discussed formally with City or library officials.

Development costs and parking were the topics of the May 9 meeting. Martin Stern of U.S. Equities, a frequent consultant to the City on development projects, presented the results of his examination of Housing Opportunities Development Corporation's pro forma, which shows the cost of the project to be approximately $9 million. Critics of the proposal had requested the outside analysis; some have suggested the costs were too high and could be pared down.

Subcommittee member John Lieneweber, a local developer, said he did not understand how HODC's per-square-foot costs were about as high as those in market-priced housing in the downtown area.

Yet Mr. Stern said he found HODC's costs "reasonable. …They may seem higher but they're not excessive." He said affordable rental housing costs are different from market-price rentals or condos. Because the apartments will eventually be sold, he said, the developer is using higher-priced materials – face brick instead of cinder blocks, as an example – than might be expected in affordable housing developments. Mr. Stern said another reason for what might seem high costs are the lack of income-producing units on the first floor. Richard Koenig of HODC says there might be an $8,000 annual difference between expenses and income.

Mr. Koenig has proposed a developer fee of about $850,000, which HODC would use to develop other affordable housing. Mr. Stern said developers of low-income housing finance subsequent projects from development fees, because the projects themselves generate neither profit nor significant cash flow.

At the conclusion of Mr. Stern's report, the topic turned to parking. Mr. Leineweber also said he and other neighbors are not satisfied with HODC's provision of parking. Although HODC is requesting no money from the City, it is requesting to be able to provide 12 fewer parking spaces than the zoning ordinance requires.

"Parking drives the development," said Mr. Lieneweber. He had previously suggested that Mr. Koenig explore the possibility of underground parking. Mr. Koenig showed several options for underground parking but said any of them would add between $750,000 and $1.2 million to the cost of the project – expenses that the eventual purchasers would have to absorb. He said he was "reluctant" to return to the Illinois Department of Housing Administration to request additional funds for underground parking, believing he would be turned down.

Representatives from the City's traffic department said results of a parking survey they conducted over the previous weekend showed there would be sufficient on-street parking spaces to make up for the 12 lacking in the development.

Yet that solution was not acceptable to the neighbors and, despite the consensus on the desire for a library in one of the ground-floor rooms, by the end of the meeting, frustration was apparent and neither side seemed to feel there was much progress.

"I'm concerned that every time we come up with a compromise, you reject it," said Carliss Sutton, one of the neighbors who oppose the development. "We want development – we don't want second-class development. We've requested things of the developer and every time, we're told, ‘That won't work.'"

Alderman Delores Holmes, 5th Ward, who supports the project, said, "I feel that no matter what we say, you're saying that the parking has to be in the building."

Seeming to acknowledge the elephant in the living room, Mr. Lieneweber replied, "For several months we were looking at social and philosophical issues of the building. We didn't get anywhere, so now we're getting into the building and looking at problematic issues: ‘Do we as community members believe in this project?'"