Properties West of Dodge on Church May Be Developed

By Bill Smith

The City hopes developer Daniel Cheifetz will bring a "dramatic" building to this property on Church Street west of Dodge Avenue.

Developer Daniel Cheifetz has shown City officials preliminary plans to renovate and expand properties on Church Street just west of Dodge Avenue.

Mr. Cheifetz controls a trust that owns three adjacent properties at 1911-1917 Church St. He says he wants to add additional floors to the one- and two-story buildings at the front of the site to create a three-story office and retail complex and renovate a two-story building at the back of the property for additional offices.

Mr. Cheifetz said he and City staffers are negotiating with Commonweath Edison, which owns the lot just west of the site at the northeast corner of Church Street and Brown Avenue. The utility has a power substation at the back of that lot, but he hopes to be able to use the front part for parking for the new development.

Assistant Community Development Director Carolyn Brzezinski and other City staffers at the July 5 Site Plan and Appearance Review Committee meeting expressed concern about the design of the planned parking area on the ComEd property - saying it would eliminate some existing on-street parking and would have cars backing out across a public sidewalk to reach the street.

She suggested moving the sidewalk to the east side of the parking area, to avoid the danger to pedestrians, if the property ownership issues can be worked out.

Mr. Cheifetz said that the parking "is a puzzle that we have to figure out to move forward on the project. If we're going to build something nice there, we're going to need some additional parking to meet City requirements."

He said he has also talked with Sam Johnson, who owns the barbershop property just to the east.

"Since the house behind the barbershop burned down, part of my discussion with him is whether we could use some of the space behind the shop for parking," Mr. Cheifetz said.

He added that his Ariella Reinvestment trust also owns lots at the northeast corner of Church and Dodge and the northwest corner of Church and Darrow Avenue, which might provide alternative parking solutions.

Community Development Director James Wolinski said the parking solution might resemble what the City recently approved for the Strange Lofts property on the northeast corner of Church and Darrow. That solution involved allowing the owners to use part of the parkway to put in perpendicular rather than parallel parking, because available street-side parking was not sufficient. In exchange, the developers put in landscaping along the remaining parkway.

Alderman Delores Holmes, 5th Ward, said, "We're spending a lot of money to plan for that area and parking is an issue. We may have to be creative and innovative - not only for this project but for anything else coming up in this area."

"My biggest concern," she said, "is getting something going over there."

Mr. Cheifetz said the development will seek to maximize its use of environmentally conscious building techniques.

Ms. Brzezinski praised the energy efficiency initiatives in the plan but said she thought the architectural design might be a little too commercial-looking, not sensitive enough to the existing neighborhood and perhaps a bit dated in its appearance.

But Mr. Wolinski said, "We need something dramatic at Church and Dodge, to say dramatic new things are happening there."

The developer's next step is to seek a zoning analysis from City staff to determine just how much parking is required.

The Church and Dodge area is under a building moratorium that is scheduled to expire next month but may be extended to permit completion of a neighborhood planning process that is just getting underway.

It was unclear at Wednesday's meeting whether this project would be affected by the moratorium, since it calls for renovating existing buildings rather than new construction.

Rejuvenated Enterprise Center Opens in Research Park

Dr. Mark Rosenbloom explains display of future plans for the Enterprise Center to Evanston Mayor Lorraine Morton before the grand opening ceremony. Photo courtesy of Evanston Enterprise Center

Mayor Lorraine Morton presided over the grand opening celebration for the Evanston Enterprise Center and Café Entreprise on June 12. Owners of the rehabilitated office complex, Dr. Mark Rosenbloom, CEO of PEPID LLC and real estate developer Jeff Bernard celebrated with the Mayor. The building, whose history stretches back over a hundred years, is located at 1840 Oak Ave. in west downtown Evanston.

"I am so excited....This is just what the City needs," said Mayor Morton. "Everybody in the country knows our economic future rests with the development of small businesses. Projects like the Enterprise Center will help small businesses flourish in our city. I want to thank Dr. Rosenbloom and Jeff Bernard for taking on this project and making it a reality."

With the addition of PEPID LLC, the building is now home to three health-care related companies, a sales and an outsourcing firm, a graphics and printing company, law offices, four international businesses, and one enterprise that works with Fortune 500 companies. Café Entreprise serves gourmet coffees, breakfast, lunch, desserts and snacks from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. The Café plans to expand its hours of operations to include Saturdays soon.

"I can remember this old building when it was a warehouse and I am just so proud of what is happening here today," said the Mayor. "We cannot live in the past. We must meet the demands of today and look towards the future. And I am all for that."

About PEPID
For more than a decade, PEPID mobile medical information resources for health- care givers have been proven under fire in combat zones, natural disasters, clinics, hospitals, universities and schools around the world. PEPID utilizes PDA, online, and wireless technologies to deliver point-of-care access to fully integrated medical, clinical, and pharmacological data; medical calculators, dosing calculators, drug interactions generator and illustrations. PEPID offers specialty programs for physicians, nurses, students, paramedics, emergency medical teams, pharmacists and consumers.

PEPID partners with the National Association of Emergency Medical Services Educators, the Family Physicians Inquiries Network, the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists, the Oncology Nursing Society, and the American Society of Health System Pharmacists to ensure that PEPID provides the highest-quality content and commendable peer review.

United Way Chapter Announces 2006-07 Agency Allocations

The Evanston Chapter of the United Way of the North Shore (UWNS) recently announced allocations made to its 24 community member agencies.

The $625,000 in grants, an increase of $10,000 over last year, was allocated to the following agencies:
• Better Existence with HIV (BEHIV) ­$6,000 ­
• Child Care Center of Evanston $34,000 ­
• Childcare Network of Evanston $60,000 ­
• Connections for the Homeless­ $22,000 ­
• Evanston Community Defender $20,000 ­
• Evanston Day Nursery $26,000 ­
• Family Focus $32,000 ­
• Girl Scouts $8,500 ­
• The Harbour $12,500 ­
• Housing Options $9,400 ­
• Infant Welfare Society/Baby Toddler $13,500 ­
• Legal Assistance Foundation $10,000 ­
• Mental Health Association $4,000 ­
• Metropolitan Family Services $46,000 ­
• North Shore Senior Center $23,500 ­
• Orchard Village $16,000 ­
• Peer Services $37,500 ­
• Reba Early Learning Center $24,000 ­
• Seniors Action Service $8,000 ­
• Shore Community Services $28,100 ­
• McGaw YMCA $78,000 ­
• Youth Job Center $16,500 ­
•Youth Organizations Umbrella (YOU) $33,500 ­
• YWCA Evanston/North Shore $56,000 ­

Mr. Carlson said, "It is gratifying to have this sort of continuous support from the Evanston community; it is a reflection of the caring nature of our citizens."