Third-Generation Jewelry Store Tells Its Story - It's About Time

By Victoria Scott

Peter Virag shows off a century-old clock of the kind his third-generation jewelry store repairs and restores.

The large clock that hangs on the façade of Virag Jewelry, 703 Main St., has an unpretentious face and a reliable movement, making it the timekeeper for the neighborhood and an appropriate symbol for a store founded by the grandfather of the current owners in 1936.

Peter Virag, who trained as a watchmaker in his native Hungary, immigrated to the United States in the 1920s, says his grandson, Peter Virag, the current co-owner of the shop. Peter Virag, the elder, settled in Evanston, living in an apartment above the jewelry store he named Peter Virag & Sons.

That original store was located in the first building north of the now-demolished bank on Chicago Avenue, says the contemporary Mr. Virag. The business moved to Main Street in 1964.

There they specialize in watch and clock repair.

They even replace watch batteries. A friend of the RoundTable tracked the store down recently, sending out a frustrated e-mail query about who might save her battery-dead Skagen. She confessed to having thrown away its predecessors for lack of replacement batteries.

Another friend recommended Mr. Virag, who installed a new battery for a modest fee. He resuscitates other watches as well – for example, by replacing movements in quartz watches that have gotten wet.

The store can even convert mechanical watches to quartz – without changing the face, except for the second hand, which jerks instead of sweeping. The conversion leaves the watch much less complicated and expensive to repair, he says.

Mr. Virag, who started work in high school in the store his father and uncle ran, saw the world switch to quartz. The trend began in the 1960s, he says, and escalated with the mass production of quartz watches in the 70s. He estimates 90 percent of watches are now quartz.

Most of the remainder are high-end timepieces made in Switzerland and bought by collectors. Mark Bargo, a World War II veteran who used the GI Bill to get training in watch repair, specializes in fixing antiques and wind-up watches for the store, says Mr. Virag.

A number of old clocks line the shelves, waiting to be repaired or picked up by their owners. Among them is a mid-19th century timepiece Mr. Virag calls a "shelf clock."

Common in farmhouses at the turn of the 20th century, he says, shelf clocks sometimes had alarms loud enough to wake the whole family. This one is of carved wood and has delicate stenciling on the glass. Restoring such pieces gives him the most satisfaction of anything he does, says Mr. Virag.

He estimates about half the store's business is repairs and the other half is jewelry sales. Their inventory is a mix, with some pieces costing less than $50 and others, for example a gold necklace with diamonds and sapphires, as much as $3,000.

"We don't manufacture the jewelry," he says, an art that requires special tools. But they often remount stones in different settings. In addition to the engagement and wedding rings on display, they have catalogs from which customers can order.

Many of these rings, of course, feature diamonds. Although Mr. Virag experienced no fallout from last year's movie, "Blood Diamond," he is familiar with the problem of diamonds used to finance African wars.
Virag buys diamonds, he says, from companies whose stones do not originate in conflict zones. In fact, he says, "Only a small percentage of diamonds are from war areas."

Nevertheless, certain countries have capitalized on their distance from controversial diamond operations. One Canadian diamond company, he says, inscribes its Canadian-mined stones with a polar bear. Australia is marketing its mostly yellow and brown diamonds as "cognac" diamonds, he says with a chuckle.

One of the interesting developments he has witnessed in the jewelry business has been the improvement in freshwater pearls. "They're getting almost as good as cultured," he says, referring to the luster, sheen and color of the gems. The price of freshwater pearls, most of them from China, is a fraction of the price of cultured pearls, he says; a strand of seven millimeter-sized freshwater pearls can be purchased at Virag for as little as $250.

And while he admits "they used to look like Rice Krispies," freshwater pearls, which come from mussels, can now be nearly as round as their oyster-bred saltwater cousins."

While Peter Virag and his brother run the store, their sister, Terri Virag Hill, has begun to make jewelry. Some of her necklaces, made of semi-precious stones and pearls and marketed under the name Sky Blue, sparkle in the case. "She has a better eye for color and fashion [than the men of the family]," says her brother.

Whatever their adaptations, the clock may be ticking for this family business that has been a stalwart in Evanston for 71 years. No one in the fourth generation is interested in taking over Virag Jewelry, says Peter Virag.

Transfer Taxes Ahead of the Game

The number of property sales in Evanston so far this year is down 12 percent from the same period last year, but prices so far have squeezed out a 1.4 percent increase.

Two large commercial transactions helped boost sales figures for last month.

The eight-story Shand Morahan Plaza office building at 1007 Church St. downtown sold for $27 million and the building that houses the Dominick's supermarket at 2748 Green Bay Road was sold for $7.55 million. In the only other $1 million plus commercial transaction, the Citgo Gas station at 1925 Green Bay Road sold for $1.2 million.

Overall last month figures from the City Clerk's office show 154 properties changed hands, down from 216 sales in August last year. But the value of sales last month totaled $107.6 million, up from $98.5 million a year ago.

For the past 12 months the number of sales is down 9.8 percent, while the average price is up 22.1 percent, compared to the year earlier period.
Seven residential properties cracked the $1 million barrier last month:

* A mansion at 2888 Sheridan Place, sold for $4.1 million.
* A lakefront home at 101 Hamilton St., sold for $2.85 million.
* A home at 1145 Sheridan Road, sold for $2.3 million.
* A home at 2524 Hurd Ave., sold for $1.53 million.
* A condo in the former District 65 administration building at 1314 Ridge Ave., sold for $1.385 million.
* A home at 1142 Asbury Ave., sold for $1.17 million.
* A home at 2012 Harrison St., sold for $1 million.

The city gets about five percent of its general fund budget from the Real Estate Transfer Tax, charged at $5 for every $1,000 of selling price.
Half way through the city's fiscal year, collections are running 21 percent ahead of the pace needed to reach the $4.055 million budget goal.

Late-Night Pizza OK; Late-Late Night Pie May Not Be

By Bill Smith 

Last week aldermen debated whether Evanston would be well served or disserved by a pizza delivery restaurant that stayed open until 3 a.m.

Store owner Ivan Marinov said his existing Sarpino's Pizzeria franchise in Hoffman Estates has the same 10 a.m. until 3 a.m. business hours he is requesting for his new shop at 2428 Main St.

But Alderman Lionel Jean-Baptiste, whose 2nd Ward includes the site, said he would be happier if the store closed at 11 p.m., the same time the Starbucks in the same strip mall closes.

"I'd hate to have some radical change going on so that we have people hanging out in the parking lot late at night and have to have the police come and end up creating a mess," Ald. Jean-Baptiste said.

But Mr. Marinov said that is not likely to be a problem -- the store will have no seating area and will offer only carry-out and delivery service. He said that at his existing store 95 percent of late-night customers use his free delivery service.

Alderman Ann Rainey, 8th Ward, suggested barring carry-outs and permitting only delivery service after midnight. "That would keep people from hanging out," she said.

Alderman Anjana Hansen, 9th Ward, said she feared people would congregate in the parking lot late at night.

"I want someone to fill those stores. They've been vacant too long," she said, "but I think we're going to have problems with 3 a.m."

Community Development Director James Wolinski suggested the aldermen could require the shop to turn off its signage when it ends carry-out service.

Alderman Steve Bernstein, 4th Ward, said, "I don't have any real problem with the closing time," but he suggested that if the landlord were persuaded to post signs closing the parking lot at midnight, then police would be able to keep the parking lot cleared.

Alderman Edmund Moran, 6th Ward, said, "I don't see this as a magnet for anti-social activity. If people were congregating there at 2 in the morning, then we'd have problems, but it it's only drivers hauling pizzas out the front door. I don't see what the hazard is."

But Alderman Cheryl Wollin, 1st Ward, said a 3 a.m. closing "seems extreme to me," and Alderman Melissa Wynne, 3rd Ward, said the late hours would be "setting up a problem."

The aldermen voted to introduce the special use permit for the restaurant but refer the issue back to committee for further discussion at their next meeting.

Most pizza delivery businesses in town close earlier than 3 a.m., but the Dominos at 1168 Dodge Ave. lists a 3 a.m. closing time on weekends.

Other restaurants
The aldermen approved two other restaurant requests at the Main Street Marketplace shopping center:

• The Wingstop restaurant, proposed for 2434 Main St. by franchisee Julius Soro of Hoffman Estates, will have tables for 48 diners and plans to operate from 11 a.m. to midnight.

• The Nine Fish Restaurant, already operating at 2426 Main St., won approval for a license to sell beer and wine.

 

Central Street Moratorium May Be Extended

By Bill Smith

City staff plan to seek a three-month extension of a moratorium on new construction along the Central Street corridor.

If approved, the moratorium, now scheduled to end next month, would be extended until mid-January.

City Zoning Administrator Bill Dunkley told a Zoning Committee meeting earlier this month he needs the extra time to develop the detailed zoning rules called for in the master plan for the area the City Council adopted in July and to give neighbors, the Zoning Committee, the full Plan Commission and the City Council sufficient time to review them.

Mr. Dunkley said he will ask the City Council to approve the extension of the moratorium on issuance of new building permits at its next meeting, Sept. 24.

The Council first imposed the Central Street moratorium more than a year ago, for an initial period of six months. It has already been extended twice, and, with the new proposed extension, would run 16 months.

Last June, when the Council adopted a moratorium for the downtown area, City attorney Herb Hill said that to be valid, a moratorium has to be of a "definite, limited, short duration – a temporary review pending analysis."

He said a six-month moratorium would meet the test, but "if they're going to be temporary, they can't be for two years."

Mr. Dunkley outlined a schedule for reviewing the proposed Central Street zoning changes, with proposals for the west portion of the street to be posted to the City website, www.cityofevanston.org, by Sept. 21, in advance of discussion at a Zoning Committee meeting at 7 p.m. on Sept. 26.

Proposals for the east portion of the street would be posted to that website by Sept. 28, and would be discussed at a Zoning Committee meeting at 7 p.m. on Oct. 3.

Those meetings would be followed by a series of additional meetings leading to a scheduled City Council approval of the new zoning at its first meeting in January.

Zoning Officer Arlova Jackson, who is working on the West Side zoning proposals, said she plans to meet individually with commercial and industrial property owners who have raised issues about rezoning of their properties.

She would then schedule a joint community meeting within the next 45 days, she said, at which the aldermen of the two affected wards, Lionel Jean-Baptiste and Delores Holmes, can review the changes with concerned residents.

Ms. Jackson said she expected those plans would be ready for review by the Zoning Committee at a meeting tentatively planned for Nov. 7

 

Local Businesses, Chain Stores

Economic Impact Vs. Revenue Generation

By Bill Smith

At a meeting of the Downtown Plan Committee earlier this month, discussion turned on the comparative economic benefits of local businesses as compared to chain or "big box" stores.

Evanston resident Ellen Shepard, the executive director of the Andersonville Chamber of Commerce in Chicago, said that a chamber-sponsored study showed that money spent in locally owned stores circulates through the local economy more than does money spent in chain stores.

The study, conducted by Civic Economics, a research group that advocates for local businesses, compared the financial performance of ten Andersonville businesses that volunteered to take part in the study with publicly available aggregate data from ten national chains, she said. The local businesses in the study were self-selected, and the chain-store data is based on average nationwide performance. The study also excluded chains headquartered in Chicago.

The Andersonville study concluded that 10 chain outlets will generate twice as much revenue as 10 locally owned stores, said Ms. Shepard. Nonetheless, the study showed, a dollar spent in a local store generates 68 cents of direct and indirect impact on the local economy compared to only 43 cents for a dollar spent at a chain store. That is because, said Ms. Shepard, local stores spend more on local labor, acquire more goods and services locally and distribute more of their profits locally.

Small chains
Diane Williams, executive director of EvMark and a member of the Downtown Plan Committee, said determining what businesses qualify as local is "a sticky wicket." As an example, she cited the Clean Plate Club Restaurant Group. It is headquartered in Evanston, but only one of its three owners lives here, she said, adding that Clean Plate Club has three restaurants in Evanston, as well as one in Wheeling and one in Schaumburg.

Ms. Shepard said she loves the Uncle Dan's store in downtown Evanston, which also has two shops in Chicago and one in Highland Park.

Regional versus local draws
At the meeting James Klutznick, one of the developers of the 49-story tower proposed for downtown Evanston, said he sees Evanston as more of a regional draw than Andersonville. "People in Andersonville come to Evanston to do some of their shopping," he said. He also said Evanston's policy of creating subsidized public parking and its location on mass transit lines has served to draw people from neighborhoods on Chicago's north side and even from Old Orchard.

Tim Anderson, the other developer of the tower project, said a study in Oak Park showed that national chains account for just 10 percent of the downtown retail square footage but generate 65 percent of the sales tax revenue.

Plan Commission Chairman James Woods said, "Part of what Evanston's downtown is about is counteracting the draw of malls outside of Evanston, so there is a desire to attract certain chains into town so we don't have to go spend our money in Skokie," he said, adding, "And we're a big enough community to do that."

Committee Chair Larry Widmayer said Andersonville, with a mile-long commercial strip from roughly 5000 to 5800 on North Clark Street and mostly one- to three-story storefronts occupied almost exclusively by locally-owned businesses, is more like Evanston's Central Street shopping district than downtown Evanston.

Ms. Williams added that sometimes communities have to make value judgments about what chains they want. "Some national retailers are cast in more of a negative light; others are seen as responsible and good for the community."

Evanston Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jonathan Perman said in a telephone interview that many of the steps that Andersonville has taken to help small businesses, such as façade improvement programs, are also being used in Evanston.

He also noted that chain stores can draw customers to a neighborhood, customers who then may also patronize locally owned businesses.