NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT

August 3, 2003

Housing, retail are planned for Rainbo roller rink site

Jeanette Almada, Special to the Tribune.

A developer has revealed plans to build a 131-unit complex of condominiums and townhouses and ground-level retail space on the site of the Rainbo Gardens Building at 4812-36 N. Clark St.
Despite city efforts to save the terra cotta building, designed by architect William C. Wright and built in 1928, it will likely be demolished, according to the developers and city officials.

The building is owned by Rainbo Homes II LLC, a partnership of Skokie-based Metropolitan Development Enterprises Inc. and Chicago-based Sapphire Development LLC. Metropolitan Development is acting as the developer, according to Paul Hardej, president of Metropolitan.

The developers revealed their plans at a community meeting called by Ald. Helen Shiller (46th) at St. Augustine College in Uptown.

The project will go up on 2 acres with 360 feet of frontage on Clark Street. Its condos will range from 1-bedrooms with 800 square feet to 1,400-square-foot 2-bedroom units with dens. Base prices will start in the low $200,000s, the developer said.

The complex will also have 2-bedroom and 3-bedroom townhouses with up to 2,600 square feet of space and with price tags of as much as $500,000.

Hardej told local residents that his current plan is to make at least 10 percent, and possibly as many as 20 percent of the units affordable under the Chicago Department of Housing's Chicago Partnership for Affordable Neighborhood program.

The complex will consist of two L-shaped, 5-story buildings of 44 condos each. The buildings will face Clark, explained architect David Haymes of Pappageorge Haymes. He told residents that the L-shaped buildings will flank an interior court. Completing the court will be four 4-story walkup buildings with six units each, and 15 3-story townhouse-style buildings.

"For the last six months we have been holding [off] demolition in good faith, to give everybody time to evaluate concepts and ideas," Hardej said in an interview. He received his demolition permit in January.

"We asked the developer for time to explore possibilities that the city might be able to buy the building and redevelop it into an entertainment venue, avoiding demolition of the building," Shiller told residents. "They agreed and there was a lot of interest, not just on my part but also the mayor's office, to see if we couldn't find a solution that would use the existing structure." The building had most recently housed a popular roller skating rink.

Shiller said she and city officials at the Department of Planning and Development sought ways to avoid razing the building, seeking reuse of its space as an entertainment venue. Among the most hopeful of those alternatives would have had the Chicago Park District buy the building and rehab it into a public roller rink similar to the newly built 40,000-square-foot Hawthorne Park Family Entertainment Center at 1219 W. 76th St. in Auburn Gresham. That facility has a roller rink, bowling alley, restaurant and special event facility and is managed by United Skates of America, the nationwide rink operator that ran the Rainbo until April.

The cost, however, would be prohibitive, said Brian Goeken, deputy commissioner of the Chicago Landmarks Division of the Department of Planning and Development.

"[The building] was added to many times and has sections that are cut off, added to and remodeled many times over," Goeken told residents.

"It has had at least two fires, parts of the rear portion are structurally compromised to a point where it cannot be repaired. The front portion has a dance floor that has been destroyed in alterations and lacks historic integrity except for the facade," Goeken said.

Ultimately Goeken delivered the financial bottom line to residents, based on assessments and engineering studies conducted by various city agencies. "The cost to rehab the entire building and adapt it for new use would [be] between $12.5 million and $15 million," Goeken told residents. "Just preserving the facade and building something new behind it would cost a minimum of $9.5 million to $10 million," he said, adding that those costs did not include the property's acquisition. Goeken said it cost the Park District $8.5 million to build the Hawthorne Park center.

Shiller told residents that the developer is within its rights to proceed with its plans. Still, she and preservationists urged the developer to incorporate at least the building's terra cotta facade into its plans.

Hardej told residents the facade is so badly marred with cracks and defects that the cost of dismantling it, repairing it and inserting it into the project seemed prohibitive.

Hardej said that 10,000 square feet of retail space planned for the project will likely include a cafe with outdoor seating. He said he will widen sidewalks and landscape the front of the project. Construction of the residential project is expected to begin next spring, Hardej said.

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