Millennium Park Plaza’s Makeover is Underway
A five million dollar makeover has begun at Millennium Park Plaza (151 North Michigan Avenue). The bottom portion of the building is being gutted and replaced with state-of-the-art retail space.
In the decade we’ve been covering Chicago, we can only remember one business ever in this space, and it was only a small half-subterranean bodega.
The renovated retail plaza will have seven spaces across two floors, ranging in size from 671 square feet to 8,131 square feet.
Unfortunately for skyscraper fans, this is only a renovation of the retail space. The proposed add-on tower on the tiny slice of land to the south of Millennium Park Plaza is not happening. At least not right now.
The City of Chicago approved the building owners’ plan to add a 41-story tower to Millennium Park Plaza in April of 2007. That was to have 74 condominiums. In 2009 the owners went to the city asking if they could make it 185, and were turned down. But the tower’s footprint still exists on documents being used by Mid-America Realty to market the new retail space. So there’s still hope.
We looked up the documents the developer submitted to the city in 1977 to get the building built. In those plans, the slice to the south of the existing tower was supposed to be a public plaza. Somewhere along the line, that either didn’t happen or was removed, because when we started this blog ten long years ago, it was a restaurant, not a public space.
Any idea on when we hear of tenants? It’s a weird location for Michigan Avenue retail. Tourists sure, but not shopping traffic, that’s all north of the river.
None yet; at least none public. According to the marketing web site, all of the spaces are still available, but that may not be up-to-date. You know how building owners are — they don’t like dong work unless they have commitments from someone. Mr. Chicken, meet Mr. Egg.
Oh — and retail for that area might not be as crazy as it sounds. Think about the tens of thousands of people working in Michigan Plaza.
This is the fourth building betting big that the area of Michigan Avenue between Randolph and the river is going to become an extension of the Magnificent Mile.
333 North Michigan is gutting its bottom two floors the same way, and putting in all new retail. InterContinental is opening a Hotel Icon in the dead Atlantic Bank Building. And all those stores just south of the Hard Rock Hotel are being forced out so that can be redeveloped.
That’s a lot of retail construction in a two-block zone. There must be a reason.
I wasnt aware of the retail being kicked out south of Hard Rock. Any inside info on that?
There have been plans for a few years now to really redevelop this “middle section” between north michigan ave and south michigan ave. Sounds like progress is being made. Not to mention the new apt tower on Lake, the new virgin hotel on Lake, and the new hotel going in at the old athletic association. Bets are being made on the recovery and I agree their time is right.
The first indication I had about the retail being kicked out south of Carbide and Carbon was a letter I got in the mail from Chase around November, 2012 stating that the branch there was being closed. It was a strange letter to get since that’s not my nearest Chase branch, and I don’t think I’ve been in there in six or seven years.
I spoke to an employee in the branch who indicated that Chase leaving was not voluntary. That got my spidey senses up. Who kicks out a bank? No one. You just don’t do that. Banks are clean, attract good people, don’t cause a lot of problems, and pay their rent on time.
A few months later I heard from someone who works in the neighborhood that more retail was being pushed out and I noticed some papered up windows on the second floor. My theory at the time was that Hard Rock was expanding southward (since it doesn’t really have room service, banquet, or meeting facilities). But it was just a theory, so I didn’t publish anything here. Broadly speaking, I don’t publish rumors here unless I hear them from people I know I can trust. And even then I’m always careful to note that they are only rumors.
It took quite a bit of digging, but I eventually found out what’s going on there. Yes, I have the “inside info” on that. Unfortunately, it’s got to stay private for now.
I would expect to see an announcement in Crain’s sooner rather than later. The reason I state this is because no property owner is going to leave such a prime property in a non-revenue-generating state for very long if it doesn’t have to. It still has to pay property taxes, and the sooner it does what it’s going to do, the better it is for its bottom line.
Why the hell are you messing with Millennium Park again? Five million? Why are you not using this money to help get the city back in shape????? Daley’s a crook. He can afford to pay to this “memorial” himself.
What are you talking about? Millennium Park Plaza is an apartment building. And no city money is being used to renovate a privately-owned apartment building.
Plus, Daley hasn’t been the mayor of Chicago in almost two years. Are you off your meds?
Is there any indication they’re putting sufficient foundations under the new retail to later accomodate a larger building?
The new retail is within the footprint of the existing building, so I don’t think anyone is going to mess with the foundation. The work so far has been gutting, not digging, and based on the time frame that the owners want to have the retail completed, I don’t think there’s enough time to do any kind of foundation work.