First office rehab comes to booming DePaul area
The North Side's DePaul neighborhood is gearing up for another boom. Already the city's hottest residential area for rehab and renovation, it is now ripe for office redevelopment.
By Charles Hayes
Published on March 2, 1986 in the Chicago Tribune
The North Side's DePaul neighborhood is gearing up for another boom. Already the city's hottest residential area for rehab and renovation, it is now ripe for office redevelopment.
The first office - and first shared service office suite - project in DePaul is ready for occupancy at 2000 N. Racine and Armitage Avenues. At a cost of $2.4 million, Historic Properties Inc. has renovated the 50,000-square-foot, fourstory factory building into modem office space that will accommodate entrepreneurs and professionals who want to remain in the neighborhood.
"This is a natural extension of the tremendous residential redevelopment that is consuming the DePaul neighborhood," explained Calvin D. Boender, 31, partner in Historic Properties. "Residential has gone sky high in this area, but there's been little or no office or
retail development. This has created a tremendous void, a demand for offices created by new residents who want to work near where they live.
First office rehab comes to booming DePaul area
"Our purpose was to meet a need in this area for a small office site that accommodates the smaller entrepreneurial user who now lives in the DePaul neighborhood," he said, adding that response is living up to their projections. "This is a small businessman,s building. The type of tenant we're attracting is the Realtor, financial consultant, doctor, dentist, attorney, accountant, and manufacturer,s representative. We've even got a corporate headquarters for a cookie company."
Boender said he and ms partner, Robert G. Finnigan, 37, saw the potential in the building and embarked on what was to become the first major commercial office development in the DePaul area. The first occupancies are scheduled for April 1.
Pappageorge/Haymes Architects were commissioned to redesign the building, whose focal point is now a dramatic three-story atrium on the second through fourth floors. The 3,200-square-foot area includes a reception area serving 30 small office suites, ranging from 150 to 500 square feet, on its perimeter.
The third and fourth floors have offices ranging from 1,000 square feet up to a full-floor, 10,000 square feet. All have 12-foot ceilings, private washrooms, and individually controlled heating and air conditioning.
For the ground level, the architects created a high-tech lobby of stainless steel, black mirrored ceilings, white-tile walls, and indirect lighting. The first floor also will include a 5,000-square-foot restaurant and indoor parking for tenants.
"We're especially pleased with the atrium," Finnigan said. "It creates the feeling of a light, inside garden, and provides an unusual interior environment that's pleasing and exciting."
There has been a growing demand for shared service office suites throughout the Chicago area, but the partners detected an unusually strong need for such services in the changing DePaul neighborhood. Services available in shared offices include a receptionist, telephone, secretarial word processing, photocopying and other business support services, as well as the use of a conference room.
Surveying the new three-story atrium in the 2000 N. Ricine office rehab are David S. Grzenia, vice president of the Bank of the Ravenswood, and developers Robert G. Finnigan and Calvin D. Boender, partners in Historic Properties Inc.
Base rent for regular offices is $10.50 per square foot. The shared service office suites rent from $350 to $800 a month. The leasing agent is Kass Realty Group, which also is responsible for property management. The all-brick landmark building is located in the Sheffield Historical District and was built in 1908 for Phoenix
Trimming Co., manufacturers of fringe for dresses and lampshades. Most recently it was used by Cretor, s Inc. for the manufacture of popcorn vending machines.
"We learned of the building,s availability last year before it was listed," Finnigan said. "This gave us an inside track on acquisition. After we bought the building, Charles Cretor, president of the firm, was so enthusiastic about our concept for it that he turned around and became an investor in our new venture."
Boender said their improvements have complied with provisions of the building's landmark status. "We wanted to retain the history and all the masonry features but still modernize and adapt the structure to the special needs of the small user. We think we've succeeded."
The building's exterior remains virtually intact with natural brick, gray cement columns, and all-new dark blue windows. Renovation has included all new mechanicals, elevators, doubledoor main entrance, and a $60,000 skylight. The two partners formed Historic Properties in 1983.
Boender is president of C&D Construction Co., Oak Brook, which has done interior construction, rehab, and renovation for such firms as Motorola, Honeywell, and Northwestern Bell Telephone. Finnigan is a former Internal Revenue Service agent who has had his own accounting firm since 1977.
"I knew construction and Bob has the financial and tax law expertise," Boender said. "It seemed logical for us to team up and explore the possibilities of a mutual enterprise. We looked for a real estate shelter, but when we couldn't find anything we liked, we decided to do our own."
Their initial projects - all DePaul rental properties - included an apartment building at 1901 Bissell as well as apartments and retail space at 957-59 and 935-39 W. Armitage Ave. Future projects will include DePaul townhouses and renovation of a historic building in the Printer's Row area for rental residential. C&D Construction is serving as construction managers for 2000 N. Racine with construction financing provided by the Bank of Ravenswood.
About the Author
Calvin D. Boender was raised in the Dutch Christian Reformed area of Highland, Indiana. After high school, he attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for three years and thereafter graduated from Grand Valley State College, Allendale, Michigan, in December, 1978, with a bachelor's degree with honors in political science. For the past 35 years, he has focused his attention on real estate by successfully investing in and redeveloping residential, commercial and industrial properties. He has now turned his quick mind and strong business acumen to developing Renew Biomass into a market leader. Cal has been a major contributor to various philanthropic causes and non-profit organizations addressing the needs of children and less-fortunate individuals. He resides in the suburbs of Chicago with his wife and two dogs, where he enjoys reading and biking.
