By Ben Joravsky
A few months back Weiss decided to buy the building, tear it down, and build a five-story complex with retail on the first floor and condo units above. The retail spaces would rent for at least three times the current prices and the condos would range from about $150,000 to $350,000.
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“I’ve done eight or nine properties on the north side–my name’s out on the street,” says Weiss. “I got a call from a broker who said, ‘Are you looking?’ I looked, and liked what I saw. From the outset I wanted to work with the community–that’s how it’s done.”
Other residents, particularly tenants, worry about displacement. “A community like this is open to a lot of people,” says Mike McKune, who is coartistic director of Sweetback Productions with his wife, Kelly Anchors. “It’s open to all, especially artists.”
Weiss can’t understand the fuss and consternation. He describes himself not as a heartless developer but as a counterculture kid from Von Steuben High who got his start selling jeans at Uncle Dan’s over on Lincoln Avenue. Now he owns Uncle Dan’s and he sees nothing wrong with Lincoln Park. It has Steppenwolf Theatre and those artsy boutiques along Armitage and Halsted. So, OK, they’re pricey–still, it’s art.
At a block club meeting on the project held in December, the two sides filled the room and the rhetoric turned passionate. “In my opinion the developer’s presentation wasn’t well received,” says Kelly. “They made it out as though we really needed them, as though they were moving into a neighborhood that was in poor condition. That offended some people.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Dan Machnik.
