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Not long ago, the John Buck Company came with its begging bowl to the city of Chicago, demanding $14 million for road improvements to go along with its massive Nordstrom-anchored project on North Michigan. Chicago wisely said no. Now Buck and his begging bowl are back, this time before Evanston. On a project a tenth the size in Evanston’s Research Park, they are demanding fully $16 million in public money, not even counting a grab bag of costs for other items on Buck’s wish list which haven’t been quantified. Unlike Mayor Daley’s hard bargainers, many on our city council appear to be falling over themselves to see who can give away the store first.
Besides requiring Evanston to pay for a 1,000-place parking garage and for relocating a senior citizens’ center, Buck is asking the city to convey title–lock, stock, and barrel–to five and a half acres of prime downtown real estate for the sweetheart sum of $1 million (about the price of two single-family homes on one-sixth-of-an-acre lots). Once the property is theirs, it is theirs for good to do with as they wish even if and when their grandiose cineplex-shopping plan goes bust. Buck “graciously” provides space for a performance center in their proposal, but less graciously allows the arts community only six to nine months to plan and fund it before swallowing it back into the retail pool. We could plan a performance center at leisure on land we already own, but instead we are going to give it to Buck and then plead with him to let us have what we want. Some deal. And there’s worse in the proposal, if you take the time to read it.
