Greenwood condo project wins city OK

By Bob Seidenberg, City Editor
January 26, 2006

Evanston city Council members gave the go ahead Monday night to developer-architect team seeking to convert a former steel fabrication plant into a 26-unit condominium building at 2100 Greenwood St.

The project is located within the West Evanston Tax Increment Finance District approved recently by the council.

Evanston architect Stephen Yas, developer on the project with partner Lon Porter, expressed hope the development would serve as an “economic engine” to spur greater activity in the area.

Council members unanimously backed a map change, removing the property from the general industrial district in which it is situated, and pacing it in a transitional district, allowing the residential component.

Prior to the condominium plan, the site had received some interest from people interested in developing a skate park, noted Alderman Lionel Jean-Baptiste, 2nd Ward, who backed the condo plan Monday. Jean-Baptiste said residents “were very proactive against (the skate park idea) feeling “it could bring a lot of activity to the neighborhood.”

Yas told alderman he worked closely with Jean-Baptiste, 5th Ward Alderman Delores Holmes and west Evanston resident in drawing up a plan compatible with the neighborhood. In addition, he has involved students at Evanston Township High School, where Yas teaches, working with architects as they go through the design process.

He said plans are to restore the exterior of the building, leaving much intact and creating a courtyard in the center. He said the two-story units will be priced around $300,000, well below the price of downtown condominiums. He said the new owners could use the units as living module or work module “or could for both.”

“A violin maker could live there and craft violins,” he said. “A social worker might want to use the units as a place to live and do therapy.”

But Sam Mokahtarian, owner of 2020 Greenwood St., where Spar Tech Plastic building is located, raised concern about “spot rezoning,” in an area that for years has been reserved for industrial.

“There are acres and acres of residential-zoned area in Evanston that can benefit from this petitioner’s project, without messing with the industrial base,” Mokahtarian said at a meeting held last December. “Once out, it will be very hard to put this genie back in the bottle.”

He warned alder Monday night that someone should inform prospective owners of units in the new building that they would be located next to an industrial area that has truck traffic and other inconveniences.

Yas said the project will generate more that $5 million in revenue over the life of the 23-year TIF created in September for the areas.