Wait 'till the fire turns green

He played a video and brought drafts of his plans and vision for the property. But he has not formally submitted those plans for zoning approval.

Lincolnwood trustees questioned him about financing and whether he plans to open an independent hotel or plant a "flag" for a chain out front.

"I don't know if you need a flag," Weiss said. "It's my preference to have a flag. It's finding the right flag. Once you sign a flag, you sign millions of dollars to get out of it."

Sure. this, of course, comes from the same guy who was perhaps just a wee bit off when he previously promised retail space equivalent to 40,000 square feet or better and then offerered up something far less extensive later on. And why is he already talking about getting out of a deal that was being offered up as a hypothetical?

Let's just say his attorney didn't come off as being particularly forthcoming concerning Weiss' plans, either:

Harold "Hal" W. Francke, a lawyer for Weiss, addressed the trustees' concerns during the meeting.

"It doesn't do us any good if as a board if you're not comfortable with this vision," he said. "Jake's in this position. He doesn't want to keep spending time on it. He's already invested $10 million into it. Just like you, he's hoping to get his flag."

He is? Funny, Weiss implied separately that he wasn't. Ah, well. Different pages and all, I guess...

"He's prepared to move forward and make it a boutique hotel.

"We want to proceed," Francke continued. "We gave you a very detailed indication of what was done and what is to be done. We'll definitely get that in on time. We'll get very detailed information on what remains to be done for a very specific request."

Sure. Just like last time when he missed a deadline for a simple demolition permit, right?

Lastly, what would any of this be without the introduction of a lovely bit of substance-free fluff from Mr. Weiss?

"What's interesting is that there are so many individuals connected to the site," Weiss said later in an interview. "When you have a base of individuals connected to the site, that goes a long way. Maybe we can put together a website where people share their stories. I want the public to be part of the renaissance."

Wow. Just wow.

Paragraphs like that make you wonder if Weiss ever moonlights as a public relations flack. Or a high-powered advertising exec.

Regardless of what he does in his spare time, here's hoping that Weiss makes something actually happen as a consequence of that hard December 31st deadline. As you can tell from this Fancyclopedia 3 link, the place was quite central to the development of Chicago fandom in the past; It'd be a real pity if the Lincolnwood Village Board and NCP just continued to let it rot.

The conversation was also informed by a stinging letter recently issued by the village's Economic Development Commission, which accused Weiss of a bait-and-switch between his original vision for the property and what he is marketing to prospective tenants.

The letter said Weiss Properties and partner North Capital Group originally promised to 75,000 square feet of retail space on the site, which also includes two adjacent properties, but was now looking at less than 20,000 square feet.

We "believe a significant retail component is critical to the success of this development," said the letter, approved by four of the five EDC members. "The Commission is both concerned and cannot support these apparent changes reducing the magnitude of the retail component for this development."

First it was the Chicago Sheraton Northwest. Now it's this:

Vacant since 2007 and full of mold, the Lincolnwood landmark locals call The Purple Hotel may be saved from the wrecking ball by a North Shore developer.

When you have an architecturally significant property with so much history and nostalgia, you can really do some wonderful things with it," said Jake Weiss of Weiss Properties, a Skokie development firm that specializes in resurrecting vacant properties.

Weiss has partnered with North Capital Group, which recently bought the hotel's mortgage note, to possibly redevelop the long-shuttered building as a boutique hotel with a convention center and retail space.

But first, Weiss said his team must navigate a series of legal complications: A bankruptcy involving the hotel's current owner, a foreclosure and a judge's Aug. 1 order that gave the village of Lincolnwood permission to tear down what some call an eyesore at Touhy and Lincoln avenues.

An "eyesore"? I suppose I have to bring up that facet of the story up as well...

The Purple Hotel had a few owners after the Hyatt company left, briefly becoming a Radisson, then a Ramada. It's been owned since 2004 by Village Resorts Inc.

In 2007, frustrated with building and health problems, Lincolnwood got a court order to have the hotel closed until its 30-plus violations were remedied, officials said.

"The building posed a threat," said Lincolnwood Village Manager Timothy Wiberg. In 2005 and 2006, patrons began complaining about rodents, mold and lack of sanitary conditions, Wiberg said.

Having stayed in that hovel two years in a row (for the two Reactors that were held there in 2005 and 2006) well after Capricon quit the place in 1991, I can testify to the factual basis of that mold problem (in the form of a black glob of the stuff that was bigger than a golf ball and seemed to be eating the writing desk in the room I was staying in in '06) and the only thing I can say to Mr. Weiss is that I want no part of what he and the rest of his company were smoking when they came up with this deal.

First Midwest Bank, current holder of two mortgage notes on the Purple Hotel in Lincolnwood, has put them up for sale.

The bank chose Podolsky Northstar CORFAC International and the brokerage team of Randy D. Podolsky, managing principal, and Adam J. Tarantur, senior vice president, to find a buyer for the 5.28-acres site at the corner of Lincoln and Touhy Avenues.

A Cook County judge confirmed last February a consent decree declaring the building at 4500 W. Touhy Ave. a safety hazard.

The judge also granted the village permission to tear down the building in August at the property owner’s expense if he hadn’t done so — or fixed a multitude of problems that resulted in building code violations.

Donald Bae of Skokie, the hotel’s owner, has been seeking buyers for the property for years without success.

The bank filed a foreclosure suit against Bae, after he failed to repay the loans at maturity.

Now the bank is seeking purchasers who realize the value of the underlying real estate that secures the notes, Podolsky said.

The "value of the underlying real estate" would seem to be somewhat...er...obscured by the highly problematic building that stands on top of it as well as the 31 code violations that played a large part in causing it to close down in January 2007. As I've pointed out previously, I went to the last fannish-oriented convention it hosted (Reactor in November 2006) and saw what the place was like. It wasn't pretty.

Whatever party buys the notes will have the opportunity to either own the property if the notes are not redeemed, or to obtain whatever value from the sale of the notes, he added.

“Lincolnwood’s consent decree to knock down the building, if the village wishes to do that, would have an (negative) impact on the value of the land,” Podolsky said.

“But if a buyer was identified very soon, that person could speak to the village about the demolition of the building. However, the village’s rights are independent of the lender’s rights, so just because someone buys the notes, it does not mean the village would be willing to wait.”

I'd love to tell Mr. Podolsky what "waiting" for Donald Bae and Co. to sell the building got the Village of Lincolnwood in the first place, but I suspect he knows; like everyone else, he's just unwilling to say the words "zip", "zilch" or "nada" out loud.

As usual, I have to wonder why the village didn't just throw eminent domain into the mix, since paying for the property and its demolition probably wouldn't have been nearly as pricy as when it was open since any market value the PH had probably declined steeply when it started turning into an under-maintained - and  ultimately abandoned - wreck. Whatever the reason, the village board - and the rest of the village - will probably continue to be stuck with the "Purple Hulk" in one form or another until my two-year wager comes to full maturity. If they do away with it before May 8th, 2012, I'll drink a toast to the place at L. Woods across the street and have fond memories of SF conventions past, including the first legitimate fan-run one (Capricon 5, in 1985) I ever went to. If it's still standing, I'll be doing it with a bottle of single malt scotch I'm buying for the occasion instead.

Elrod asked the court for fines of $1,000 per violation per day since Nov. 11, 2008, the date the owner was first notified of the violations; the cost of corrective action or demolition of the 293-room, seven-story structure; as well as court costs and attorneys fees.

Lincolnwood also sued Bae in September of 2006 because of mold and environmental problems caused by the deteriorating state of the hotel, and therefore, prevented the building from being inhabited, Elrod added.

(Personal note: anybody who had been to Reactor shortly after that lawsuit was filed knows firsthand of the mold problem - especially since the writing desk in my room was being eaten by a blob of the stuff.)

However, instead of repairing the structure, which was built in 1960, Bae closed it in January of 2007 and put it up for sale.

And, unsuprisingly, there were no takers. There probably still aren't.

That's one incredible slide from the way the place was when I went to my first Capricon there in 1985.