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9-Mar-10 – Hotel Palomar has announced its 260-room hotel on North State Street, two blocks from Marina City, will open on March 24. An adjacent restaurant, run by the same company that is managing the hotel, will open on the same day. A spokesperson for Hotel Palomar says the announcement was made Monday. According to the hotel’s Facebook page, Palomar moved into its space at 505 North State Street over the weekend. “Furniture is being placed, art work is getting hung, and floors are getting polished.” The hotel describes itself as “four-star-caliber” and “art themed.” Interior décor will include images depicting the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World’s Fair.
Construction of the 36-floor, 420,000 square foot building started in early 2008. There had been plans to build a smaller companion to the AMA Building going back to 1990. The project was revived in 2001 and won approval from the Chicago Plan Commission in July 2001. The estimated value of the project is $80 million. Hotel rooms will be located on floors 7-16. Above them will be two levels of meeting rooms, pool, fitness facility, dog run, sun deck, and ecologically friendly “green” roof. Elsewhere in the building are 124 corporate-owned rental units and 119 parking spaces. 505 North State Street is the first high-rise design in Chicago by GREC Architects, LLC. The firm also designed Amalfi Hotel Chicago nearby on West Kinzie Street. Palomar will be operated by Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants. The San Francisco-based company runs three other hotels in Chicago – Hotel Allegro, Hotel Burnham, and Hotel Monaco. Founded in 1981, the company says it was the first to bring the “boutique” hotel concept to the United States. Opening on the same day will be Sable Kitchen & Bar, which describes itself as “a gastro-lounge where glamour of the 1940s mingles effortlessly with old Hollywood charm, modern industrial touches, and classic Chicago hospitality.”
(Above) Photo by Steve Johnson of Amano dining area, published by Zagat Survey in September 2008. 4-Mar-10 – The challenge of filling nearly 10,000 square feet with customers every night caught up with Amano Italian Trattoria this week. Despite good reviews and by all accounts, good traffic, the Marina City restaurant will close on Saturday. Owner Dan Sachs broke the news Thursday afternoon on the BIN 36 Facebook page. He blames the economy and calls their efforts “nothing short of ambitious.” “I can’t help but think if the economy hadn’t fallen like it has, that if we’d opened the restaurant at the same time as we opened Bin Wine Cafe, things might’ve been different.” Amano opened in October 2007 on North Dearborn Street in space below BIN 36, a restaurant Sachs has co-owned since 1999. He does not believe the location, partially hidden from traffic, hurt the restaurant. “In the end, the space was just too big for the concept,” Sachs told Marina City Online. “When we signed the lease four years ago, 10,000 square feet seemed manageable.” A 2007 review by Zagat Survey described 9,500 square feet of space as a blend of “old and new, with reclaimed and distressed wood, blackened steel, Carrara marble tabletops, a 30-foot granite bar and an elevated lounge.” “In this day and age of foodie proliferation we often forget [that] a restaurant is a business,” wrote Sachs to his Facebook fans, “and in order to stay open, a business simply has to make money. Obviously, we weren’t able to meet that need.” Served Italian treats and wine Amano, named for an Italian phrase meaning “by hand,” had its own wood-burning pizza oven and called itself “a truly authentic urban Italian Trattoria.” It featured Italian-style foods such as salumi, a meat product, hand-made pasta, and antipasto, an appetizer. It had 150 selections of Italian wine, according to the 2007 Zagat Survey, 25 of which were served by the glass. The restaurant received favorable comments by Bon Appetit, Chicago Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Social, Chicago Sun Times, and Midwest Living. On January 8, 2010, it was called “a hidden gem in downtown Chicago” in a segment taped last summer for WTTW’s Check, Please! Hosted by Alpana Singh, the show features reviews of Chicago restaurants by everyday people. On January 16, 2009, a pipe that was part of a sprinkler system burst due to bitter cold weather, severely damaging wood floors at Amano and closing the restaurant for six weeks. Although he will miss Amano “tremendously,” Sachs says he and his team have “really hunkered down and are moving full-steam ahead with our revitalized efforts at BIN 36.” The normal hours of operation for Amano on Saturdays are 5:00 to 11:00 p.m. Related stories: 8-Mar-10 – A security officer at Marina City has filed a lawsuit against owners of commercial property and the condo association at the River North complex. Tara Collins claims that on May 17, 2009 at about 1 p.m., while working in the security office at the base of the east tower, she tripped over a low-hanging chain near the entrance ramp from State Street. She apparently was trying to stop a bus from entering the complex, which is not allowed. In her lawsuit, filed on February 10, Collins says a low-hanging chain caused her to “trip, slip, and fall...sustaining severe and lasting injuries.”
She is seeking $50,000 from Lasalle Hotel Properties, owner of Hotel Sax and commercial property at Marina City, Marina Towers Condominium Association, System Parking, and the commercial property manager, Transwestern Commercial Services. Collins claims in her lawsuit that she was not warned about the chain and that it should not have been placed there, as security personnel have to move quickly from one side of the chain to the other. A status hearing is scheduled for May 26. Upper Upper Wacker Drive
An Erickson Air-crane picks up a load from a semi-trailer truck on East Wacker Drive Sunday morning. The part was for a new HVAC unit on the west tower of Hyatt Regency Chicago. Photo by Mark Ulaszek.
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Chicago River turns green, despite weather
(Above) Seen from East Wacker Drive, a small boat has just emerged from under the Michigan Avenue Bridge, from which an orange dye (yes, orange) is poured into the river by members of the Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Local Union 130. Almost immediately, the river appears bright green. (Click on image to view larger version.)
17-Mar-10 – (Above) Seen from Dearborn Street, a “swing stage” scaffold descends the west tower at Marina City on Tuesday afternoon. A $1 million project to repair exterior concrete resumed this week. Workers will visit 16 balconies on each of 44 residential floors in both towers. They are repairing problem areas in the exterior concrete that were identified during inspections in 2006 and 2007. (Click on image to view larger version.) According to a memo to residents from property manager David Gantt, tents will be installed over the outdoor dining area at Smith & Wollensky to protect diners from potential debris. The general manager of the Marina City restaurant, Regina Arendt, says the tents will be “very nice” and will go up in mid-April.
10-Mar-10 – An announcement last night by 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly that the Gold Coast Art Fair would no longer be held in River North was greeted with applause. “I’m excited about that, too,” said Reilly. After about 30 years in River North, the annual art festival, that showcases the work of about 350 artists each year, was not invited back. The fair will open in August at Butler Field in Grant Park. “River North has changed dramatically in 30 years and the fair has continued to grow,” said Reilly at a community meeting of the River North Residents Association. The fair, he says, was creating conflict with residents and merchants, blocking driveways and interfering with deliveries to businesses.
Reilly says he decided the fair was no longer a good fit for River North after last year’s fair. He says he spent four hours one day just helping police and city transportation employees move barricades and reconfigure the site. “I spent countless hours with the 18th police district and the [Chicago] Department of Transportation, OEMC [Office of Emergency Management and Communications], trying to find a way to make these folks fit. End of the day, we simply couldn’t justify it.” The company that produces the Gold Coast Art Fair is making the best of the decision. Amy Amdur, president of Amdur Productions said in late February that the new Grant Park location “is larger and offers more artists the opportunity to showcase and sell their work.” Various news media accounts estimate the crowds at the art fair at 500,000 to 800,000 people. The fair is one of the top 20 art festivals in the U.S., according to Amdur Productions, and the third oldest, going into its 53rd year.
(Above) 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly (left) shakes hands with RNRA event coordinator Larry Janus. Reilly spoke Tuesday evening at the River North Residents Association Community Meeting, held at English Bar & Restaurant on North LaSalle Boulevard. Reilly also spoke about the City of Chicago budget, a sting operation to crack down on loud motorcycles, aggressive panhandlers, improved lighting on residential streets, improvements to L tracks along Franklin Street, new playground equipment in Erie Park, the “dog-friendly area” on North Larrabee Street, and this year’s Taste of River North.
From 1984 to 1990, he was a regular contributor to ABC Radio Networks. Dahlman has written extensively about Marina City since 2005 and is currently working on a book about its history. |
