The plan commission Thursday recommended approval of a 48-unit building with 72 parking spaces at 5430 N. Sheridan Rd. as well as a 38-unit building—much smaller than current zoning allows—with a relative abundance of 90 parking spaces at 5556 N. Sheridan Rd., across the street from the distinctive pink Edgewater Beach Hotel, now a co-operative apartment building.
Joel S. Pickus, who prevailed in the request for proposal process for the site at the southwest corner of Bryn Mawr Avenue that is a former BP Amoco service station, tells GlobeSt.com he has spent a year getting his Waukegan-based company's project off the ground. He has agreed to pay $1.05 million for the 22,500-sf site, a price that jumped more than 25% during the city's condemnation process with the oil company.
Pickus explains the original price was $800,000, but the city's cost soared to $1.4 million in condemnation. He grudgingly agreed to split the difference in order to build his $15-million project. However, it may still be a bargain at the $47 per sf he is paying the city, if not the $62 per sf the city is paying BP Amoco.
Further south, Eugene McCarron and Eugene Carew were top bidders in a conventional process for 5430 N. Sheridan, just south of a motel. Property records show they paid $1.35 million to Armenian Congregational Church in January for the 16,882-sf site, or $80 per sf.
Both developers hope to start construction next summer, with completions expected to follow in 2004. Pickus' lender is requiring a 50% pre-sale, but he hopes to push that down to 30%. Cosmopolitan Bank, one of the lenders McCarron is talking with, also is requiring a 50% pre-sale.
Pickus' Bryn Mawr & Sheridan Condominiums will start in the low- to mid-$300,000 range for two-bedroom units to $750,000 for a four-bedroom, four-bath duplex. McCarron and Carew expect their units to range from $230,000 to $370,000.
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