Northern Realty Group Ltd., based here, has been chosen as theretail consultant and developer as well as the leasing agent forthe project. Bruce Kaplan and Leslie Mader will lead thedevelopment. Valerio Dewalt Train will be the architect for theproject and Lyons Realty Advisors will assist with studies, conceptdevelopment and plan execution.

The four-building development has approximately 110,000 sf ofretail space on the ground and second levels. The retail space willbe reconfigured and expanded to between 140,000 sf and 150,000 sf,says Bruce Kaplan, president of Northern. Specifically, a"modest-sized" health club may more than double in size to about55,000 sf, Kaplan says. The property owners have been contacted bya couple of "name-brand operators" of health clubs that would liketo be tenants and see the health club expanded. Kaplan said that hecould not disclose the identities of the health club operators atthis time. The health club has a large outdoor deck area that has arunning path and basketball court. The outdoor area may be enclosedwith the expansion of the aerobics area, and an indoor running pathand basketball court, he says. The amount of retail space will alsobe slightly increased by having the retail face outward and byturning the internal corridors into rentable space.

The majority of the retail space is currently only accessiblefrom inside the building. The complex was completed in 1986. "Itwas not the nicest part of Chicago. It was in a sea of parkinglots," Kaplan says. "It was really quite unfriendly topedestrians." The retail in the towers was designed to "have allthe necessities of life contained within the buildings itself," hesays. In the past 20 years, the complex has become surrounded byoffice and residential developments. "The area has gone throughthis absolutely exponential growth in terms of office and in termsof residential density," Kaplan says. The retail space will beredesigned "embracing the pedestrian traffic." The retail spacewill have new store fronts, signage and streetscaping, he says.