GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Jazz Club Sale Nears

CHICAGO-A Skokie-based partnership is headed to the closing table, its next step in converting the shuttered Gerri’s Palm Tavern at 446-48 E. 47th St. into a restaurant and jazz club. U2P Properties, Inc. will pay $58,500 to the city for the 2,338-sf former nightclub, combining that property with a neighboring building at 450-52 E. 47th St. for its $580,000 project.

Financing is being provided by Delta Funding Corp., says department of planning and development project manager Kimberly Moore. The sale is headed for city council approval after receiving a favorable recommendation this week from the committee on housing and real estate.

The project is a key piece in a 47th Street “Blues District” envisioned by 3rd Ward Alderman Dorothy Tillman. However, the sale was fodder in the aldermanic election, as opponent and former city planner Pat Dowell failed late last year in an attempt to solicit additional bids, noting the group buying the property has a “public link” to Tillman.