GRID
January + February 2002

Chicago Rocks – Hard

The sons of legendary architect Daniel Burnham found inspiration for the design of Chicago's 1929 Carbide and Carbon Building from the light glistening off a black-and-gold champagne label at a cocktail party - or so the story goes. Nearly 75 years later, the black- granite-and-polished-bronze facade of the building, at 230 North Michigan Avenue, has caught the eye of London-based Hard Rock Café International, which has chosen the 38-story office tower as the future home of its first urban hotel. Resort-style Hard Rock Hotels are located in Las Vegas, Bali, Orlando and Thailand.

Mark IV Realty of Chicago bought the property in 1997 from the Realty Refund Trust, a Cleveland-based REIT. While the beauty and potential of the Burnham Brothers' building was never in question - it was designated a Chicago landmark in 1996 - the building's highest and best use was. After Mark IV ruled out office and condominium uses due to the building's small fluoridates and tight column spacing, and after its negotiations with both the Radisson and Marriott hotel chains fell through, it became clear that a unique user would be required.

Enter Hard Rock which was seeking a dynamic urban location for its first nonresort hotel. The bold design and city-center location of the Art Deco-style building made it attractive from day one, according to Jim Biggars, head of Hard Rock Hotels and Resorts. ''We were looking at all the major markets and viewed Chicago as a market with long-term stability and growth potential," explains Biggars. ''But beyond location, we fell in love with the building itself.''

The developer's discussions with Hard Rock began in the fall of 2000, and the two organizations quickly agreed that the hotel was a good fit for the landmark tower. ''The building actually looks more like a hotel than an office building," says Lucien Lagrange, principal of Lucien Lagrange and Associates, the Chicago architectural firm that designed the project. Approvals were granted in early 2001, but the economic downturn hit the hotel-lending market especially hard and even with approvals and a flag in place, financing was hard to find. In November of last year, after 12 months of effort, Mark IV finally secured $49 mil- lion in financing for the $86 million probed from Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank. The city is providing $5 million in tax increment financing for the hotel along with $11 million in the form of Class L tax incentives. The remainder of the financing will be provided by private investors, including Mark IV.

Construction of the 385-unit Hard Rock Hotel-Chicago will begin in the second quarter of this year, once a general contractor has been selected. It involves demolishing two adjacent nonlandmark buildings and building a complementary structure next to the Carbide and Carbon Building to house the hotel's lobby, a restaurant, meeting space and a second-floor ballroom. Plans for the new structure show a contemporary building clad in the same black granite and polished bronze as the original.

The developer began a $6 million, four-year restoration of the original building's facade in 1998. Funding to continue the restoration was committed by Hard Rock in 2001, before financing for the project had been secured, to ensure that it would be completed for the hotel's scheduled opening in the second quarter of 2003. The building's lobby will also be restored.

The vast majority of the interior will be taken down to the shell, and two elevator shafts will be removed. The small fluoridates of the upper floors will house three rooms apiece, with sweeping views of either the Chicago River, Millennium Park or North Michigan Avenue. High-energy, music-focused Hard Rock branding will dominate the interiors, designed by Jeffrey Beers International of New York, which recently completed the redesign of the local Hard Rock Cafe, about a mile northwest of the hotel site.

The new hotel will both benefit from and contribute to the 24/7 character of Chicago's city center. ''The whole area, with the theater district just to the west, is taking on an arts focus, including the new music venue at Millennium Park, the theater district and existing institutions in the Art Institute and the Cultural Center," notes Alicia Mazur Berg, Chicago's commissioner of planning and development. ''The hotel will establish a critical link between the Art Institute, the Loop and the greater North Michigan Avenue areas."

Mark IV president John McDonald believes the time it has taken to get the project off the ground has worked in its favor. "We're not opening in today's economic climate," he says. ''2003 is ages from now, and there is plenty of time for both economic and psychological recovery, especially from the effects of 9/11.'' - Margy Sweeney