Site features Xavier Square interactive map

An interactive map of the future Xavier Square development is being featured on the Alumni & Friends section of Xavier University website.

The 20-acre mixed-use project, which is a joint venture between the university and Corporex Companies, will be built at Montgomery and Dana avenues (BIRD'S EYE) and will include:

* 120,000 square feet of office space
* 100,000 square feet of retail space
* A 90-room boutique hotel
* 550-600 student apartments
* 120 market-rate housing units
* A university recreation center, bookstore and health center

The project is being funded through a $200 million capital campaign called "To See Great Wonders".

The project site was once the home of BASF, destroyed in an explosion and fire in 1990; and Zumbiel Packaging, which moved to Hebron in 2004.

Keystone Parke photo update, 2/3/08

Workers were idle for Super Bowl Sunday, but will soon be back to their cladding work at the Keystone Parke site in Evanston.

Pictured here is a four-story, 69,000-square-foot office building being built by Neyer Properties at the corner of Dana and Realistic avenues, adjacent to I-71.

At buildout, Keystone Park will also include a 10-story, 240,000-square-foot office building with restaurant and/or retail space; a 7-story, 160,000-square-foot office building; a restaurant outlot and improvements to Evanston Playfield.

Please click on each image to enlarge to 640 x 480. Photos will open in a new browser window.








Previous reading on BC:
Keystone Parke tweaked (1/22/08)
AndyHemmer.com: Green building and Keystone Parke (1/2/08)
Keystone Parke photo update (11/6/07)
City authorizes $71.1 million in bonds for projects (8/6/07)
Keystone Parke TIF agreements established (7/5/07)

Keystone Parke tweaked

Due to a change in the bond market and some unanticipated streetscape improvements, bonds have been re-approved for the Keystone Parke project in Evanston.

City Council unanimously approved the issuance of $4.2 million in economic development bonds for the first phase of the $100 million project.

The bulk of the project's first phase, a 60,000-square-foot office building that will house up to 250 employees, is currently under construction.

Developer Neyer Properties has also added to the first phase a 0.79-acre site at the southwest corner of Dana and Realistic avenues (BIRD'S EYE), which will be developed as a restaurant.

The restaurant was originally scheduled for the project's second phase.

Debt on the bonds will be serviced by tax increment financing (TIF) revenues generated by the development site.

The new arrangement will not change the City's plans to issue $21.5 million in bonds for the entire campus.

At buildout, Keystone Parke will also include a 10-story, 240,000-square-foot office building with restaurant and retail space; a 7-story, 160,000-square-foot office building; a 4-story, 69,000-square-foot office building; and improvements to Evanston Playfield.

Previous reading on BC:
AndyHemmer.com: Green building and Keystone Parke (1/2/08)
Keystone Parke photo update (11/6/07)
City authorizes $71.1 million in bonds for projects (8/6/07)
Keystone Parke TIF agreements established (7/5/07)

AndyHemmer.com: Green building and Keystone Parke

While it reads much like a pitch to sell office space, Andy Hemmer of AndyHemmer.com has posted a fantastic article about green development, its financial and health benefits, and how Neyer Properties is incorporating it into its Keystone Park project in Evanston.

Neyer Properties President Dan Neyer hopes to achieve LEED Silver Level Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

His article lists seven specific design elements that are being used to help make this happen.

At buildout, Keystone Parke will also include a 10-story, 240,000-square-foot office building with restaurant and retail space; a 7-story, 160,000-square-foot office building; a 4-story, 69,000-square-foot office building and improvements to Evanston Playfield.

Previous reading on BC:
Keystone Parke photo update, 11/3/07 (11/6/07)
City authorizes $71.1 million in bonds for projects (8/6/07)
Keystone Parke TIF agreements established (7/5/07)

Wrecking Cincinnati, 9/4/07

RIP: 1832 Kinney Ave, Evanston
Multi-family

DOB: 1891
Died: August 2007
Cause of death: Foundation cracks, bad eaves/gutters/downspouts, broken windows and an overgrown lot. A foreclosure left it unattended and under the control of out-of-state banks. The City condemned the property in August 2006 and declared it a public nuisance last December.

Wrecking Cincinnati, 8/27/07

RIP: 1556 Dixmont Ave, Evanston
Single-family

DOB: 1912
Died: August 2007
Cause of death: The house burned down in August 2006. The City declared it a public nuisance last April. (Yes, it took a year to demolish a burned-down house.)

Evanston NBD rezoning sails through

Evanston's NBD: Click to enlarge

City Council unanimously approved two rezonings for Evanton's Five Points business district.

These rezonings are in line with the Evanston Five-Point Urban Renewal Plan, which was adopted in 2003 while the City's current zoning codes were being re-written.

Commercial development will now be limited to the area extending from Woodburn and Fairfax, north through the Five Points intersection, and ending at Montgomery and Holloway.

In an effort to develop a more walkable, storefront-style feel to the district, new auto-oriented uses will not be permitted.

Also aiding in the concentration of business nearer the intersection is the rezoning of property along Woodburn Avenue between Gilpin and Fairfax avenues to RMX Residential Mix.

Building Cincinnati: Evanston looks to tighten "Five Points" business district (6/19/07)

Keystone Parke TIF agreements established

Rendering: Click to enlarge

Cincinnati City Council has approved an ordinance authorizing a service agreement and a development agreement with Neyer Properties for the Keystone Parke office project on in Evanston.

The agreement establishes a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district for the site of the project's first phase, a $15 million, 67,000 square foot office building.

The TIF district contains land with a Dana Avenue frontage, roughly between Realistic and Floral avenues.

The City also established a TIF fund into which debt service for the issued bonds can be depositied.

The project, which is estimated to cost $100 million, will include three buildings totalling 465,000 square feet of Class A office space.

Streetscapes along Dana Avenue and a refurbishing of the adjacent Evanston Playfield are also part of the project. Parking will be supplied in the lower levels of each of the three buildings and on surface lots.

An early estimate for completion of the three phases was 2010. This has not been officially revised.


Layout of Phase I TIF: Click to enlarge

WINDOWS LIVE BIRD'S EYE VIEW
GOOGLE AERIAL VIEW

Evanston looks to tighten "Five Points" business district

Evanston's NBD: Click to enlarge

The City's Economic Development Committee will hear two rezoning cases at this afternoon's meeting which could alter the look of the Five Points business district.

Recently, the Evanston Community Council received $2 million* to help implement the Evanston Five-Point Urban Renewal Plan, which was adopted in 2003.

The plan recommended the concentration of commercial uses near the five-point intersection. The idea was to give the neighborhood business district (NBD) focus, to get more small businesses in existing commercial storefronts, and to help save some of the adjacent housing stock from being demolished to make way for undesireable commercial uses.

At the time of the plan's adoption, the City's zoning code was being re-written. Since no zoning designations had been included in the plan, the Evanston Community Council asked for a zoning study from the City's Department of Community Development and Planning (DCDP).

Based upon the goals outlined in the plan, the DCDP recommended in one ordinance that portions of the NBD between Fairfax and Holloway and along the eastern side of Woodburn (opposite of Merrimac) should change from CN-M Commercial Neighborhood-Mixed to CN-P Commercial Neighborhood-Pedestrian zoning. This designation would retain the commercial density of the area. It would also disallow any future auto-oriented development on the site. Existing auto-oriented businesses would be allowed to operate, but not to expand.

In the second ordinance, the mostly residential properties along Woodburn between Gilpin and Fairfax would change from CN-M to RMX Residential Mix. This would have the effect of helping to shift commercial uses farther north to the Five Points intersection. Again, existing uses could remain.

Zoning along Montgomery between Ruth and Duck Creek and along Woodburn south of Gilpin would remain the same.

After a public discussion between community members and staff from DCDP eight days earlier, Evanston Community Council voted to support the rezoning on April 18.

The City Planning Commission unanimously approved this rezoning on May 18.

City Council's agenda has not yet been posted.

WINDOWS LIVE BIRD'S EYE VIEW (looking north)
GOOGLE AERIAL MAP

* I do not know the source of this money.

Evanston: Jonathan Meadows

This project is being built on Jonathan Ave, near Walnut Hills High School and I-71.

At buildout, this development will consist of 22 townhomes.

The project is spearheaded by the Avondale and Walnut Hills redevelopment corporations, along with the Evanston Community Council and others who made the financing possible.

The project is a definite plus, and I shouldn't criticize. But I will, at least a couple of times, anyway:

Khaki and brick. How original! Why so bland? Is this Kyles Station?




What's with the seam running down the middle?