Evanston Patch

Limited Beach Access in Pritzker Bid for Harley-Clarke Mansion

Col. James Pritzker is willing to negotiate his $1.2 million bid for the city-owned Harley-Clarke Mansion, according to minutes of three… closed-session meetings.

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Bell F June 19, 2013 at 10:04 pm

Agreed - seems like decisions are made with poorly and with hidden agendas. By the way - of the 6-8…Read More aldermen in Evanston - one works for northwestern and several are lawyers and have contracts and commissions with northwestern. See how it works. Harley Clarke is a true gem - very special - an shouldn't be sold off or even ripped down. Wally and Mayor T need to acknowledge they need some help with their decision process with Harley Clarke. Begin by stop forcing a quick decision. Take your time with this one Evanston council - its very important to us all. Don't do the quick and senseless deals / please - please - please.

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Bell F June 19, 2013 at 10:12 pm

Ps - its not about the money mayor T - you're council will spend 1.2 million or even 2.5 million in…Read More no time at all. It's like Selling the city's kidney. Bad plan.

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Junad Rizki June 19, 2013 at 10:14 pm

Mayor Tisdahl and Wally are the ones who are spreading misinformation about the Harley Clarke…Read More Mansion. They are trying to discredit a young man who placed a petition, to protect our lake front park land from the Mayor and Wally selling it. this is young man that went to our public schools and lived in this town. Lets be clear, anyone looking at the City proposals and documents would be confused. The orginal document the city posted on the web site, is not complete they have not shown the map of the property which is listed as an attached, thus we do not know what they were even bidding on in the orginal propose to sell. Remember Mayor Tisdahl claimed not one blade of lake front park land would be sold, the orginal proposal suggest selling 37,000 sq ft of land, which is double the building foot print. What the new proposal by the developer wants is over 100,000 sq ft or 2-1/2 arces. Reading the minutes- it is clear a large percent of the land will be gone. Also the real value of the property is being misquoted, is everyone is using the appraisel numbers for only 3,700 sq ft of land and the building not 2-1/2 arces, the real value may be well over 10 to 15 million dollars. ( Although I not suggesting selling OUR PARKLAND) What is interesting in all this that few seem to understand, the bidding process here is not a bidding process. Wally went out for bids seeking a proposal on one thing, and he is now in the process of discussing with the developer something that is completely different from the orginal bid documents. There is something quite wrong, here the other bidders appear to have not had a chance to bid on this. The city showed us the original documents ( incomplete) but now we have no documents showing us what is proposed. This is not a normal bid process. We citizens should have been shown the developer proposal, the city's claim that they are still trying to select a bidder is not true. This is not a bidding process as the city lawyer is claiming but something else. The Mayor and Wally at Monday night'scouncil are claiming there is false information being spread, I suggest they come clean and give us all the information. Then we will have a real understanding as to what has been proposed. The Mayor monday claimed the building needs millions of dollars of work, were does she get her numbers? The city web site shows $430,000 for code work, but does not list maintenance repairs? So is the Mayor quoting information from the developers proposal which the city refuses to give us? Or is the Mayor making up numbers? As for the Art Center, some are saying it needs a bigger space or the space does not work for them, they are only paying one dollar in rent a year. This is another sweet heart deal. The city has done few maintenance upgrades, but that is by choice not lack of funds as the Mayor implies. What deal has Wally promised the Art Center? As I recall it was mentioned at council the Art Center would be provided funds to move, so are Wally and the Mayor planning to give them hundred of thousands of our tax dollars to move them and renovate a new space? Lets be very clear here the city is spreading misinformation all over the place for political purposes, even the 7th ward Alderperson Grover, as stated in the minutes appear to be going out and talking to select residents and others about the deal, which I find interesting given the city claims it can not give us information on the deal. There is a great deal of misinformatin here, lets be clear Wally and Liz Tisdahl have no real desire to make this an open process, since Wally is still discussing the deal behind closed doors. Residents should be concern and express their concern. Signing the petition at Change.Org ( type in Harley Clarke Mansion in the search box )

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