Pritzker Buys Vacant Building Across From ETHS For Educational Center

Evanston billionaire and Hyatt Hotel heir Jennifer Pritzker recently purchased a building across from the high school on Church Street and is planning to turn it into an educational and cultural center, according to a press release.

Project Beacon LLC, which is affiliated with Pritzker’s private wealth management company, Tawani Enterprises, will operate the philanthropic endeavor at 1911-1917 Church St., according to the release. 

“We felt this community center will provide a positive presence in an amazing community,” Tawani Enterprises project manager Mark Lavender told Patch in an email. “We feel it’s a beacon to attract all in the community to utilize.”

Purchase Comes After Failed Bid For Harley Clarke Mansion

Through Tawani Enterprises, Pritzker has several real estate investments and philanthropic operations throughout Evanston and Chicago. She and the company came under fire this year after Tawani submitted a bid to purchase the historic lakefront Harley Clarke Mansion from the city, with plans to restore the dilapidated building and turn it into a boutique hotel. After hundreds of residents protested the sale of public, lakefront property, aldermen ultimately voted not to sell the building to Pritzker.

Tawani recently published a website called “Harley Clarke Facts,” which outlines the company’s proposal for the mansion, challenges several “misperceptions” about the project and estimates that it would have brought $5.1 million and 54 new jobs into the city. Officials are still debating whether or not to sell the mansion.

Project Aims to Help In An Area Some Say Needs More Police Power

Project Beacon will be located in an area that has also been the center of debate recently, as the school board and the city council sparred over the idea of entering into an intergovernmental agreement to create a “safe school zone” around the high school. School board members argued that the zone was necessary to give police officers more power to stop fights around the high school. One such fight broke out this June, when police say a 21-year-old Evanston man fired a gun at someone else just as parents and students were filing into the high school for the Nichols Middle School graduation.

City council members and the mayor, however, said they were concerned that extending police powers around the high school could result in civil rights violations.

After months of back and forth, the city’s human services committee decided not to move forward with the agreement last week.

Asked why Pritzker was investing in this particular neighborhood, Lavender simply said, “Tawani Enterprises is consistently looking for unique projects. Tawani vets numerous projects and found this project to meet its criteria.” 

Project Beacon is still working out the details of the building’s design and the program’s offerings, according to Lavender. Construction is expected to begin in mid 2014, and crews will demolish the current building and replace it with something entirely new.

Building Was Near Foreclosure Before Pritzker's Purchase

Records from the Cook County Recorder of Deeds show that Pritzker’s company, Project Beacon LLC, purchased the property from Daniel Cheifetz and the Ariello Reinvestment Trust for $300,000 this fall. A bank had just notified Cheifetz in March that the property would soon go into foreclosure, according to the Cook County Recorder of Deeds, and the space is currently vacant.

Project Beacon also purchased the vacant lot at 1905 Church St. from Cheifetz and Ariello for about $60,000, according to the Cook County Recorder of Deeds. A spokesperson for Pritzker explained that 1911-1917 and 1905 Church Street have two different property identification numbers in the county system, but are actually the same property. 

Cheifetz owns several other properties along Church Street, according to Evanston economic development director Paul Zalmezak. Those include the vacant lot and site of a former gas station at 1801-1805 Church St.; the community center Boocoo, at 1823 Church St.; and a house at 1729 Dodge Ave. Cheifetz also had ownership interest in the Church Street Village apartment complex, at 1655 Church St., according to Zalmezak.

Asked whether the new center would work with Boocoo, which offers arts classes, a performance space and a café, Pritzker’s spokesperson said it was too soon to release names of potential partners.  

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