Dempster/Dodge TIF District Could Come To Vote Soon

The city held a public hearing on a proposed TIF district at Dempster and Dodge before Monday night’s council meeting. Aldermen will likely vote on the matter on Monday, May 29.

A proposed TIF district for the southwest corner of Dempster and Dodge garnered vocal support from some aldermen and concerns from others during a public hearing Monday. “I see this as just a really important thing for us to do,” said first ward alderman Judy Fiske. “I think this will have an incredible effect on the four corners.”  Ninth ward alderman Coleen Burrus was skeptical, however. Earlier: 'Ideal Vision' for Evanston Plaza Discussed at Leadership Evanston Meeting “I am pro-TIF over all, I’m for redevelopment of areas that haven’t been developed, I’m just not sure how this works here,” she said. Under the proposal created by the city’s economic development department and consultant Kane, McKenna and Associates, the Evanston Plaza …

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City to Hold Hearing on Dempster/Dodge TIF District

The city of Evanston will hold a public hearing on a possible tax increment financing district at Dempster and Dodge, scheduled for 7:15 p.m. at the Civic Center.

A possible tax increment financing (TIF) district at Dempster and Dodge is moving closer to reality. On Monday night, Evanstonians have the opportunity to share their opinion on the proposal during a public hearing that begins at 7:15 p.m. at the Civic Center. City officials have stated that the new TIF district will allow Evanston to invest in the plaza’s renovation, help attract new tenants and assist with other redevelopment opportunities. The shopping center has seen business dry up in recent years, leaving a number of vacant store fronts in the once-thriving plaza. And in December, the Chicago-based real estate firm Bonnie Management Group purchased the plaza in for $8.1 million. At the hearing, a joint review board composed of …

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'Ideal Vision' for Evanston Plaza Discussed at Leadership Evanston Meeting

Leadership Evanston is asking residents to participate in a discussion on the shopping center's future.

What is your ideal vision of Evanston Plaza? What could the shopping center be in the not-so-distant future if few restrictions applied? These were the questions nearly 30 Evanston residents were asked to answer at a Sunday afternoon Leadership Evanston meeting held at Perla Café, 1813 Dempster St. The purpose of the gathering, said organizers, was to encourage residents to think big, to create a bold vision to work toward, to ignore potential restrictions guaranteed in the leases of current plaza stores and to record community sentiments that Leadership Evanston members could eventually present to both aldermen and the plaza’s owner. Stay up to date on the latest Evanston news by signing up for our free morning newsletter. Conceived as a …

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Update: First Step Toward Dempster-Dodge TIF at Tonight’s City Council Meeting

The city is requesting the suspension of council rules to both introduce and vote on establishing public hearings for the TIF creation.

Evanston aldermen will likely approve two ordinances at tonight’s City Council meeting that will take the first steps toward establish a tax increment financing (TIF) district to assist in the development of the Evanston Plaza shopping center. In December, the plaza was bought in for $8.1 million by the Chicago-based real estate firm Bonnie Management Group. The shopping center has seen business dry up in recent years, leaving a number of vacant store fronts in the once-thriving plaza. The City of Evanston states that the new TIF district will allow them to invest in the plaza’s renovation, help attract new tenants and assist with other redevelopment opportunities. Monday’s ordinances will create a schedule for how the city will move …

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Evanston Plaza Owner Responds to Patch Readers’ Suggestions

Some are feasible. Others are essentially impossible.

In last week’s inaugural entry to Evanston Patch’s new “Empty in Evanston” series, we asked readers to vote on what businesses they would like to see fill Evanston Plaza’s empty storefronts. For many, Chicago-based real estate firm Bonnie Investment Group’s purchase of the plaza for $8.1 million in December sparked hope that the shopping center might soon be revitalized to the glory-days form it enjoyed two decades ago, and the wide range of readers’ enthusiastic responses painted a picture of what the Evanston community hopes the plaza’s future might look like. Some of the more popular ideas included a bowling alley (49 percent of the vote), a sporting goods store (15 percent of the vote), a health club (11 percent of the vote), a sit-…

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Housing Implausible at Evanston Plaza, Says Owner

Housing Implausible at Evanston Plaza, Says Owner

Empty In Evanston

What Should Move into Evanston Plaza?

In this new series, Evanston Patch solicits your ideas for what to do with empty spaces around town.

The new owners of Evanston Plaza are eager to fill the mall's empty storefronts. In this introductory piece in our new "Empty in Evanston" series, we ask you what you'd like to see go into the 25,000- and 35,000-square-foot spaces. The largest current tenant in the west side mall is Dominick's. Last month, the new owners, Bonnie Investment Group LLC, Evanston West Village Business Association, Ald. Peter Braithwaite (2nd Ward) and City of Evanston employees gathered to brainstorm ideas for new tenants. We are listing some of the ideas from that meeting in our poll below. Vote for your favorite and then elaborate on your answer in our comments section. We're hoping for a lively dialogue about what you want to see. Related: Stakeholders meet…

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Evanston Plaza’s New Owners Discuss Shopping Center’s Future

A real estate firm representative met with west side business owners and city representatives.

Evanston Plaza’s new owners are determined to revitalize the west-side shopping center to its once bustling ways, and a Tuesday morning meeting between the owners and a west side business association doubled as both a brainstorming sessions and a formal introduction to the neighborhood. A representative for Bonnie Investment Group LLC, the Chicago-based real estate firm that purchased the plaza for $8.1 million last month, met with members of the Evanston West Village Business Association, Ald. Peter Braithwaite (2nd Ward) and City of Evanston employees at Perla Café, 1813 Dempster St., to discuss the property’s future development. On the mind of local proprietors were what businesses Bonnie Investment Group aimed to attract and how the …

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Evanston Residents Accuse City of Lacking Transparency in Police Outpost Decision

Some Evanston residents are unhappy with the lack of public discussion leading up to the construction of a police outpost at the Evanston Plaza Dominick's.

Whether Evanston residents like it or not, a police outpost has been built in Evanston Plaza’s Dominick’s grocery store, 1910 Dempster St., and will soon be staffed by city police officers. Still, near 50 Evanstonians showed up to a 2nd Ward meeting held at the Robert Crown Center Thursday night, many to voice their opinions on issues surrounding the new outpost. Located on the northeast side of the store, the outpost was built in response to reportedly high rates of juvenile liquor theft and theft-related violence in and around Dominick’s. Evanston Police Chief Richard Eddington has said that his goal in approving the outpost’s construction was to create a sufficient deterrent to prevent local youth from making poor decisions that might …

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Dominick's Police Outpost Met with Opposition from Neighborhood Group

Neighbors have mixed reactions and many questions about an Evanston Police Department outpost being built at the Evanston Plaza Dominick's.

The Evanston Police Department outpost currently being constructed within the Evanston Plaza Dominick’s grocery store was the topic of a heated debate at the Dewey-Darrow and Florence-Crain Neighbors meeting held Thursday night at the Perla Café, 1813 Dempster St. Proposed in response to a rash of juvenile liquor thefts and theft-related violence in and around the store, the outpost has come under heat from local neighborhood groups and business associations, which contend that other preventative methods have not been adequately examined, that taxpayers should not have to fund the staffing of a security center in a private business, and that the outpost would foster a perception that the neighborhood is unsafe, scaring potential home-…

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John Brinkmann

11:40 am on Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Great seeing a post here from Kip---For those who might not be familiar with the name, Kip MacMillan served Evanston with honor and integrity for many years...As for getting better acquainted with our police officers, there was a time when many of the city's cops lived here or nearby, and obviously became more of a well known presence in the community...It would be nice to see more of our cops …   more ›