Neighborhood look for Loop // Franchises are shunned in Daley makeover plan

Downtown Chicago would go from fast-food heaven to a showcase forneighborhood entrepreneurs under an ambitious makeover planned byMayor Daley to serve a burgeoning Loop population.

With 152,000 people expected to be living downtown by 2010,Daley wants to reshape the area with an array of distinctive shoppingchoices.

Fast-food restaurants would be out, or at least discouraged.Neighborhood delis, bakeries and specialty shops that otherwise couldnot afford pricey downtown rents would be recruited through anaggressive marketing campaign dubbed, "Get in the Loop."They would be given subsidies generated by the Central Loop taxincrement financing district to compete with major chains."I don't want the city to be like all the other cities. We haveour specialty. We have great stores from Chicago - differentrestaurants and boutiques. We have great identity. I want to bringthat out. I don't want to just do a shopping mall," Daley told theChicago Sun-Times."There are more and more people living downtown. We're one ofthe few cities in the country - in the world - that people are movingback into and not moving out. I want to be able to give these youngentrepreneurs who have boutiques and different restaurants anopportunity to come into the downtown market. It's a market thatkeeps growing. I don't just want national chains."The city cited the following as examples of the types ofbusinesses they would like to recruit: Swedish Bakery at 5388 N.Clark, Margie's Candies at 1960 N. Western and Armitage Produce at3334 W. Armitage.The effort to create what amounts to a permanent version ofTaste of Chicago gets under way in earnest April 23.That's when the Daley administration hosts a forum for hundredsof retailers and restaurateurs at the Crown Plaza Silver Smith, aboutique hotel that opened last year at 10 S. Wabash.The city will pitch the opportunities of the fast-growingdowntown market with a 15-minute video prepared by advertising giantLeo Burnett.City planners "combed the streets" and poured through adirectory of small businesses to produce the list of invited guests.The forum was arranged after a survey of ground-floor space alongWabash and other downtown streets turned up scores of vacancies andan abundance of fast-food restaurants that close when officebuildings empty out for the day."There's no reason to come downtown if it's all franchises. Youcan get that on Mannheim Road," said Terry Teele, the mayor's deputychief of staff.Planning and Development Commissioner Christopher Hill said,"With all that's happening downtown, where is the authentic deli?Where is the authentic bakery? . . . The franchises seem to begobbling up all of the space."The city is prepared to flex its muscle, what Hill called "oneheck of a struggle."When property owners and developers come seeking TIF assistanceto rehab old buildings, City Hall will include in their plans arequirement that they lease ground-floor space to someone other thana franchise, Hill said. A list of prospective tenants also will beprovided."Chicago isn't Anywhere, U.S.A. As leases expire and vacanciesoccur, we're going to proactively let building owners know what ourvision is for downtown. Commercial ground-floor space is no longeran afterthought. If you're asking for our assistance, we wantinput," he said.The Illinois Retail Merchants Association said it's all forfilling "available space" in the downtown area with "the best thatChicago has to offer."But association vice president Gary Rejebian cautions, "It mayor may not be financially feasible for an Eastern Europeandelicatessen in Jefferson Park to open a downtown location. The costof occupancy is totally different. So is the marketing need and thevolume of business they have to do."Until now, the city has funneled Central Loop TIF money intomass transit and the Randolph Street theater district, according toMary Sue Barrett, a former Daley policy chief now serving aspresident of the Metropolitan Planning Council. Creating a "boutiquedowntown" is the "logical next step," she said."We're not used to thinking of the central business district asa neighborhood, but it's turned into that at a faster pace thananyone thought," Barrett said."The city is apparently taking a more thoughtful approach andputting together incentives to make sure it's a neighborhood with allof the building blocks that any neighborhood needs to survive longterm."