Land surrounding the enduring Leaning Tower of Niles is poised for redevelopment.
Niles trustees have greenlit using tax increment financing to amass the previous YMCA adjoining to the tower for $2.1 million, Chicago Tribune reported. The village purchased the leaning tower itself from the YMCA in 2017.
CBRE is advertising and marketing the YMCA’s 6.6-acre surrounding tract, which stretches to Touhy and Melvina avenues. The village plans to demolish a seven-story residential constructing and an exercise heart to make means for retail and restaurant area.
The YMCA closed its leaning tower location in 2020, citing the impacts of the pandemic and extended monetary losses. The deteriorating buildings are “disgusting” and “in shambles,” Niles Mayor George Alpogianis stated. Persistence was key to negotiating a good sale value, he stated.
“Being a businessman, I’m sure YMCA needs it off the books,” Alpogianis instructed the outlet. “There’s been break-ins, every kind of issues of that nature. So do you actually need a piece of property and it appears to be like like that? No. You need to eliminate it.”
Alongside the land buy, the village secured a 47-year floor lease from the Robert E. Ilg Belief.
This acquisition follows the village’s buy of the previous Grainger industrial web site for about $8 million in 2019, with hopes of fostering a mixed-use leisure district. A portion of the 8-acre Grainger property was offered to Costco, guaranteeing the retail large’s continued presence in Niles.
The village’s imaginative and prescient for the leaning tower web site extends past industrial endeavors. Alpogianis spelled out plans to combine leisure area for neighborhood occasions, concert events and festivals, aligning with the Niles Complete 2040 Plan.
That plan, endorsed by the Village Board in February, outlines methods to rework the Touhy Triangle right into a vibrant retail hub whereas safeguarding it from encroaching industrialization.
The Leaning Tower of Niles is a half-size reproduction of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, inbuilt 1934, and it was added to the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations in February 2020.
—Quinn Donoghue
