May 24, 2006

BY DAVID ROEDER Business Reporter

The plan for a stand-alone lakefront tower some 2,000 feet tall for digital broadcast antennas is officially dead. So says the man in charge of the property for which it was proposed.

Thomas Weeks, president of LR Development CoLa. LLC, said the TV tower "is not something we are pursuing'' for the site at 515 N. Peshtigo Ct. Instead, his firm is planning a 57-story condominium building on the vacant parcel.

LR already has zoning authority for the building, which Weeks said is being designed by architect Ralph Johnson of the firm Perkins & Will. Marketing of the 350 high-end units should start later this year, Weeks said.

Last year, LR formed a partnership with developer J. Paul Beitler, who represented Chicago's TV stations. Beitler proposed a huge antenna mast that was supposed to double as a tourist attraction. It would have contained a restaurant for crowds drawn to nearby Navy Pier.

It was never clear that the stations would finance such a tall structure. But other problems with the plan surfaced quickly.

The land is only about a block north of the site of the celebrated "Calatrava spire," the 124-story building due to go up at E. North Water Street and Lake Shore Drive.

Its slender, seemingly twirling profile is the work of Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.

Sources said city officials didn't want structures of such extreme height so close together. And the Daley administration made it clear it wanted Calatrava on the skyline.

Other real estate experts said the TV stations never seriously pursued the antenna tower. The broadcasters want alternatives so they get negotiating leverage when it's time to renew leases on the roofs of the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Center.

They have one possibility in the Calatrava building. Its developer, Christopher Carley, has said the design can be modified to accommodate antennas within a spire that would be there anyway,

Also, the real estate firm Staubach Co. has consulted with the stations on potential antenna sites in the South Loop.




 

RWONLINE

June 1, 2006

Plans for New Chicago TV Tower Tossed

The Chicago Sun-Times has closely followed the discussions between broadcasters and developers regarding construction of a tall tower for DTV broadcasting antennas in Chicago.

Since the late 1990s, broadcasters have considered several proposals for new TV transmission facilities to provide an alternative to the established Hancock and Sears towers, but so far none have made it past the proposal stage.

In a recent article, David Roeder reported that LR Development would not pursue the TV tower and would instead build a 57-story condominium building on its lakefront parcel.

Roeder said the developer of the nearby Calatrava building, which has a large spire on top, indicated that its design could be modified to accommodate antennas inside the spire.

- TV Technology