City panel pushes forward on Wrigley Building landmark status, Wrigley Field bleachers

CHICAGO (MCT) — A city commission Thursday unanimously approved a recommendation to give landmark status to the Wrigley Building on Michigan Avenue, a move preservation advocates say is long overdue.

“The Wrigley Building is one of Chicago’s premier downtown buildings and internationally known as one of the greatest designs of legendary Chicago architecture,” said Lisa DiChiera, Director of Advocacy for the non-profit Landmark Illinois organization. “Most people are shocked to learn that this iconic building was not already designated as an official Chicago Landmark long ago.”

The Commission on Chicago Landmarks also supported a request by the new owners of the adjoining towers at 400 and 410 N. Michigan Ave. for a Class L property tax classification, which could provide tax reductions if the owner invests significantly in rehabilitation. Both recommendations require approval from the City Council.

If granted, the Class L tax incentive would save the owners $12.1 million over 12 years, city officials said. The owners would be required to invest 50 percent of the building’s full market value in a city approved rehabilitation project.

The Wrigley Building’s longtime owner, the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., sold the skyscraper in September to a consortium of investors led by BDT Capital Partners, a Chicago-based investment firm headed by Byron Trott.

Groupon co-founders Brad Keywell and Eric Lefkofsky, as well as the Zeller Realty Group are also investors.

The building, designed by Chicago architects Graham, Anderson, Probst and White and completed in 1924. has long been an unofficial city landmark, featured in postcards and mentioned in the lyrics of the song “My Kind of Town.”

City officials had long maintained the skyscraper did not need to be granted official landmark status because the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co would protect its integrity.

Representatives for the Wrigley Building’s new owners said they have plans for renovations designed to attract retailers to the building.

They want to add retail entrances off the plaza between the two towers and expand retail space on the first second and lower levels of both towers. A new restaurant is planned to replace the vacant 410 Club.

“I think there is a bet that we’re making and that is that we’ll have a more enticing product,” said Paul Zeller, founder of the Zeller Realty Group. “I am hopeful but it is no way an absolute ... it’s not a slam dunk.”