New life for stalled renovation of landmark Congress Theater
The City Council’s Finance Committee extended the life of the tax increment financing district until Dec. 31, 2027, and gave the development team tackling the project a $27 million city subsidy.
By Fran Spielman
Jul 17, 2023, 1:52pm CDT
The Congress Theater, 2135 N. Milwaukee Ave. in 2012. The theater has been closed since 2013.
Shuttered for a decade and deteriorating fast, the 103-year-old Congress Theater where Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis once strutted their stuff is at a crossroads.
One fork “leads to demolition” of the ornate movie theater-turned-concert-venue. The other road ends with what 1st Ward Ald. Daniel La Spata hopes will be a “complete rehab” of the landmark theater at 2135 N. Milwaukee Ave. “as a genuine community development project.”
On Monday, the City Council’s Finance Committee chose the brighter, but more costly path in hopes of breathing new life into the long-stalled restoration.
At La Spata’s behest, alderpersons extended the life of the Fullerton/Milwaukee tax increment financing district by three years — until Dec. 31, 2027 — and granted the latest development team tackling the formidable project a $27 million city subsidy.
Tim Jeffries, managing deputy of the city’s Department of Planning and Development, said the extension will give the team led by Baum Revision time to complete the complex and ambitious project that eluded the previous developer.
The $27 million TIF subsidy is up from $7 million a year ago. It’s needed to cover 30.7% of the $87.8 million cost of a “gut rehab” after deterioration of the landmark theater “accelerated significantly” in the decade since it was closed, Jeffries said.
A rendering of a proposed renovation of the Congress Theater by developer Baum Revision.
“The deterioration is evident … leading up to the second-story balcony. The damage to the walls and the ceiling is obvious. And these are not cosmetic issues. They’re the result of significant water infiltration into the building as a whole. Further evidence of this deterioration and water damage can be seen in one of the stairwells and the interior lobby, one of the historical elements,” Jeffries said, narrating a slide presentation of the damage.
“Deterioration of the building has reached a point where the future of the Congress as a whole may soon be in jeopardy. As recently as 2013, the facility was operational, and in 2015, a public meeting was held in the building. The deterioration over the past decade has been so aggressive, though, that neither is possible today. Building conditions are simply not safe enough to allow access to the general public.”
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The latest in a series of rehab proposals calls for the Congress to be reborn as a “state of the art, 3,500-seat live music venue” operated by AEG Presents.
The project also includes construction of 13,000 square feet of retail space along Milwaukee Avenue, 23,000 square feet of office space dedicated to nonprofits and community groups and the development of 16 residential units, with 14 of those qualifying as affordable housing.
The scope of work includes roof replacement, restoration of the theater’s familiar marquee and what Jeffries calls a “significant amount of exterior stabilization” needed to keep the Congress operating for the next century. Inside, there will be a “total rehab” of interior systems and spaces with a particular focus on restoring the theater’s “historic features,” including lobby spaces and ornate fixtures.
Chuck Berry performs at the Congress Theater in January 2011.
Jeffries said the city’s investment will be protected by a redevelopment agreement that requires “at least 75%” of the retail, commercial and affordable housing units to be “leased and occupied” and that AEG “continuously operate the theater for no less than 10 years.”
The developer must also provide commercial spaces — to locally owned artists, businesses and neighborhood-based organizations — at rents “no greater than 75% of the neighborhood’s market rate,” he said.
“If these conditions are not met, then the city has the right to lien the property in order to re-capture previously dispersed TIF funds,” Jeffries said.
The Congress was built in 1926 in the Classical Revival and Italian Renaissance style. The ornate movie theater was once “one of 30” of its kind in Chicago. In the 1980s, it was turned into a live music venue. It earned landmark status and a place in the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
In April 2013, the city threw the book at the Congress after the latest in a series of failed inspections.
The theater closed later that year and has been shuttered ever since. When a previous developer went into bankruptcy, the building was turned over to a receiver.
La Spata said he’s convinced the second time will be the charm for the storied theater.
“What our residents asked for is what we are delivering in this project,” he said. “A lot of folks brought forth that ‘but, for’ test. ... But, for TIF funding going into this, does the building get developed? And it doesn’t.”
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