A Disney quest for Room & Board
By Patricia Richardson and Alby Gallun
Sep 1 2002 9:59AM GMT
CHICAGO, IL (Crain's Chicago Business) -- A gaping hole in the North Michigan Avenue landscape is likely to be filled — and another one created — as Minnesota-based furniture retailer Room & Board considers moving its stores from Chicago Place to the hulking, shuttered site once occupied by DisneyQuest, sources familiar with the matter say.
The company — which leases 49,000 square feet in the Chicago Place mall at 700 N. Michigan Ave. for its Room & Board and Retrospect stores — is in negotiations to lease roughly 60,000 of the 90,000 square feet left vacant at the corner of Rush and Ohio streets when DisneyQuest closed last year, a source says.
A Room & Board spokeswoman confirms that the company is considering a move when its Chicago Place lease expires in 2004.
"We're exploring a couple of options," she says, adding that a move to the DisneyQuest site in John Buck Co.'s North Bridge complex is one of them.
If Room & Board moves ahead with the plan, Chicago-based Buck would replace the building's distinct green-glass façade — custom-designed for DisneyQuest — with a more traditional storefront, a source says.
Buck did not return calls seeking comment. The Chicago office of real estate firm Staubach Co., which was retained to find a tenant for the space, and a spokes-man for California-based Disney Regional Entertainment, the Disney Co. unit that operates DisneyQuest, also declined comment.
Home furnishings synergy
Another potential tenant that confirms it is interested in taking some of the DisneyQuest space is Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab, located at the northwest corner of Grand Avenue and Rush Street, abutting the vacant space on the south. The restaurant is in talks to lease as much as 2,000 square feet in order to increase its capacity 20% to 270 seats, says Gerard Centioli, president of Icon LLC, which manages the eatery.
If Room & Board makes the move, it would be the second major furniture retailer to set up shop in the area. Less than a block away, in the former Medinah Temple at the corner of Ohio Street and Wabash Avenue, Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores Inc. plans to open a 130,000-square-foot Bloomingdale's Home Store this fall.
"It could create great synergies and cross-traffic for both stores," says Neil Stern, a partner at Chicago based retail consulting firm McMillan/Doolittle LLP. "Room & Board is uniquely positioned and has its own style, but would do extremely well across the street from Bloomingdale's."
The move would also give Room & Board, whose stores now occupy the fifth, sixth and seventh floors of Chicago Place, more visibility.
"They're underexposed where they are," Mr. Stern says. "It's very much a destination place to get up to the fifth or sixth floor of Chicago Place."
A solution/a problem
Luring Room & Board would solve a big problem for Buck, which has had a large and unusually configured space on its hands since DisneyQuest's exit. But the furniture stores' exodus would complicate matters for New York-based Brookfield Properties Corp., owner and manager of Chicago Place, where Room & Board leases nearly one-third of the 160,000 square feet not occupied by Saks Fifth Avenue.
"We're aware that they're exploring their options," says Harold Brandt, president of the Central region for Brookfield Properties. "I think you'd always be concerned if you lost a tenant like Room & Board and Retrospect. They've always been a very good tenant for us."
By Patricia Richardson and Alby Gallun
Sep 1 2002 9:59AM GMT
CHICAGO, IL (Crain's Chicago Business) -- A gaping hole in the North Michigan Avenue landscape is likely to be filled — and another one created — as Minnesota-based furniture retailer Room & Board considers moving its stores from Chicago Place to the hulking, shuttered site once occupied by DisneyQuest, sources familiar with the matter say.
The company — which leases 49,000 square feet in the Chicago Place mall at 700 N. Michigan Ave. for its Room & Board and Retrospect stores — is in negotiations to lease roughly 60,000 of the 90,000 square feet left vacant at the corner of Rush and Ohio streets when DisneyQuest closed last year, a source says.
A Room & Board spokeswoman confirms that the company is considering a move when its Chicago Place lease expires in 2004.
"We're exploring a couple of options," she says, adding that a move to the DisneyQuest site in John Buck Co.'s North Bridge complex is one of them.
If Room & Board moves ahead with the plan, Chicago-based Buck would replace the building's distinct green-glass façade — custom-designed for DisneyQuest — with a more traditional storefront, a source says.
Buck did not return calls seeking comment. The Chicago office of real estate firm Staubach Co., which was retained to find a tenant for the space, and a spokes-man for California-based Disney Regional Entertainment, the Disney Co. unit that operates DisneyQuest, also declined comment.
Home furnishings synergy
Another potential tenant that confirms it is interested in taking some of the DisneyQuest space is Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab, located at the northwest corner of Grand Avenue and Rush Street, abutting the vacant space on the south. The restaurant is in talks to lease as much as 2,000 square feet in order to increase its capacity 20% to 270 seats, says Gerard Centioli, president of Icon LLC, which manages the eatery.
If Room & Board makes the move, it would be the second major furniture retailer to set up shop in the area. Less than a block away, in the former Medinah Temple at the corner of Ohio Street and Wabash Avenue, Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores Inc. plans to open a 130,000-square-foot Bloomingdale's Home Store this fall.
"It could create great synergies and cross-traffic for both stores," says Neil Stern, a partner at Chicago based retail consulting firm McMillan/Doolittle LLP. "Room & Board is uniquely positioned and has its own style, but would do extremely well across the street from Bloomingdale's."
The move would also give Room & Board, whose stores now occupy the fifth, sixth and seventh floors of Chicago Place, more visibility.
"They're underexposed where they are," Mr. Stern says. "It's very much a destination place to get up to the fifth or sixth floor of Chicago Place."
A solution/a problem
Luring Room & Board would solve a big problem for Buck, which has had a large and unusually configured space on its hands since DisneyQuest's exit. But the furniture stores' exodus would complicate matters for New York-based Brookfield Properties Corp., owner and manager of Chicago Place, where Room & Board leases nearly one-third of the 160,000 square feet not occupied by Saks Fifth Avenue.
"We're aware that they're exploring their options," says Harold Brandt, president of the Central region for Brookfield Properties. "I think you'd always be concerned if you lost a tenant like Room & Board and Retrospect. They've always been a very good tenant for us."
....I need to call them and get it at my new office.