NEIU's Bryn Mawr eyesore back in spotlight
University obtains demolition estimates for business corridor it took over in 2016.
The 3400 block of West Bryn Mawr Avenue, which Northeastern Illinois University seized by eminent domain in 2016, is rearing its ugly head again.
At the university’s board of trustees meeting in February, chair J. Todd Phillips called the block’s long-vacant storefronts “still there and in serious disrepair,” an “eyesore,” “pretty darn bad,” apparently not salvageable and “a potential risk” to the university.
“We’ve asked the administration to report back to help us understand the potential cost of mitigating that risk, up to and including tearing the buildings down,” Phillips went on, noting that “there are holes in the roofs and water damage.”
A month later, on March 13, a board committee received a risk assessment summary that found “extensive water damage, biological growth and erosion (that) has led to severe deterioration, compromised roof and building envelope … modernization is less realistic as time progresses … remodel costs not currently available, new construction may be more economical.”
The committee also was provided demolition estimates from three vendors that ranged from about $218,000 to $539,000. And that doesn’t include other costs, such as environmental testing/remediation of any asbestos, lead, underground storage tanks, etc.; utility disconnects; construction fencing; engineering; soil removal under slabs; and permits.
The current board inherited the problem from prior leadership that envisioned redevelopment of the block into a mixed-use combination of student housing and ground-floor retail/commercial space. A decline in enrollment; the pandemic, and the higher cost of borrowing were among the reasons cited by NEIU for shelving the project.
Before the university condemned it, the block had included a hookah joint, hair salon, real estate office, convenience store, travel agent, Chinese restaurant and other businesses.
“The properties are currently costing the university far less per year than it would take to demolish them,” Andrew Johnson, chair of the Hollywood-North Park Community Association, told me. “The plan has always been to lease the properties to a developer who would reimagine and redevelop the parcels. I would be surprised if the university chose to take on the demolition costs itself.”
While NEIU, a public, Hispanic-serving school, expects to end fiscal year 2025 in the black, it is projecting a budget deficit for FY ‘26. And Phillips has noted that the university really needs to catch up on deferred maintenance on campus, including a leaky roof.
The Bryn Mawr block reportedly is costing the university a little over $13,000 a year for utilities, security and graffiti removal.
When I visited the site it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting based on Phillips’ description, at least from the outside. Outdated and mostly vacant, yes. But there were no broken, missing or boarded-up windows or doors. No illegal dumping, no junk, no litter, and no apparent vandalism. One facade’s bricks looked moldy, and the paint was peeling above its entrance.
The empty storefronts’ numerous glass doors and windows were not only intact but were also covered from the inside by soft-colored film or frost to hide the interiors. NEIU Poetry Month posters covered some windows.
Graffiti, including a “NO to MUSK” drawing, marked a prominent window and a couple of out-of-the way doors. A graffitist also painted colorful, flowing lines across several windows and a door.
For an example of an unquestionable eyesore, go two blocks east, to the 3200 block of West Bryn Mawr. There, the doors and windows of several architecturally stunning storefronts are boarded up with plywood spray painted with bright red graffiti.
According to a banner hanging above the plywood, the property, consisting of six retail units, is for sale. The banner lists Jason Hiller as the real estate agent.
The reality, Hiller told me via email, is that “I closed on the Bryn Mawr property in 2019, but my buyer has yet to remove my sign, nor move forward with his plans to demolish the existing structure, leaving the façade, and construct 21 residential units up, and four commercial spaces down, plus 22 parking garage behind retail. I’m not sure when/if he plans to move forward.”
Hiller attached the old marketing document. It reported that North Park was expected to flourish — especially along Bryn Mawr between the university and the North Shore Channel — in the wake of NEIU’s “newly acquired 3400 block of Bryn Mawr Avenue, with plans for a massive mixed-use Development to include Student Housing and Retail elements.”
Explaining the expired document to me, Hiller said: “At the time (pre-COVID) I thought the area would have been further developed by now, but still feel it will be in the next 5-10 years.”
A 2021 real estate study commissioned by NEIU found that one third of the nearly 60 retail storefronts/buildings on the Byrn Mawr corridor were vacant. The corridor’s inventory is made up of older buildings.
The 3300 block of Bryn Mawr, bordered on the south by Peterson Elementary School, includes the popular Bryn Mawr Breakfast Club as well as a barbershop, an Indian and Pakistan grocery, a day care, a tax preparer and an empty, dusty storefront on the corner that you can see inside of.
The block that NEIU acquired nearly a decade ago isn’t totally abandoned. It is home to the university’s HR office, an auto shop, a 7-Eleven and, according to signage, the school’s testing and training center (also hidden behind window film).
Neighbors were growing tired of waiting for something to happen on the block five years ago, so you can imagine how they feel today. In a 2021 letter to NEIU officials, the neighborhood association said this about the properties:
“As you know, in January 2016 the University finalized its acquisition of them via the blunt instrument of eminent domain in order to build student housing … Almost five years later, these properties stand mostly vacant. The University did not achieve its aim, and the neighborhood has suffered the loss of local businesses and its trust in the good faith of the University.”
Although another four years have passed since then, it appears that trust has been restored, thanks to new leadership at NEIU, which has an FY ‘25 budget of $155 million and enrollment of 5,734 (down nearly 20% from 2020).
At a meeting in January, the neighborhood association’s chair sounded “excited about the prospects” of redeveloping Byrn Mawr and also spoke of having “very good conversations” with NEIU chair Phillips.
A regular attendee at the association’s meetings, Phillips more or less apologized in January, telling the group: “I want to acknowledge the actions of the past and recognize and express some empathy, frankly, toward the business owners and
the community and the impact that some of the decisions in the past had on the community. [We] see this community as our home, and we want it to thrive in all the ways that you do as well.”
And there are “some grand ideas on campus” for the 3400 block, such as business incubators, community-service organizations and businesses “that can be housed there,” he went on. However, the fact remains that “we are in what I would call a holding pattern right now.”
Previously:
Shrinking Chicago Methodists sell, merge move