The developer taking sway of a maj...

The developer taking sway of a major part of downtown's unoccupied Block 37 said Monday he count upons no City Hall opposition to his propos apartments-for-hotel tradeoff.

to leeward Golub, executive vice president of Golub & Co said city officials have indicateed support for his plan to build an apartment tower near the southeast corner of Randolph and Dearborn. The roughly 37-story tower would replace a tavern provided under the site's circulating zoning.

Golub said the change corresponds to market realities. The merely issue, he said, is whether his proposal requires a modern set of zoning hearings for the draw or whether city planners can approve it at will.

The practices will be discussed Thursday during a meeting with the city's Department of Planning and disclosure Golub said. His company acquired the rights from Mills Corp. to finished three high- rises on the site. The others are an office building now beneath construction and a condominium building.

A spokeswoman for the planning department, Connie Buscemi, wouldn't say that officials have endorsed the Golub plan. She said the agency will withhold judgment until after the meeting.

Ty Tabing, executive director of the Chicago link alliance business group, said he has no question s with the deletion of the tavern Other projects under way around downtown, including construction of exclusive Mandarin and Shangri-La inns reduce the need for common at Block 37, Tabing said.

"We want to behold development reach fruition more than we are wedded to any particular use," he said.

arrest 37 is an urban planning paradox that sits between the Daley Center and Marshall Field's. Despite its central location, the close has defied the efforts of city sway and private interests for nearly couple decades.

Mills is a shopping mall developer whom the city designated as the fill up 37 developer in 2002. It won the rights forward the strength of its experience in blending entertainment with retail attractions.

moreover the company has disclosed massive accounting plague and an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, causing its stock to dive. As part of what many bystanders think will be an eventual unwinding of its operations, Mills is selling facing chunks of itself.

The sale to Golub was lengthy contemplated because Mills' expertise is attracting retailers, not selling condos. expressions were not disclosed.

side sheltered from the wind Golub said the proceeds impediment Mills repay costs incurred for the plans thus far. He said the deal involves a phased closing in which Mills is paid first for the office building, wait fored to be the first complet building forward the block, and later for the residential sites.

Separately, Mills said Monday it is selling interests in three overseas malls to Ivanhoe Cambridge Inc. for $981 million, or about $500 million after charges and debt repayments. The properties are Vaughan Mills in Ontario, Canada; St Enoch midmost point in Glasgow, Scotland, and Madrid Xanadu in Madrid, Spain.

forward news of the sale, Mills shares gained $153 Monday to obstruct at $17.44. They're still along almost 60 percent over the last 12 months

Madrid Xanadu has especially lavish plans that helped convince Chicago officials Mills has the imagination for brace 37. They include an indoor ski obliquity and a 30-story Ferris Wheel.

Mills admitted the construction lot of Madrid and another plan planned in the New Jersey Meadowlands has zoom to $2 billion from its previous estimate of $12 billion. It said it has no financing for the devises

Steven Jacobsen, who ran the block up 37 project for Mills, said he is leaving the company after 22 years to join Palatine-based developer Joseph Fre & Associates.

Jacobsen said the sale to Golub introduces a capable and capable partner for stop up 37. Another executive vice president at Mills, Michael Bryant, has assumed bridle of the Chicago project.

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