City Eyes Sims Site: Under $1 Million Asking Price May Be 'Cheap', But Not All On Council Agree
WE DID THIS BEFORE AND IT DIDN'T WORK. In 1985, the historic core of downtown, Ellinwood Street between Pearson and Lee, was torn out in the hopes of redevelopment. Instead we got a gravel parking lot for almost 15 years until Library Plaza came along, and that went through a series of proposals before a working one was found. In the meantime, what had been a struggling strip of stores choked out by the Behrel Parking deck was replaced by a gravel lot that nobody walked through, because nobody likes walking through an empty lot. The Behrel deck was a Berlin Wall that divided downtown north and south; that empty lot was an invisible barrier further separating the east and west of downtown. It made a bad situation that much worse. And if that bad call hadn't been made, we might have rehabilitated historic buildings instead of the glorified strip malls to either side of the library. Leaving a parking lot (parking for what, exactly?) puts up one more barrier between people and businesses like Oliveti's.
The citizens and the market have made it clear that downtown doesn't need more condos any time soon. What downtown needs is places to go and things to do. The focus on reviving downtown has been on restaurants and entertainment - attractions, not just condos. There's nothing wrong with having a bowling alley downtown, it's one more entertainment option. Sim's was tired and not totally inviting; it has potential to be fixed up and relaunched as a retro bowling alley and cocktail lounge. Why waste money to throw away that option?
Tearing down buildings in hopes of development puts the city in a desperate position. With no building, and especially city-owned property, there is much less property tax generated, and the city is forced to take whatever a developer comes up with. If you want quality development, you raise the bar.
The city has to spend its money wisely instead of throwing it into a landfill. Spend the money to make downtown better, not to tear it down. If the city wants to control what happens there, it should try to purchase an option on the property and work to find a developer, for a bowling alley or something else. There's no sense in throwing away your resources. Use the TIF to reverse blight, not create it.
Des Plaines Journal
Story posted Friday, December 11, 2009
City Eyes Sims SiteBy TODD WESSELL Journal & Topics Editor
The city of Des Plaines is in the process of purchasing the former downtown Sims Bowl property on Ellinwood Street east of Pearson Street. However, not all aldermen support the idea...
This is a great Web site! I grew up in DP and lived a lot of my adult life there. I wiled away many an hour of my youth at Sim's. I bowled in the Saturday morning junior league for six years. I fondly remember Edith, who looked kind of like Miss Kitty from Gunsmoke. Edith ran the youth leagues, rented shoes, broke up fights and kept all of us kids in line. We adored her.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that DP is eyeing this community treasure for a possible condo development. What else is new? I'm with you in fixing up downtown so that residents have places to eat, shop and entertain themselves. Maria's was the greatest thing that happened to downtown DP in decades. What happened to it?
As funky as Sim's is now, it still has charm and whimsy and a lot of potential as a retro bowling alley. Maybe the owners need to do a better job attracting leagues. No one has time for a six-month league now, maybe three-month leagues. I don't know if the Saturday morning youth leagues are still active at Sim's, if not, bring them back. Now that you don't have to worry about secondhand smoke in bars and bowling alleys anymore, all the DP parents who overparent their children these days don't have to worry about their precious kids being exposed to secondhand smoke.
I remember downtown DP from the 60s and 70s in my mind's eye. I'd give anything travel back to the past for just 10 minutes and have a malted at the Sugar Bowl.
Keep fighting the DP City Council on this.
Thanks for the support!
ReplyDeleteI think the rent was raised and Maria's didn't want to pay more, so Lalo's took over. Personally I think Lalo's is almost as good.
Sims was foreclosed back in June, so it's been closed since.
first off I want to say that I think this is a wonderful site and I look forward to reading this for some time to come.
ReplyDeleteNow on to the business at hand.
Boo on Des Plaines if they are serious about this. Don't tear down the bowling alley. Find a way to make the bowling alley a better option for people. With River Rand Bowl not that far away you have to come up with a unique way to market yourself. I believe that with the right ownership it can be done. It's just going to take a bit of creativity.
on a side note, as someone who has a condo in the downtown area the last thing I want is more condo buildings going up. It seems as though the market is over-saturated as it is as there are several new buildings that are currently not full.