Chicago, Sunday, June 4, 2000

It surprised no one who follows Chicago politics to read in Sunday's Chicago Sun-Times, under the headline "Sweet Deal on Maxwell Street," that the alderman who led the fight to move the Maxwell Street Market and permit wholesale redevelopment of the historic Maxwell Street neighborhood now stands to make an estimated $12.8 million dollars from an exclusive contract to sell the private homes that will occupy about two-thirds of UIC's so-called "campus expansion."

The Sun-Times reported that former First Ward Alderman Ted Mazola, who owns Near West Realty, a major real estate sales office, has been awarded an exclusive contract to sell 850 new private residences to be built in the old Maxwell Street neighborhood. The exclusive contract was given to Mazola's firm by "the politically connected trio of developers contracted by the university to oversee the development--Dick Stein, Mike Marchese and Bill Cellini," according to the Sun-Times report.

"A public institution--a university, no less, which is ostensibly dedicated to education, and the preservation and perpetuation of  culture--has been highjacked by a gaggle of politically connected private businessmen who have no shame and whose greed knows no bounds," says Maxwell Street Historic Preservation Coalition President Chuck Cowdery. "Now they are rewarding their political cronies for fixing the deal. This is further proof that the supposed campus expansion needs of the University of Illinois at Chicago are merely a front for some politically connected private businessmen who are willing to destroy an internationally known historic landmark, and anything else that gets in the way of their profits." The University is expected to use its share of the profits to build student housing and other University buildings on its third of the redevelopment area.

The Maxwell Street Historic Preservation Coalition is trying to save the 43 buildings that remain in the Maxwell Street neighborhood from the 1870 to 1950 historic period and have them declared a National Historic District by the National Park Service. The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (IHPA) must rule on the nomination before it is forwarded to Washington. To assure that this historic preservation effort doesn't interfere with their landgrab, two of the university's three developers have placed their wives on the six-person board of directors of the IHPA. One of them, Julie Cellini, is the group's chairperson.

(Click here to read the Coalition's National Register nomination application.)

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Contact Us

TO REACH US VIA EMAIL:

Chuck Cowdery, President (cowdery@21stcentury.net)
Steve Balkin, Vice President (mar@openair.org)

Maxwell Street Historic Preservation Coalition
P.O. Box 6435
Evanston, IL  60204