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Bar planned for former Power House building
By: Eddie Baeb July 22, 2009
(Crain’s) — The owner of several popular North Side watering holes including Southport Lanes and the Daily Bar & Grill is planning a small bar and restaurant in the former Chicago & North Western Railway Power House building in the West Loop.
The former Power House building. Photo from CoStar Group Inc.
The new bar would occupy a little more than one-third of the historic building’s first floor, which went dark this spring when the upscale Powerhouse restaurant — which is now in Bankruptcy Court — closed just more than a year after opening in the distinctive yellow-brick and stone building at the northeast corner of Canal and Lake streets.
Southport Lanes owner Steve Soble recently applied for a liquor license for the location, 201 N. Clinton St., and has a lease for about 3,500 square feet in the building that’s contingent on approval of his liquor license.
Mr. Soble says he tentatively plans to call the bar New Line, the name commonly used for a rail line built around 1900 between Chicago and Milwaukee designed to bypass the congested cities along Lake Michigan where the older line traveled.
“I like to take something that’s historic and do something based on that. That speaks to me,” Mr. Soble says. “I like the area, and I think we’re coming in at a price point that’s a little bit more attractive to the neighbors than the previous tenant.”
Mr. Soble says his plans aren’t yet complete, but he envisions having fewer than 100 seats and says the ambiance would be casual like the Daily Bar & Grill, 4560 N. Lincoln Ave.
Mr. Soble’s company, Spare Time Inc., also operates Seven Ten bars/bowling alleys in Lincoln Park and Hyde Park, and two other spots in the city: Riverview Tavern and Robey Pizza Company. Spare Time also owns the Firehouse Grill in Evanston and a bar in Richmond, Va., called Popkin Tavern, which occupies space that was once a furniture store owned by Mr. Soble’s father.
The Power House building’s owner, Structured Development LLC, also has a letter of intent with a fancier, “white tablecloth” restaurant to lease the remainder of the first floor, roughly 6,000 square feet, says Structured principal Daniel Lukas. Mr. Lukas, whose firm is based in the building, wouldn’t name either restaurant.
“We’re happy to have a deal done, subject to getting a liquor license,” Mr. Lukas says.
Mr. Soble’s New Line would take the former bar area of the Powerhouse restaurant in the southern end of the building. It’s not clear how soon the new bar would open, but Mr. Lukas notes that the space is built out and that Structured recently paid $147,000 in a public auction to buy all the kitchen equipment and furnishings of the failed Powerhouse.
Powerhouse closed in March, and also that month was hit with a Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection filing by creditors including a Structured venture that claims to be owed almost $679,410 for “unpaid notes and lease payments,” according to the filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago.
Mr. Lukas said he and fellow creditors filed the Chapter 7 petition after his attempts to evict the restaurant had stalled. Efforts to reach Powerhouse owner James Alexander were unsuccessful. Mr. Alexander previously owned the Greektown restaurants Pegasus and Artopolis.
In May, Broadway Bank sued Powerhouse, seeking to recoup a $2-million U.S. Small Business Administration loan the Chicago bank made to the restaurant. Broadway’s lawyer in the case, Nicholas Dizonno of Itasca-based Dizonno Law Group, says the matter is still pending.
Powerhouse probably struggled because of its large size, roughly 9,500 square feet, and because of its pricey offerings that would require a big dinner crowd, says Randee Becker, president of restaurant brokerage firm Restaurants!
“That’s a destination dinner location,” Ms. Becker says. “That means you better be great at your food to draw people there, and I’m not sure if Powerhouse was.”
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