Evanston officials plan to try again to find a group to turn a vacant west side building into an African-American history museum.
The city reclaimed the building at 1817 Church St. nearly a year ago from the Evanston Westside Citizens District Council. That group, after six years of trying, had failed to complete work to fix up the building and open it as a museum — work that it had originally pledged to do in six months.
Instead the work dragged on for years, ultimately costing nearly $200,000 in federal grant funds by the time the city finally pulled the plug.
The city had handed the building over to the group for $1, but retained the right to reclaim it if the museum project wasn’t completed.
The city’s Community Development Block Grant administrator, Sarah Flax, said today she’s preparing a new request for proposals for the site, although she said the she’s not certain how soon the RFP will be completed.
She said the process is complicated because the city has taken time to meet with leaders of other small ethnic museums and cultural centers around the metro area to try to determine how they’ve accomplished their goals and the resources they’ve needed to do that.
The research is designed to try to assure that any new buyer of the building would be better prepared to actually get the museum up and running.
City officials say that while the district council group was enthusiastic, it never succeeded in raising the funds needed to operate a museum at the site. The city says the group also failed to meet building code requirements in the rehab work it did do.
If the effort to find a new group to carry out the museum project fails, the city could ultimately sell the building for some other purpose. But Flax says that would require approval from the federal Housing and Urban Development Department, which provided the funds spent on the original project.
If the ultimate use of the building doesn’t meet the objectives of the CDBG program, which include improving neighborhood conditions for low and moderate income residents, then, Flax said, proceeds of the sale would need to be used to repay the local CDBG program for the money already spent on the rehab work.
The three-story building has about 4,000 square feet of space.
Related stories
City reclaims museum building (Oct. 23, 2007)
Museum project on the ropes (Oct. 9, 2007)
SELL the building
With the city budget deep in the red and another looming major tax raise, the city should sell the building for full market value either to a group that wants to build a museum or to anyone else.
If the city bought the building for around $200,000 seven years ago then Evanston should be able to get a lot more than that. So, sell the building on the open market, pay back the $200,000, and keep the rest.
That makes the most sense in this financial climate we are in now. And, the city wouldn’t have the headache of finding and then monitoring another group’s effort. Just get rid of it.
If you read the Tribune today you would know Evanston got some bad publicity over this museum fiasco.
Evanston alderman need to do what’s right for ALL the citizens of Evanston. If alderman are trying to sell other property assets such as the Chiaravelli school building, then there is no reason to put 1817 Church on the market. At the very least, the city should study the matter. Giving it away again is irresponsible, and poor governing.
SELL IT!!!
Anonymous Al
Sell the building
Regarding paragraph #5, “There is no reason NOT to sell it!!!!! I’m sure it was just a typo.
There are tens of thousands of reasons TO SELL IT!!!!
Those reasons are called EVANSTONIANS!!!!!!!!!!
Is it the same people handling the museum responsibility that mis-handled the rental apartment adjacent to the Civic Center? If so, “Wake-up, aldermen and city staff.” If not, then you have two problem areas to correct.
It’s time not to just “do good”, but to “do right” for ALL the Evanstonians!!!!!!!
Stop the political correctness.
I am so weary of all this politically correct, African-American overload. Enough with the celebration already.
If we’re all so equal, then let’s stop emphasizing our differences…especially at taxpayer expense.
If I promise to vote for Obama, can we stop talking about it and start living it?