Harley Clarke Lease To Evanston Lakehouse & Gardens Set For Vote

EVANSTON, IL — The City Council will consider giving final approval to a lease of the Harley Clarke Mansion nearly seven years after city staff first suggested unloading it. Alderman could sign off Monday on a deal giving the nonprofit Evanston Lakehouse and Gardens group a 40-year lease in exchange for fixing up the mansion to bring it up to code and raising $5 million over the next decade.

City staff added an additional fundraising benchmark to the lease since it was introduced at the March 12 council meeting, when some aldermen suggested taxpayers could wind up on the hook if the group fails to meet its financial goals.

According to a memo from City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz, the Lakehouse group also got an amendment to the lease allowing the group to terminate the agreement if a major environmental issue is found that would cost more than $150,000 to fix and allowing the city to terminate the agreement if the group didn't meet its benchmarks.

The renovation work will be divided in to two phases. The first phase plans to bring the building up to city code, including electrical, plumbing, fire projection and ADA compliance. Under the agreement, those improvements are required "within 2 years of meeting the third year fundraising benchmark, opening the property to the public no later than May 2023."

The second phase of improvements includes the restoration and renovation of the coach house and parts of the main building not rehabbed in the first phase, according to the memo. There is no deadline for the Phase II improvements to be completed. If the lease is approved, the nonprofit must provide quarterly fundraising reports to city staff starting Oct. 1. The city will be able to review all of the group's books and records, but not the identity or amounts of specific donors.

Here's the current fundraising benchmarks:

1 Year (after lease is signed) — $250,000
2 Years — $500,000
3 Years — $2 million
10 Years — $5 million

City staff estimated the total cost to restore the property to be more than $7.5 million in 2014. Two other previous cost estimates exceeded $5 million.

In its response to the city's request for proposals, the Lakehouse group said it planned to raise $4.8 million for the restoration and repurposing of the building. It was the only group that submitted a response.

The first phase, with an estimated cost of $1 million, would bring the building up to code and start operations on a demonstration scale. The second phase would include a full restoration at a cost of $3.8 million.

During the first five years of the lease, the city is expected to have to kick in about $15,000 a year, barring unforeseen costs, according to the memo. The group also would have to comply with the Freedom of Information Act under the terms of the lease.

The home was built in 1927 by its namesake, Harley L. Clarke, who made millions as president of Utilities Power & Light and as president of Fox Studios. Around 1950, he ended up selling the site to the Sigma Chi fraternity.

The group used the building as its national headquarters for several decades, until Evanston threatened to condemn the property in order to acquire its beach, according to the fraternity, which said it considered legal action but in 1964 decided to sell to the city instead.

The city leased the site to the Evanston Arts Center, but failed to maintain it and allowed deferred capital costs to continue rising. In 2011, City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz proposed finding some other group to manage the site.

Tawani Enterprises, retired Col. Jennifer Pritzker's private wealth management company, proposed converting the site into a boutique hotel. The City Council voted it down in 2013.

The following year, aldermen voted to enter into negotiations to sell the site to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, but the stalled state budget killed the deal.

So in 2015, current Mayor Steve Hagerty chaired a Harley Clarke committee to explore what to do with the mansion.

In an Evanston Roundtable editorial in September 2015, Hagerty proposed first asking for feasible proposals from nonprofits, then for-profit organizations only if no nonprofit submits a viable proposal. If the city doesn't get an acceptable bid, he suggested, Evanston should demolish the mansion and expand the parkland.

After the Lakehouse proposal won council approval last November, he described the years-long process as an "exercise in civic engagement."

"Given the untenable nature of other options and the Council's vote, this is the solution we need to rally around if we are to save the mansion," Hagerty said. "By doing so we will create programming that benefits our youth, a beautiful place for special occasions, and a community asset for generations to come.”

Earlier this month, the Evanston Lakehouse & Gardens group, formed in December 2015, announced Sara Schastok, formerly the CEO of the Evanston Community Foundation, would be the group's "principal resource development consultant," partnering with Kendal Gladish. The group's board president is Tom Hodgman, the senior director of product development for The Nature Conservancy.

Evanston Lakehouse & Garden envisions creating a financially self-sustaining "experiential environmental education center" at the mansion and the surrounding Jens Jensen gardens.

Related:

• Evanston Lakehouse: Only Group to Answer City's Harley Clarke RFP
• Lakehouse Plan Approved By Evanston City Council
• Evanston Lakehouse & Gardens: Taps Local Experts

» UPDATE: Alderman Monday Rejected The Evanston Lakehouse & Gardens Group Lease