Construction Underway At Lincolnwood's Purple Hotel Site

LINCOLNWOOD, IL — Construction has begun on the mixed-use development planned for the site of Lincolnwood's infamous former Purple Hotel.

Dubbed District 1860, the redevelopment project will include 299 residential units, an Amazon Fresh grocery store and more than 40,000 square feet of additional leasable retail and restaurant space, according to its backers.

Representatives of Highland Park-based Tucker Development and AECOM-Canyon Partners, itself a joint venture formed by a pair of Southern California firms, announced on Monday that the partnership had closed on a construction loan.

Commercial space at the new development, which is expected to be complete in 2023, is already 65 percent pre-leased, according to a joint statement from the developers.

"We are excited to partner with AECOM-Canyon on this dynamic & transformative project," Richard Tucker, of Tucker Development, said in the statement. "We'd like to thank the Village of Lincolnwood and Mayor Jesal Patel for their strong & unwavering support of District 1860."

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Tucker previously identified the two restaurants that are planned for the site as the local chains Fat Rosie’s Taco and Tequila Bar and Fat Pour Tap Works, according to the Lincolnwood Review. The developer also told Crain's Chicago Business the name District 1860 is a reference to the year the village's namesake was first elected.

The Purple Hotel opened in 1962 as a Hyatt but, in later years, became known for organized crime and debauchery.

It was demolished in 2013 after being purchased by North Capital Group, whose principal, Zvi Feiner, is facing federal fraud charges following allegations he used his position as a rabbi to run a Ponzi scheme that targeted members of the Orthodox Jewish community.

The redevelopment of the site is the subject of ongoing litigation in federal court. Lake Forest Real Estate Investors, which had been under contract to purchase the site, sued the village and former Mayor Barry Bass in 2019 alleging that Bass had "greased the skids" in favor of Tucker, a longtime associate.

Attorneys for the village managed to get some counts of the complaint dismissed and have asked a judge to rule in the village's favor in the remaining question — a claim of a violation of the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection.

In a court filing last week, an attorney for the jilted former contract purchaser alleged that village officials refused to meet with the developer despite repeated requests, ignored information it provided and allowed Tucker to proceed with a plan that was far less developed.

"Particularly in the face of an Ethics Code that forbade Bass’s favoritism," it said, "a reasonable public official would find the illegality of Bass’s intentional disparate treatment readily apparent."