Azzuri of Evanston, the owner of Evanston Plaza, Dempster Street at Dodge Avenue, has sold the property. The purchaser, BI Evanston, LLC, paid $36,180,000, and the City received $325,620.00 in transfer-tax revenues.
Azzuri purchased Evanston Plaza in September 2014 for $16 million and established The Valli Produce as its anchor tenant in the sparsely leased plaza. Since then, Azzuri made improvements to the plaza and secured some new tenants and retained others. The grocery store has become a magnet for shoppers across Evanston and beyond.
Frank Schwab of Azzuri told the RoundTable Valli plans to remain in the plaza, and leases for the other tenants would remain. He declined to speak further, saying he was bound by a non-disclosure agreement.
Do we smell a rat here? Wasn’t the original purchase by Azzuri assisted with City of Evanston funding and/or TIF assistance? What is the status of that now? The non-disclosure agreement….what does one make of that? What was the length of the original Valli lease agreement? I hope the City of Evanston wasn’t hoodwinked with its involvement in the original deal. I say that being a regular Valli customer as it is less than 1 mile from my residence.
Respectfully,
Patrick Conway
1633 Church St.
Evanston, Il
badpackkat@aol.com