Starting Point: Chicago
Ending Point: “Middle of Nowhere” Iowa
Total Distance Traveled: ~300 miles
This morning I woke up around 7:30am, sleeping much later than I was expecting to. It might have been because I only slept 4.5 hours the night before or because I was sleeping in the basement and there was no morning light in the room to wake me up.
After taking a shower, I walked on Clark Street a couple of miles until walking into a CVS to buy some items for the road trip. After spending a few minutes in the CVS, I realized the CVS was located in a seven story shopping mall which was under renovation. The shopping mall seemed extremely inefficiently designed (small floor plates; only a few stores on each level, etc.) so I decided to look into the history of the property. Within a few minutes of brief research, the property’s rich history as a 3,000 seat theater, concert hall, and eventually a lifestyle center was uncovered. As of now, there’s only a Victoria Secret, H&R Block, Aveda, school, Landmark Theater, CVS, and a few others stores. It’s difficult to imagine the finished product, but considering that Bed Bath & Beyond and Fitness 19 are located across the street in underground store locations, these storefront locations don’t seem too bad.
In the 1970s, the theater was threatened by demolition. Real estate developers came to the rescue and decided to turn the project into a lifestyle center along with the addition of a 450-space parking garage. Looking at the project today, it almost seems like they would have been better off never converting the 3,000-seat historic theater into a shopping mall It’s unlikely that the real estate developers achieved “home run” results with this project, even if they did buy it well. They must have spent tens of millions of dollars converting the theater into a dull lifestyle center. 40 years after the conversion of the property to a lifestyle center, the property is still dead and doesn’t seem to be performing too well.
In a way, it’s like the Broadway theaters in Downtown LA. The doors of all the theaters were closed for many years, except for occasional special events. Now, the Broadway theaters are much more financially viable, especially considering the reduced prices that these assets were acquired at. Now, the “Century” Chicago project is just sad, depressing, and confused. If it wasn’t for its prime location and the underlying land value, it would be another one of the hundreds of malls dying across the country.
Leasing brochure is available through the following link: http://www.hiffman.net/Brochures/TheCentury.pdf
After stopping at the Century, I walked toward Lakeshore Drive I noticed a beautiful statue of Goethe, inscribed with the tribute “the mastermind of the German people.” Goethe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe) was a German poet, writer, and statesmen. One of his quotations is “We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.”
After walking a few more minutes, I noticed a beautiful high-rise condominium building across the street from Lincoln Park and decided to walk inside. At the corner entrance of the building, there was an entrance to a shrine that was incorporated into the design of the high-rise condominium building I walked into the cathedral and was greeted by a few older ladies who offered a choice to join a tour that was about to begin. A few minutes later, the tour of the National Shrine of Cabrini (http://cabrinishrinechicago.com/) was off and running. The tour guide explained that the entire site of the condominium project was previously a hospital founded by Saint Cabrini. In around 2002, real estate developers acquired the hospital, and after a lengthy dispute with the Shrine of Cabrini, all parties reached a compromise in which the shrine would be incorporated into the design of the high-rise condominium. The end product is the “Lincoln Park 2550” project (http://www.lincolnpark2550.com/). A few years ago, the CEO of Hyatt sold a 5,000 SF unit in that building for $900/SF. Today, the prices are likely over $1,000 SF.
After taking a bus back to the AIRBNB, I requested an Uber for the drive to the Cruise America pickup location. A 34-year old Charlie was the Uber driver. During the 30 minute drive (which only costed $21!), Charlie mentioned he was from Ghana and has been living in Chicago for about two years. In Ghana, he won some sort of a lottery that gave him the right to work in the United States. He’s currently working at a hospital and as a part-time Uber driver. He explained that the setup of the American economy makes people into indentured servants because the cost of living is high, wages are low, and we are taught to have endless desires and aspirations. He said he’s attaining a much better understanding of how the system works and is planning on saving as much of his wages as he can in the future. After hearing about common stories such as Charlie’s I can’t help but to be grateful/humbled for all the opportunities and advantages I’ve had.
Afterwards, I picked up the RV and began driving toward the Davenport, IA. The ride of the RV is uncomfortable/unsteady, especially at speeds above 60 miles per hour. Several times, I was forced to abruptly slow down from 70 miles per hour to 60 miles per hour, after I was continuously forced to turn from one edge of the lane to the other because of the terrible handling and/or weather pushing the car in each direction. Even though the RV is only 19 feet, it’s only a one-axle vehicle which makes the handling very difficult and unstable
Tonight, I was lucky to find what I’ll now begin to call a “Golden Triangle” stopping place. A “Golden Triangle” stopping place contains the following three amenities within a few minutes of each other.
- McDonalds/Starbucks (For late-night WIFI)
- Walmart (for parking the RV and sleeping)
- Anytime Fitness (for showering in the morning)
The song of the day is:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K41kIS_Wl94&w=560&h=315]
