building

We received our building permit from the city this past week and we're now working on closing our construction loan with Banco Popular. This is that door to walk through before we start construction. Fortunately, we've got a standing commitment from them for this project or we'd be in deep doo doo these days. Banks don't like to lend to start-up small businesses (restaurants in particular) and our woeful national economy would likely have been the straw to break our camel's back. Other lenders have since told me that their changing underwriting rules would not let them approve our project anymore. Banco Popular hasn't flinched in their commitment so I'll put out the good work for them once again. I know there are other businesses out there now hunting for loans that are having tough times. Hopefully all the interest rate drops will get those loans flowing again. I'm certainly glad we didn't lock in our loan rates a few months ago.

After months of design and bureaucratic maneuvering, we're about to get our building permit. We passed zoning and landscape last week and today we passed all 7 of the remaining disciplines (environmental, ventilation, refridgeration, accessibility, structural, architectural and fire) after revising our plans the last few weeks. Unfortunately, our project manager is on vacation so we'll have to wait until Monday to pay up and cross the finish line. Feels like the satisfaction of eating a nice meal and then being unable to track down your server to get the check and go home.

At the end of the permit process, I actually witnessed some elements of the city that actual function as you think they should. "Marko", who runs the Tues/Thurs Open Plan Review sessions was a model of efficiency and tact. Both helping random people with questions that made their way to the wrong desk and politely enforcing the no cell phones, food or drink rules. He also was enforcing the new expediter registration rules, which seems to be improving things marginally.

Just like the expediters, I wasn't allow in the back room today since I'm not a licensed architect or engineer, but one of team relayed this exchange. After stamping the brewpub plans, one of the city reviewers humorously noted: "It's nice to have an interesting project for a change instead of another gas station converted into a day care center." Glad we could break up the monotony.

Next up for us is our construction loan closing, a short toast to the milestone and then letting the jackhammers loose.

We are perhaps halfway or so through our building permit time table so far:

Request an appointment to submit plans - 5 weeks
Initial review - 5 weeks
Wait for city to put rubber band on plans and allow us to pick them up and make changes - 10 days and counting

As I've previously mentioned, the city now lets you check you status daily, and it looked like things were going well when all initial reviews were completed September 19th. Now we need to review their comments and correct our plans, except for the snag that we can't actually pick up the plans until they say so. It's now been 10 days, which makes it time for this public whine from yours truly. When we called, the response was along of the lines of 'don't call us, we'll call you'.

Word is that the department is extremely low on staff these days stemming from all the staff lost to scandals in the past year. And with the city budget woes, the prospects look dim for much change.

For those seeking the blow-by-blow update, we are now a month into our quest for a building permit. A few years ago, the city started published building permit status to the general public. Enter our address, 2323 N. Milwaukee to see where things lie. The city updates this database nightly, so every morning I've built a habit of logging in whilst enjoying the mandatory cup of joe. As of today, we're waiting for the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities to complete their first review, but have already passed the plumbing and electrical disciplines.

In other news, the building is a mess as the former occupants move out and the roof leaked straight down onto my desk and computer printer last week. Most of the paper on the desk which got water-damaged were legal bills anyways. Thank you mother nature for the temporary assistance with accounts payable!

Download a PDF (284K) and zoom in if you wish. The Milwaukee Ave. door is on the right. As you enter, you'll see a large, walk-around bar in the center of the space, a fireplace to your left and seating around the perimeter of the dinning room. The fermentation cellar and kitchen will both be visible from the restaurant with the hot-side brewhouse operation a bit farther back towards the rear of the building, but still in view. For the moment, we'll be leaving the second floor vacant but have plans for a special event space up there once we get around to that.

Well we submitted our final plans to the Dept. of Buildings today, which is a big accomplishment for the design team of Ravi and Cheryl form Wrap Architecture (they promise to improve their website soon!). I'll try and post some images of the floorplans in the near future for all to see, but first we are focused on the machinations of city review. It took six weeks to get an appointment to even submit the plans, and we expect at least 4-6 weeks to get back the initial review from plumbing, electrical, HVAC....

Once we get that permit in hand, we'll be able to close on our construction loan with super small business lender Banco Popular. We should be breaking ground in October and there's about 9 months of work ahead of us. *If* all goes well, we'll start brewing next summer!

Last week, the City's Zoning Committee approved our request for a zoning change to reduce parking requirements for our brewery. We've had a couple community meetings about this, and almost everyone in attendance was in favor, so there wasn't much controversy. All the same, this is just one of the many bureaucratic hoops we need to jump through on our way to opening.

Rehabbing and old building that covers the entire lot we had to make the choice between making space for fermentation tanks or cars, which was easy for me to make. Milwaukee Ave. has lots of metered street parking, and I hope most folks walk or take public transport, especially if they're drinking. The proximity to CTA service (El stop and three bus lines within a block) were major factors in choosing this location.

Next hoop to jump through: getting a building permit. It only takes 4-5 weeks to get an appointment with the Dept. of Buildings to apply and submit plans. When the plans are approved is anyones guess. I think we'll be lucky if we get through the process in another 3 months. Gotta love Chicago.

All good things must come to an end and that's what happened today for our brewery project. Our lengthy quest to acquire a building for our brewery ended and we have started a new chapter. Today we closed on the purchase of 2323 N. Milwaukee after 15 months of negotiating, raising funds and dealing with more lenders and lawyers than I'd care to mention.

Makes you wanna shout: 'firkin yeah!'

Although I've lead the charge, so many people have contributed to making this happen including my wife who helped rush the final check downtown and all our investors and friends who have provided monetary and emotional support along the way. Our bank, Banco Popular came through in the clutch when few others were willing to even hear out our plans for a new restaurant and brewery in Logan Square.

There have been many ups and down along the way and the river often appeared too deep to wade across. Not quite a Homerian epic tale, but it didn't go unnoticed that today is Bloomsday.

Last week, we issued our design development plans for bid to a few contractors, marking an important step forward for this project. We began conceptual design for this project over a year ago, but there were a lot of fits and starts along the way. However, over the last two months we had to speed things up to meet deadline and have made a lot of crucial decisions in a short amount of time.

We've now selected, most everything from the type of concrete we'll pour under the fermenters to the pint-flush, full stall urinals in the men's room (sorry, no trough). And who knew that if you have 6 water closets (not including urinals), the Illinois Accessibility Code requires you to provide a unisex family restroom?

I expect to receive bids in the next week or two and then we'll have one more reconciliation of our budget and reality. Fun, Fun.

With a little time to kill, I headed down to the Chicago History Museum's Research Center to see what I could find out about the history of the building we are about to buy. The place has pretty limited hours, but the staff was real friendly. I only spent a few hours there, and felt like I explored only a fraction of the information they had.

Going in I knew that a company named Peacock Publishing once occupied the space as well as the space next door, 2317 N. Milwaukee. Actually there is still an old Peacock Printing neon sign up on 2317 although it is currently covered with a 'for lease' sign for the long-vacant commercial space below (which I hear is going into foreclosure). Ken, one of the current owners of the building we are buying told me that they used to publish neighborhood newspapers at Peacock. Inside the space an enormous concrete footing that used to support the cast-iron printing press is the primary reminder of that occupancy.

At the History Museum, it quickly became apparent that there are no easy answers but I was welcome to cast a line and see if get some bites. Although the place is packed with quaint card catalogs, I was escorted immediately to a PC to search the Chicago Tribune archives. Although I wasn't able to find any of the actual newspapers published there (yet), I verified that Peacock Publishing printed 6-7 neighborhood newspapers out of that location, although I learned that they were not the initial user of the building. The juiciest findings were not about the newspaper business, but the political exploits of the publisher, Raymond T. Peacock.

Mr. Peacock was an active liberal Republican back in the days when Republicans were still mattered in Chicago and when some of them didn't mind being called liberal. He was ward committeeman in the 39th Ward and ran for Congress and Recorder of Deeds unsuccessfully. I saw a few items about his involvement with small business groups but the best was this article from 1932 which quotes him chastising the incumbent U.S. Rep. for voting for a pro-prohibition bill. Clearly, Mr. Peacock was a 'Wet' politician who didn't mind ruffling a few feathers when it came time to have a drink. Another interesting find was this picture from 1934 showing him giving away fresh farm veggies from a missionary next door to promote his candidacy.

Looking through old Sanborn fire insurance maps, the building was likely a wholesale grocery warehouse initially went built. I found a few bits and pieces about that business, Charles T. Schueler & Company, which was started with $40,000 in 1908. Interestingly, Mr. Schueler lived at 2817 W. Logan and enjoyed a similarly short commute that I hope to have in the near future. Last but not least, the building to the north (now Threads Etc.) was originally an underwear manufacturer.