After 13 and a half years of failed proposals and continued deterioration of the Harley Clarke lakefront mansion, the Evanston City Council approved entering a 99-year lease negotiation with a private developer on Monday to turn the city-owned mansion into a mixed-use building that will serve both public and private uses.
The private developer selected to redevelop the mansion, Celadon Construction, is expected to invest $29.2 million to rehabilitate the property, which will house 10 hotel rooms, a wedding venue, a basement speakeasy bar and an ice cream parlor. The proposal also includes keeping the nonprofit Jens Jensen Garden in Evanston operating on Harley Clarke’s grounds and coach house.
Two groups presented to the council their proposals for Harley Clarke on how they would use the mansion and how they would finance the rehabilitation of the building. The Celadon proposal beat out a resident-led approach, Evanston Community Lakehouse and Gardens. According to City Planner Cade Sterling, financing for the rehab helped clinch the approval for Celadon. Lakehouse and Gardens was ready to invest $8.5 million in repairing the building, a substantial amount of which would come from tax credits. Celadon’s proposal will also use tax credits in its rehab of the building.
At times during the Evanston Community Lakehouse and Gardens proposal, the council did not meet quorum when City Councilmembers Thomas Suffredin (6th) and Devon Reid (8th) were not in Council chambers and only four City Council members were present.
“The future of the Harley Clarke mansion was uncertain and at high risk,” Sterling said, referring to a previous attempt made by a local group to care for the building and maintain it for public use. “Given the history of this process over the past decade, it is unknown whether this process can continue to absorb future missteps and false starts.”
Celadon’s stated benefits to the community included an expected revenue to the city of $1 million in hotel taxes, liquor taxes, sales taxes and property taxes, according to Sterling. Celadon’s proposal also maintains public access to the lakefront, parking lot, park and lighthouse. The public will also be allowed to use the building when there are no private events scheduled.
Jens Jensen Gardens in Evanston, the nonprofit partnering with Celadon to care for the garden designed by Jensen, a Danish American landscape architect who supervised and did landscape design for many of Chicago’s notable parks from the 1880s to the 1940s, will keep the garden and coach house for public access. The group’s mission is to maintain the garden and educate the public about the use of native plants.
Evanston City Council has voted to partner with a developer to renovate the Harley Clarke Mansion into a wedding venue, hotel, speakeasy and ice cream parlor.
The city of Evanston bought Harley Clarke from the Sigma Chi Fraternity in 1965 and leased it out to the Evanston Arts Center from then to 2015, according to the city’s website. According to the Illinois Landmark website, the three-story, 16-room, 18,500 square foot mansion was built in 1928. It has seven bedrooms, a glass conservatory, ballroom and six chimneys and was designated an Evanston Landmark by the city in 1982.
To service Harley Clarke and make it ADA accessible, Celadon will create at least three elevators and have 35 full time staff, Sterling said. The mansion will host an anticipated one to two weddings a week, which on rare occasions, Sterling said, will use the Harley Clarke outdoor grounds to set up tents.
City Council member Clare Kelly raised a concern that Celadon’s use of Harley Clarke could be too commercial and too private.
“As a former high school teacher I relished in the idea (of) my high school kids figuring out transportation to go to the lake in the middle of the winter and bring their books and do homework and study by the lakefront… but that’s being omitted from this discussion,” Kelly said.
The City Council unanimously approved Celadon’s plans to transform Harley Clarke in a 6-0 vote, with City Council members Krissie Harris (2nd), Melissa Wynne (3rd) and Bobby Burns (5th) absent. The next step for Celadon would be for the city to approve a 99-year lease. If approved, construction would take about a year, and plans call for Harley Clarke to be reopened in 2026.
