Crews began last week to tear down the Leaning Tower YMCA building in Niles, clearing the way for development of a downtown area in the north suburb that may include an entertainment venue.
“We’re looking at the possibility of the area being surrounded by storefronts, apartments or condominiums, and creating an indoor/outdoor theater,” mayor George Alpogianis told Pioneer Press.
He said one interested party suggested building a theater with a retractable rear wall, similar to the roofs on many sports stadiums.
Also planned is creation of a pedestrian-friendly plaza anchored by the Leaning Tower of Niles, the 90-year-old half-scale replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy.
On April 28, Alpogianis drove an excavator on the site of the former Niles Leaning Tower YMCA, at 6300 Touhy Ave., ceremoniously starting the work of tearing down the building – which was built in the 1960s adjacent to the village’s landmark Leaning Tower of Niles, a half-scale replica of Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa.
The landmark Leaning Tower remains standing, but the YMCA, which was shuttered by the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago in May 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is costing the village $1.1 million to demolish, village spokesman Mitch Johnson told Pioneer Press in an email.
The demolition by contractor Ground Crew Demolition and Excavation is expected to take three months.
Last November, the Village Board authorized razing the building, eight months after purchasing the 6.6-acre YMCA property for $2.1 million, Johnson explained. This site is on the south end of the total 8 acres of land the village purchased in April 2019.
“We bought that with the mindset that Niles doesn’t have a downtown, geographically it’s impossible,” Alpogianis said. “We decided Golf Mill will be our shopping district, and we looked at the south end of the village and we deemed that another district. That could be our downtown and Golf Mill could be uptown.”
Golf Mill Shopping Center, at the busy corner of Golf Road and Milwaukee Avenue, is scheduled for a $443 million facelift, the mayor explained. Developers are planning to begin demolition in late September in preparation of a three-year project expected to transform the 64-year-old mall.
Alpogianis said multiple entities had looked at the former Leaning Tower YMCA to repurpose it into some type of residential building or hotel. But the amount of money necessary to update the dated infrastructure was cost prohibitive. Village leaders decided it would be more financially feasible to start from new construction, and they began discussing what could be developed on that site – which is set in a tax increment financing district.
The YMCA site included two buildings, one that had residential units and other that included an activity center. The parcel was considered by village officials to be blighted and a town eyesore. The mayor was candid in his assessment of the site when officials announced in April 2024 that the village purchased it.
Alpogianis previously said the Leaning Tower YMCA site was “[expletive] disgusting. It is in shambles inside: It has been vandalized multiple times and there are multiple broken windows. People have been in there urinating, feces. I’m gonna assume there are rodents in there.”
Now, the mayor said he is in talks with multiple music promoters and some in the entertainment industry about a live performance theater — which could be part of the redevelopment — that could seat 3,000 to 6,000 people.
“There’s been an outcry from our citizens dying to get a theater in Niles,” he said, adding that it would not only be a concert venue, but a live theater for plays and a community theater for local school graduations.
In addition to the theater and multi-use retail and residential that village leaders hope will be developed on the site, Alpogianis said they would like to create a grassy knoll, and in partnership with the Niles Park District, host public art and community events.
However, nothing has been formally submitted or reviewed by the Village Board for the site.
“We’re in a renaissance in Niles right now,” Alpogianis said. “Nothing of significance has been done for 25 years. … We all got together and pow-wowed. It’s happening and all coming to fruition.”
Elizabeth Owens-Schiele is a freelancer.
