CHICAGO- Rank Group Plcs Hard Rock Cafe International unit is in final negotiations to build an $80 million hotel and restaurant complex on Chicagos Michigan Avenue, the Chicago Tribune reported. The company wants to convert a 38-story art deco office tower at 230 North Michigan Avenue into a hotel and build its second Chicago Hard Rock Cafe next door. Chicago-based Mark IV Realty Group would develop the project.
The Tribune said an agreement is expected by early October. Both the developer and the restaurant company declined to comment.
The paper said Chicagos theme restaurants have struggled, with the local Planet Hollywood closing. Bruce Kaplan, president of the retail real estate firm Northern Realty Group Ltd., told the paper that Hard rock has “managed to maintain its cachet and can avoid the “meltdown of the entertainment-restaurant sector over the last 18 months. (9/20/00)
Source: Chicago Tribune