Latest news with #ColonialRevival-style
Chicago Tribune
5 days ago
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago sells Kenwood mansion to University of Chicago surgeon for $1.1M
A nine-bedroom vintage Renaissance Revival-style mansion in the South Side Kenwood neighborhood was sold in late March for $1.15 million by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago to a University of Chicago surgeon. Built in 1905 and designed by noted Chicago architect Jarvis Hunt, the mansion was built for Homer A. Stillwell, the general manager of the Butler Bros. catalog firm, at a cost of $35,000, according to a Tribune article from Feb. 26, 1905. The house broadly would be characterized as Renaissance Revival-style, but it employs a variety of other architectural styles, including a Colonial Revival-style front door, Italianate-style quoins, and even a Gothic Revival-style oriel window. Stillwell sold the mansion in 1914, and for close to 60 years, from 1966 until 2025, the home was owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, which used it as a residence for members of its Focolare movement. It's located across the street from former President Barack Obama's longtime home. The 12-room mansion largely has its original layout, along with 3-1/2 bathrooms, a primary bedroom suite with a library, original plaster, original millwork, original doors and a porte-cochere. The home sits on a 0.73-acre lot. The archdiocese first listed the mansion in October for $1.4 million and never budged on its asking price. It struck a deal with the buyer in February. Catherine Rosenberg of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices represented the buyer. She declined to comment on the transaction. Listing agent Pasquale Recchia also declined to comment, referring queries to the archdiocese.
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
At CT insurer's headquarters, city tax coffers take big hit. ‘That campus is a concern': official
When CVS Health Corp. acquired Aetna Inc. in 2018, the pharmacy giant agreed to keep the health insurer's headquarters in Hartford for at least a decade and create a center of excellence around its new insurance business. But in the past two years, hundreds of layoffs affecting Hartford and its massive headquarters campus in Asylum Hill have raised concerns about CVS's long-term corporate presence in the city. And a recent review of city records shows a decline in assessed value of personal property, while the combined company is in the midst of a dramatic, cost-cutting initiative nationwide. As a result, the taxes paid on office equipment, computers and technology dropped by more than 35% over the past four years. The decline in assessed value of equipment at the Aetna campus at 151 Farmington Ave. meant personal property taxes collected by the city fell to $2.5 million at the end of 2024 from about $4 million in 2020 to about $2.5 million in 2020. Personal property taxes are separate from the taxes paid on the real estate that encompasses the 1.7-million-square-foot campus, a cornerstone of the Hartford's insurance industry since the 1930s. While normal depreciation may account for some of the personal property decline, some say it is an indication that CVS's efforts are focused elsewhere as it deals with its troubled acquisition of Aetna that has been dogged by soaring medical costs. 'That campus is a concern,' Michael W. Freimuth, executive director of the Capital Region Development Authority said. 'Like Pittsburgh losing steel plants. it has been impacted by an unholy trinity: short end of a corporate merger, Covid-related remote work and medical costs eating up corporate margins leading to reduced overhead.' Freimuth, who heads the quasi-public state agency, said two of his biggest concerns in Hartford are the future of the Aetna campus and Constitution Plaza, much of which is mired in foreclosure and receivership. 'That's a big piece of real estate,' said Freimuth, whose agency has helped finance office-to-apartment conversions in the city for more than a decade. 'It's a little bit difficult to figure out repurposing that. And the buildings are of different ages, different types of structures and different historical significance.' Aetna's roots in Hartford stretch back to its founding in 1853. The insurer's Colonial Revival-style headquarters — crowned with a temple-like structure and cupola — has stood on Farmington Avenue since 1931. Standing in sharp contrast is the 1972 addition that was built in the Modernist style. Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said he is keeping close watch on the Aetna campus, and he has taken note of the decline in personal property taxes. 'Aetna has long been an anchor in Hartford's business community, and their continued presence is vital to our economic strength,' Arulampalam said. 'My office will continue to emphasize the importance of their local investment, and while we cannot influence every corporate decision, I remain confident that Aetna will live up to the commitment they have made to the city of Hartford and to our residents.' For its part, Woonsocket, RI-based CVS, in a statement, acknowledged its place in the local corporate community. 'Aetna has a long and proud history in Hartford,' the statement said. 'We remain committed to maintaining our corporate presence at our Farmington Avenue office and throughout the state of Connecticut. We continuously work to ensure that all our corporate offices are effectively and efficiently utilized in the right way and to their fullest potential.' 'In addition, we currently operate nearly 170 CVS Pharmacy locations in Connecticut, with more than 40 in Hartford County,' the statement said. With its acquisition of Aetna in 2018, CVS solidified itself as a health care giant with a massive chain of pharmacies, health insurance, Medicare-focused physician care in neighborhood clinics and a pharmacy benefit manager. PBMs manage drug plans and influence medication prices and distribution. But late last summer, CVS cut its full-year outlook for profits and launched a new plan to cut $2 billion in cost, partly with 2,900 in layoffs nationwide. CVS cited rising costs in Aetna's Medicare business a particular concern along with the health care industry faces 'disruption, regulatory pressures and evolving consumer needs and expectations.' Of those layoffs, nearly 100 were in Hartford and came on top of 336 in 2023. In addition, another 350 jobs were cut that weren't physically in Hartford but directly reported to someone on Farmington Avenue. An agreement to hold job levels steady in Hartford that was part of the state's approval of CVS's acquisition of Aetna expired in 2022. At the time of the CVS acquisition, Aetna had about 5,300 employees in Connecticut. CVS has not disclosed its current employee headcount in Hartford. The last year also has been a turbulent period in the company's leadership. The head of CVS's Aetna business unit — Brad Kane — was removed in August after less than a year in the job, with CVS chief executive Karen S. Lynch stepping into the role. Lynch, who had strong ties to Aetna and Hartford, was replaced as CEO two months later. Community leaders in Asylum Hill say they are concerned about Aetna's presence in their neighborhood. CVS has not disclosed a recent number for employment in Hartford. 'It's very quiet,' David MacDonald, executive director of the Asylum Hill Neighborhood Association, the area's neighborhood revitalization zone, said. 'I rarely see cars coming in and out of the parking garage there.' MacDonald said he understands the reality of mergers and acquisitions that come with, what he calls, the inevitable employee downsizings. But more must be done to plan for the future of the Asylum Hill area in and around the Aetna campus, MacDonald said. He points to the long-vacant, former hotel across Sigourney Street, which runs along the western border of the Aetna campus. The former hotel — later converted to a culinary school that closed down in 2016 — has sat empty since its current owners took over the property in 2021. 'Now it's in mothballs,' MacDonald said. 'Useless.' Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at kgosselin@
Wall Street Journal
31-03-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
A Coastal New Hampshire Mansion is Hitting the Market for $25 Million
The first time Michael Kane and Jamee Field Kane laid eyes on their 1930s home in coastal New Hampshire, they fell for its historic charm and ocean views. But behind the stately brick facade, the mansion was little more than a shell. A prior owner had gutted the Colonial Revival-style house, ripping off the back wall. 'They essentially stripped the house. The only thing that they didn't pull out was the main staircase,' said Michael, who grew up in New Hampshire and is CEO of the Portsmouth-based real-estate development and investment firm The Kane Company.
CBS News
27-02-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Old Chicago Stock Yards Bank building set to be transformed into premier music recording complex
A historic and long-abandoned building on the edge of the former Union Stock Yards site will soon be entering a new chapter. A proposal by the City of Chicago aims to transform the former Stock Yards Bank building, at 4150 S. Halsted St. at Exchange Avenue, into a state-of-the-art recording complex. It would be the first of its kind in the Midwest. The Colonial Revival-style building was once a symbol of the thriving meatpacking district that largely defined Chicago's industry for more than a century. Now it is a relic — and some in the adjoining Canaryville neighborhood would call it an eyesore. The Stock Yards Bank building was completed in 1925. It was constructed to resemble Independence Hall in Philadelphia. The building features a square clock tower with a belfry and a spire with copper shingles — though the mechanical clock parts and some other building features have been removed over the years, the City of Chicago noted. The building was designed by Chicago architect and engineer Abraham Epstein, who was also well known for his designs for the rebuilding of the Union Stock Yards after a devastating fire in 1934, the city notes. The Stock Yards Bank building once housed two banks. But when the cattlemen and meatpackers who regularly did business there left, so did the tenants. Published reports said the banks later merged, and moved out in 1965. The Union Stock Yards themselves closed at midnight on July 30, 1971, after 106 years, and published reports indicated that the Stock Yards Bank building closed altogether in 1973. A Chicago Tribune report published in 2000 indicated that the bank has not sat completely vacant all the time since — pointing to a still-extant sign inside referencing The Color Inn Co. that the newspaper described as the building's last tenant "roughly a decade" earlier. But by 2000, the Tribune wrote that pigeons were flying through the building and leaving their droppings on smashed TVs in the onetime bank boardroom. The building was designated a Chicago landmark in 2008. And now, new life is coming to the site at last. A plan for an ambitious transformation CBS News Chicago was recently granted access to the Stock Yards Bank building. While aged, much of its design is still intact. But inside, time has taken a toll on features like a rusted-out safety vault that has seen better days, and a hollowed-out wooden elevator that has been out of service for decades. That is all set to change. Third Coast Music, a nonprofit that promotes the music culture of Chicago through outreach, won a bid with the city to transform the Stock Yards Bank building — as well as an adjacent now-vacant lot — into an $80 million recording complex. It will be the first of its kind in the region — serving not only the TV, film, and music industries, but the community at large. "They're going to come here to learn. They're going to come here to be inspired. They're going to come here to have fun. They're going to experience music in a way they never even knew existed," said Rich Daniels, as director of Third Coast Music. Daniels heads up Third Coast Music with Katherine Hughes and Susan Chatman. All three are musicians with roots in Chicago — Daniels is the founder of City Lights Orchestra; Hughes has been a professional violinist, producer, and contractor in Chicago for decades; and Chatman has worked on hundreds of records and TV and film productions. They want the old Stock Yards Bank building to be a center for music for the entire Midwest. And they say building at the historic site was a no-brainer. "I've used the word magical about this space a number of times," said Hughes. "I just really feel that when I come here." Daniels concurred. "When we saw it, it was just — this is magnificent. This edifice is just dramatic and gorgeous," said Daniels. "It's Chicago. It speaks to the community. It speaks to its history." When the $80 million project is complete, it is going to be a music producer's dream — housing everything from a state-of-the-art scoring studio to a museum and event space. This will all be accomplished while preserving the historic architecture of the building. "If the walls could talk, we could only imagine what they would say," Miller said, "and when we build across the street – the post-production facility with the scoring stage — we want that building to pay tribute to this building." The scoring stage building is to be constructed on the vacant city-owned lot at 821 W. Exchange Ave. What is being described in totality as a music campus will bring roughly 40 full-time jobs to the site, and more than 100 when a production takes place. The next phase for the nonprofit is raising funds to break ground at the site and start construction. "Just to see a renaissance of the Chicago South Side would just be incredible," Hughes said.
