‘Straight-Friendly’ Hotel Aims to Cement Boystown as LGBT Epicenter

Developers behind the newly announced “straight-friendly” hotel planned for the heart of Boystown presented their vision for The OUT Chicago Thursday, saying they hope it will reinforce the area as a major LGBT community in the United States.

Ian Reisner, managing partner of Parkview Developers and founder of The OUT NYC, showed a packed room of residents and business owners preliminary details for his new hotel, slated to be finished by 2015.

With the recent closure of and Bucks Saloon, he says The OUT Chicago could be a tool to bring business back to Boystown.

“I was looking at (opening a hotel) in D.C., San Francisco and Chicago, all at the same time,” Reisner said. “One of the reasons why I like Chicago so much is you have a dedicated area that has historically been LGBT-focused: Boystown.”

“But I see a migration trend away from Boystown,” he continued. “And my focus and dream and desire is to revitalize and reenergize the Halsted strip to cement it as the epicenter for the LGBT community.”

Plans for The OUT Chicago include constructing a 10-story, 61,000-square-foot hotel on the 3300 block of North Halsted, purchasing the Asian restaurant Mark’s Chop Suey and incorporating Minibar as an in-hotel bar on the ground floor. The lobby would also lead into neighboring business Sidetrack.

Original plans for the hotel showed it being 12 stories tall before insiders shot it down.

“We live in a community that’s vibrant, otherwise we’d live in Schaumburg.”

Reisner says a new upscale diner named “KTCHN” serving breakfast, lunch and dinner would replace the Chinese restaurant, and a retail store named “BOUTIQUE” would also be added. But because of the partnership with Minibar and Sidetrack, no new nightclub would be added.

The roughly 112-room hotel would also have a gym and wellness center open to the public—where a membership costs $399 annually in New York, but would be cheaper in Chicago—and a rooftop lounge and bar, encased in glass to reduce noise for neighbors.

In total, the project is expected to cost $30 million and create more than 100 jobs, Reisner said.

But for multiple neighbors in attendance, everything from the size to the increase in traffic had them worried. The project, which was called “hulking,” “preposterous,” and “monstrous,” made longtime Lake View residents ask why something so large was even being considered.

“(I live on) West Buckingham, right behind wood, right in the shadow of this” said Janice Ziebka. “We have nice bright windows. They’re going to be gone with a building of that size behind us. Our property values are going to go sink. What was a bright apartment is going to be an apartment next to this monstrous building.”

But one resident called-out Ziebka and some other naysayers, saying they had a “not in my backyard” argument when one said The OUT Chicago should be build a block away at the Sherwin Williams site.

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Many others at the meeting welcomed the idea of Reisner’s hotel, with local business owners saying it could save the recent lull in Boystown business. Paul Cannella, owner of Taverna 750 and Scarlet, says an investment like this doesn’t come around every day.

“I own two local businesses in the neighborhood, and thank you for considering our neighborhood to put a $30 million investment, for creating over 100 jobs, for creating more traffic that brings more to all of our businesses, which helps drive up real estate values and property values,” Cannella said. “I’m a huge supporter of this, and I just want to go on record and thank you for considering our neighborhood.”

Cannella’s statement was met with a room full of applause.

Ald. Tom Tunney’s (44th) Chief of Staff Bennett Lawson also addressed the room, saying this is the first of many meetings, and a planned development with community input is needed to change the zoning.

But it’s already clear how most local business owners feel.

“As part of the development committee, if we would go out there to try to solicit someone to put in a hotel for us… it is just an amazing feat that someone is willing to come to us,” said Stu Zirin, co-owner of Minibar and DS Tequila. “We live in a community that’s vibrant, otherwise we’d live in Schaumburg.”

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