No more ice ice, baby: Indoor skating rink hits market as redevelopment opportunity

50K sf building on Near West Side pitched for hotel, residential or retail

The owner of Johnny’s IceHouse East wants to sell the 50,000-square-foot building. (Johnny's IceHouse via Facebook, iStock)
The owner of Johnny’s IceHouse East wants to sell the 50,000-square-foot building. (Johnny's IceHouse via Facebook, iStock)

 

A 51,500-square-foot building on the Near West Side now home to an indoor ice skating rink has hit the market, pitched as a major redevelopment opportunity.

The future owner of the property at 1350-1254 West Madison Street could turn it into a hotel, or maybe a retail complex or an apartment or condo, according to Crain’s.

Possibilities abound, except for one: what is now Johnny’s IceHouse East can’t stay as an ice rink.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Owner Lisa Moro hired real estate brokerage Bradford Allen to market the building that sits on a 22,000-square-foot site, Crain’s reported. Plans for a substantially larger building would likely require rezoning approval from the city. The reason for prohibiting another rink seems clear. Moro owns another Johnny’s IceHouse at 2550 West Madison Street.

Meanwhile, nearby Fulton Market remains one of the hottest neighborhoods in the city, and in the fall a new 45,000-square-foot building at 1100 West Fulton Market was on track to break a price-per-square-foot record, if it sells for its full asking price. Developed by Fulton St Companies, the property entered the market in October for more than $40 million. That breaks down to about $881 per square foot, which would break the neighborhood’s all-time record.

Most of Chicago’s real estate market, however, has been battered by Covid-19. The industrial market was one of the few sectors left relatively unscathed, and residential sales have continued to climb in the past few months, signaling a potential comeback. But the office market is still struggling mightily, along with retail and hotel sectors.

[Crain’s] — Orion Jones