Site of Purple Hotel, where Manilow sang, Levine partied, gets financing for apartments

Hot spot in its heyday later became know as scene of Mafia-linked murder, political fixer’s wild parties

Site of Purple Hotel, where Manilow sang, Levine partied, gets financing for apartments
The Purple Hotel, Barry Manilow and Roberta Flack (Wikipedia)

Some 300 apartments and an Amazon Fresh store are being built on the site of a notorious Chicago hotel after it sat in limbo for almost 15 years.

Barry Manilow and Roberta Flack performed at the Purple Hotel before it became known for a Mafia-linked murder and sex- and drug-fueled parties hosted by polltical fixer Stuart Levine, Crain’s Chicago Business reported. After years of lawsuits, a venture that includes Chicago’s Tucker Development secured financing for a $155 million development that will include residential and commercial use.

Tucker has begun construction of the project, dubbed District 1860 to honor Abraham Lincoln’s election, and expects to complete it in 2023. It’s working with equity partner AECOM-Canyon Partners and secured a $101 million construction loan from Pacific Western Bank, as well as
a $31 million tax-increment financing subsidy from the Village of Lincolnwood.

Built in 1960 and known for its bright purple brick exterior, the hotel at 4500 West Touhy Avenue was also known as the Hyatt House Hotel and was a fashionable destination in its heyday. It gained notoriety as the the place where reported Mafia associate and Teamster lawyer Allen Dorfman was shot and killed in 1983. The hotel closed in 2007 and was torn down in 2013.

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The new development will yield 299 apartments and will include an Amazon Fresh store as well as 40,000 square feet of additional ground-floor retail. Tucker has already signed leases for about 15,000 square feet with two restaurants, Fatpour Tap Works and Fat Rosie’s.

The development includes another parcel of land along Lincoln Avenue where a future hotel may soon rise. Tucker said it would bring in a hotel developer to build the hotel rather than do so on its own.

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[Crain’s] — Victoria Pruitt