Roger Levin is a real estate developer in Northbrook, a northern suburb of Chicago. In the mid 1980s, he and a partner, Paul Stepan, owned the building at 33 West Kinzie Street in which Harry Caray’s Italian Steakhouse is now located, on the same block as Marina City. They also owned a small parking lot next door. They had purchased the 25 x 100 foot vacant lot, at 27 West Kinzie Street, from Francis Samp, a Marina City resident who owned four condominium units, an insurance company, and a large gun collection. Asking price for the parcel was $239,000. (Left) What might have been. A 1987 drawing of a 20-story condo/hotel at 9 West Kinzie Street, directly north of Marina City, proposed in 1993 but not built. Kinzie Street is at lower left, Dearborn Street is at lower right, and at the corner is the current location of Harry Caray’s Italian Steakhouse. On the other side of the 20-story building is the current Museum of Broadcast Communications, once a Hertz rent-a-car location. Marina City is at far right. (Click on image to view larger version.) Another drawing imagined the condo/hotel at the corner of Kinzie Street and State Street.

(Left) 33 West Kinzie Street, circa 1986. (Right) The building in 2009. (Click on images to view larger versions.)

Levin had plans to construct a 20-story building over the property. The 210,000 square foot structure would house a condominium, hotel, restaurant, and parking garage. Since it would be located on the same block, Levin was curious about the redevelopment of commercial property at Marina City, proceeding under the direction of Ellison Trine Starnes, Jr.

Starnes had purchased the property in 1983 and hired Roland L. Lieber, an architect who at the time was in charge of the Chicago office of Swanke Hayden Connell.

Levin decided to meet with Lieber. “We introduced ourselves as the future neighbors to Marina City,“ he recalled in 2011, “and we were anxious to learn how this once prominent property would be redeveloped...we were hoping that our properties would relate well together.”

But as the property languished in bankruptcy from 1988 to 1994, Levin started to think beyond his parking lot. “I dreamt of the opportunity to acquire this gem and being the guy to rejuvenate it. There was only one other property on the square block bounded by the river, State, Kinzie, and Dearborn, that being the Hertz Building. I believed that I could buy it and I felt that if I succeeded, I would be able to assemble a square block of perhaps some of the finest real estate in Chicago, with value-added potential.”

In 1993, Levin learned that Resolution Trust Corporation, the federal agency in charge of the commercial property at Marina City, was going to walk away from $23 million in liens, leaving just $6 million in unpaid real estate taxes as the property’s largest single debt. “Suddenly the costs to acquire this troubled property were within reach for even a small developer like me.” With the help of Lieber and James M. Flanagan, the court-appointed receiver who managed the property, Levin started researching. His biggest break, he says, came from a “spur of the moment idea” to call Marina City’s architect, Bertrand Goldberg. (Left) Concept drawing of 9 West Kinzie Street by the architectural firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz. Says Levin, “The idea was to ‘shift’ the unused development potential from the 33 West Kinzie site [now Harry Caray’s] to the neighboring 9 West Kinzie site [now Museum of Broadcast Communications].”

16-story office building demolished over lunch at Harry Caray’s “I had read so much about Goldberg’s design and planning principles,” recalled Levin (left). “I knew that Goldberg had to be an old guy and I wondered if he was still alive. I picked up the phone and called information for Bertrand Goldberg and Associates. I was surprised that there was a number, and without even thinking about it, I called him.”

Over a long lunch at Harry Caray’s, Goldberg explained to Levin the “city within a city” concept and how the 1977 conversion of apartments to condo units had been, says Levin, “the downfall for the property,” dividing Marina City between commercial and residential owners.

“Goldberg ordered oysters, and midway into his discussion, I thought he was going to die on me. He gagged, coughed, and raised his napkin to his mouth and spit out his food. He looked at me and told me that occasionally, a bad oyster will be in the bunch and taste vile.”

Levin says he gained an appreciation for Goldberg’s design concepts, like deliberately not making Marina City easy to access by vehicles and pedestrians “to keep the unwanted outsiders on the outside.”

Still, he says he held his breath and suggested his property on Kinzie Street be turned into “a gateway entry into the new Marina City.” And the 16-story office building, originally intended as a visual barrier to block out less-developed property to the north – that, recommended Levin, should be torn down.

“I was surprised when he didn’t disagree.”

Goldberg called Marina City his “30 year old wayward child.” Levin, who was 40 years old at the time, believes the 80-year-old architect saw the opportunity to help as his “one last opportunity to make the property right.”

He describes Goldberg as “a vibrant, interesting man.”

“Most people expect that he was resistant to changing his original designs, which was far from the truth. In fact, he was open minded and progressive in his thoughts.”

He says he also had a good working relationship with the condo board at Marina City, particularly board president Richard Flader. “They were understandably frustrated and suspect of any developer. Our plan was different. We were planning on redeveloping the former theater into a performing arts center.”

As for John L. Marks successfully buying and redeveloping the property, Levin says he has no regrets. “Marks brought a great plan together at the right time, and professionally, I congratulate and respect him for that.”

Says Levin, “I promised myself that I never wanted to look back on my career and regret not doing everything possible to make this deal happen.“