(Above) Blinds appear disheveled across the front of Marina City in this 1990 photo. Inside are the “Marina 300” restaurants, the 300 referring to the street address, 300 North State Street.

The commercial property at Marina City was under the control of a bankruptcy trustee in June 1990, when another developer expressed interest in buying the property and making extensive changes.

Hiffman Shaffer Anderson Inc. (now NAI Hiffman) proposed leasing the top ten stories of the office building to Marriott Corporation as an economy hotel for its Fairfield Inn chain. They wanted to demolish the unused skating rink and the vacant theater building, replacing them with one-story glass retail buildings, each covering about 8,500 square feet. Similar glass atrium entrances would be built on State and Dearborn Streets. (Left) 1990 group photo of Hiffman Shaffer Anderson Inc. (Left to right) William Skrezlowski, Daniel Anderson, Grace Wilkie, Dennis Hiffman, and Mark Muneretto.

Metal screens would be installed at the base of both parking ramps. Along the south edge of the property, next to the river, a landscaped walkway would be the first to conform to proposed city guidelines for riverfront development. At the base of the west tower would be a new restaurant.

Ilene F. Goldstein, the court-appointed trustee, described this in 2011 as “a lower frills hotel,” rare in downtown Chicago at the time, that would “get the benefit of being a high frills hotel...because there were restaurants there in the retail space.”

Although they had no control over the proposal, condominium unit owners at Marina City got a preview during the second week of June. The Chicago Tribune described residents as generally supportive of the plans, although concerned they would be asked to pay for construction of the new entrances.

Said Mary Swain, a seven-year resident, “It certainly would improve property values. Marina City has a worldwide reputation, and its image is deteriorated. It needs to come back.”

Developers applied to the Chicago Plan Commission to allow a hotel to replace the office building. They planned to take over the property from the bankruptcy court by the end of 1990 and have most of the construction completed within a year.

Daniel G. Anderson, president of Hiffman Shaffer Anderson, told the Chicago Tribune in July 1990, “The idea is to take what has become in recent years a rather drab and uninviting retail and office development within the complex and convert it into an exciting facility that will draw more people to the city’s downtown riverfront.”

Architect opposes changes In 1990, Marina City architect Bertrand Goldberg was 77 years old and fighting the proposed changes – especially the part about tearing down his beloved theater building. Paraphrased by Chicago Tribune architecture critic Paul Gapp, Goldberg said it made no “esthetic, functional, or urbanistic sense.” Gapp lamented, “Disgracefully poor maintenance has left the plaza and the base elements of Marina City’s structures in grimy, crumbling condition for nearly a decade.” Goldberg produced a 33-page document that challenged the redevelopment plans for a number of reasons, including “poor siting, ugly design, intrusion on open space, obscured sightlines, a clumsy traffic plan, ventilation problems, inappropriate landscaping, and dubious economic planning.” (Right) Cover of Paul Gapp’s Chicago, published in 1980.

About the only thing acceptable to Goldberg was the conversion of the office building to a hotel. On Friday, September 21, 1990, the Chicago Plan Commission approved the proposal to build a two-story retail building near the east tower over space then occupied by the skating rink, convert the upper floors of the office building into a hotel, but keep the theater building. The commission ordered the developer to design the new additions to fit with Goldberg’s original plan. The following Monday, the Chicago City Council Zoning Committee approved the plan by a 4-1 vote. The full council would vote on it on October 3. 5th Ward Alderman Lawrence Bloom cast the one dissenting vote. He said the new retail space would “turn a much-photographed landmark into another shopping mall.” (Left) Photo of Bertrand Goldberg autographed by the architect on January 22, 1984.

However, again with little public comment, the purchase of the commercial property at Marina City by Hiffman Shaffer Anderson did not happen. Daniel Anderson would later blame Bertrand Goldberg for the deal’s collapse – specifically, his objection to tearing down the theater building, which Anderson claimed hampered rezoning that was needed for the project.

On November 21, 1990, Circuit Court Judge Richard L. Curry ordered the mortgage foreclosure judgment that had been pending since 1987. In early December 1990, it was announced the commercial property would go to the highest bidder at a sheriff’s sale the following year, sometime after February 26, 1991.

With interest, tax payments, and legal fees, the lien on the property had swelled from $12.5 million to $23 million.