Speculation on the Uptown Theatre from Time Out Chicago

Uptown Theatre, a history of rock

You may know by now that the Uptown Theatre will be rehabbed by Jam Productions to serve as a live music venue. You might even know that the Balaban & Katz-era theatre was once home to a giant Wurlitzer pipe organ. But, if you weren’t living in Chicago in the ’70s you might not be aware that the venue has rocked before—and rocked (and funked) heartily...

For complete article and comentary, go to Time Out Chicago.

More Uptown Theatre Coverage from Crains

Uptown Theatre buyer calls city requirements ‘onerous’

By Eddie Baeb
July 30, 2008

(Crain’s) — The foreclosure sale of the Uptown Theatre to a venture led by Jam Productions Ltd. doesn’t mean tickets will be going on sale at the historic concert hall any time soon — or even any time in the next few years.

The restoration of the long-vacant theater could cost about $40 million and take five years or more to complete, says Jerry Mickelson, a founder and principal with Jam, a Chicago-based concert promoter...

For complete article and commentary, go to Crains

More from the Chicago Tribune on Uptown Theatre

Jam Productions buys the Uptown Theatre
by Chris Jones

Chicago-based Jam Productions bought the historic Uptown Theatre at a forced judicial sale Tuesday, but its new owner says tens of millions of dollars are needed to reopen the venerable entertainment venue. Jam said after the sale that the long-suffering theater won’t reopen without a major infusion of public money. “Buying the Uptown is one thing, rehabbing it is another,” said Jam principal Jerry Mickelson, whose UTII entity paid $3.23 million for the Uptown, at 4814 N. Broadway. “This will have to be a partnership between the city, the state and ourselves.”

Mickelson said he expects any restoration to cost between $30 million and $40 million. “No private entity could afford to put that amount of money into a theater,” he said. “The Uptown can only reopen with the necessary funding from the city.”

The Uptown is coming into a play at an ill-timed economic moment. Mayor Richard M. Daley has ordered staff furloughs to try and fight a major budget deficit, and the state is hardly awash in surplus cash. Nonetheless, the city has expressed enthusiasm for a rehabbing of the Uptown Theatre, a high-profile building at the core of its neighborhood...

Read complete article here.

Uptown Theatre Auction News

Uptown Theatre Bidders Take the Stage; Sale to end landmark theater's ownership struggle

by Chris Jones, Tribune critic

Want to buy Chicago's historic Uptown Theatre on Tuesday? It's relatively easy.

Head to the Judicial Sales Corp., 1 S. Wacker Drive, with a certified check for 25 percent of your likely maximum bid. If you are the highest bidder, the gorgeous, 4,300-seat, 46,000-square-foot entertainment palace designed by the legendary architectural team of Rapp and Rapp and located at 4814 N. Broadway will be yours.

You'll only need at least $40 million -- the precise figures depend on who you ask -- to bring the long-shuttered, 1925 venue back to life...

For complete article and continuing coverage, go here.

Sun Times Coverage of Uptown Theatre Auction

The Uptown Theater: Could things finally be resolved on Tuesday?
By Jim DeRogatison July 28, 2008

A public auction has been scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday that may -- or may not -- finally decide which of two Chicago concert promoters will play a role in redeveloping the landmark Uptown Theater and steering its future as the jewel pin of a new Uptown music district that also will include the Riviera Theater, the Aragon Ballroom and the Green Mill.

The catch: The sale, which is due to take place at the offices of the Judicial Sales Corporation at 1 South Wacker Drive, has already been scheduled several times in recent months. Each time, it's been postponed at the last minute in what seems to be an effort by the first mortgage holder, real estate investor David Husman and the as-yet largely inactive group Broadway for Uptown, to block the second mortgage holder, a group that includes Jam Productions, from taking control of the building and moving forward with the redevelopment

Why would anyone do this? Well, Jam's arch-competitor, the national concert giant Live Nation, is also eager to control the future of the theater, it's been working with Broadway for Uptown and the city seems to favor this team over the Jam-led group. Stay tuned -- and in the mean time, for more background, check my earlier column here.

For complete article and continuing coverage, go here.