More than three decades after Nike opened what it described as “retail theater” in Chicago, its five-level building on the Magnificent Mile faces demolition to make way for a 56-story residential tower.
Amli Residential is proposing a 498-unit residential tower on the site at 669 N. Michigan Ave., 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly informed constituents in an email Friday.
That is where Nike Town opened in 1992 as an early U.S. example of hands-on retail that has become widespread today.
If the plan is approved at an upcoming Chicago Plan Commission meeting and eventually by the full City Council, it would add to widespread changes on the Mag Mile in recent years, where a run of record-high vacancy has been followed by signs of renewed demand.
New tenants include a crowd-drawing, Harry Potter-themed store at 676 N. Michigan Ave., across the street from the Nike flagship. Other big changes on the street include the owner of the Water Tower Place vertical mall looking to sell upper floors and reduce the mall to three stories.
Amli’s high-rise proposal comes nearly a decade after Meyer Bergman — a London-based private equity investment manager now known as Mark Capital Management — and Morgan Stanley bought the Nike building and connected structures at 663 and 673 N. Michigan Ave. for $295 million in late 2015.
It was one of the highest-priced retail sales in Chicago history, leading to speculation for years that a high-rise eventually would be developed on the site.
It’s unclear if all the structures along Michigan and Erie Street would be demolished for a residential development. It’s also unknown whether Nike would be a tenant in the base of the proposed tower.
Chicago-based Amli declined to comment. Beaverton, Oregon-based Nike, New York-based Morgan Stanley and Mark did not respond to requests for comment from CoStar News.
Amli is a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing, which paid $2.1 billion to take Amli Residential Properties Trust private in 2006.
If approved, the residential tower would have 26,531 square feet of retail on the first and second floors, according to Reilly’s message and an online presentation of the project. That space and 199 parking spaces would be in a wider, eight-story podium topped by a thinner tower rising 668 feet.
The plan calls for 50 units with affordable, below-market rents, a pool and other amenities on the ninth level, and other amenity floors including an outdoor terrace on the top floor.
The shoe giant made national headlines in 1992 when it opened Nike Town on the Mag Mile, with the store opening attended by two-sport Nike athlete Bo Jackson, comedian Jerry Seinfeld, Chicago Bears running back Neal Anderson and then-Mayor Richard M. Daley. Nike’s biggest star, Chicago Bulls basketball player Michael Jordan, was in Portland, Oregon, practicing with the U.S. Olympic team.
Nike Town in Chicago followed one in Portland and preceded an opening in New York.
Long before retailers were known for making loud statements with their stores, the Chicago space included a basketball court, images of Nike endorser Jordan playing on dozens of TV screens, a display outlining the evolution of the Air Jordan shoe line, sculptures of famous athletes hanging from the ceiling, and sounds of bouncing balls playing on the sound system.
“It’s a place of entertainment, not just another boring place to shop,” Cathy Taylor, Nike’s vice president for retail, told the Chicago Tribune ahead of the opening in 1991.