Posted by Bud on December 17, 2009 at 20:51:28:
Rehab Institute To Take Old CBS Building Site
New Building Will Rise On McClurg Court
Dec 15, 2009 6:26 am US/Central
CHICAGO (CBS) - A new tenant is moving into a building that will be constructed on the site of the old CBS Building on McClurg Court.
The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago has purchased the footprint of the building at 630 N. McClurg Ct. in the Streeterville neighborhood.
The hospital plans to build a new state-of-the-art facility unlike anything in the world.
The old CBS building was constructed in 1924. It served as a horse stable for the Chicago Riding Club and as the Chicago Arena ice rink and sports facility before CBS gutted the building and turned into a TV and radio studio in 1956.
For the next half century, the building housed CBS 2, WBBM Newsradio 780 and B96 radio. The radio stations moved to Two Prudential Plaza in 2006, and CBS 2 left for the current broadcast center at 22 W. Washington St. in September 2008. The building was demolished in February of this year.
In constructing a new hospital at the site, the Rehabilitation Institute will join several other state-of-the-art medical facilities in Streeterville. Those include the sprawling Northwestern Memorial Hospital campus, and Children's Memorial Hospital, which will open its new Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago at 215 E. Chicago Ave. in 2012.
Developer Golub & Company originally bought the site for $25 million and planned to build a massive residential development composed of two 50-story towers. But the downturn in the housing market scuttled those plans.
From 1954 until 1974, the Rehabilitation Institute was located just a block south at Ohio Street and McClurg Court, before moving to its Superior Street location.