Evanston's landmark Harley Clarke Mansion would get commercial uses with developer's plan

If developer Scott Henry is right, he has an answer to a problem that has vexed Evanston city officials and preservation advocates for years.

It’s what to do with the 96-year-old Harley Clarke Mansion that sits on Evanston’s northeast lakefront, next to the Grosse Pointe Lighthouse and public beach. The city owns the stately home and bears the cost of maintaining it, with proposals for nonprofit or for-profit use having failed.

Henry, principal of Celadon Partners, is primed to be the next one to try. He’s laid out a $29 million proposal to refurbish the mansion as a space for weddings and other events, a boutique hotel and restaurant and retail space.

Since starting Celadon in 2008, Henry has expanded from affordable housing to commercial projects, with an emphasis on reuse of old and historic buildings. “Really what makes me tick is to bring back these beloved structures that have been vacant,” he said.

Henry said he has financial backing from Lakeside Bank and others, plus access to market expertise, to make his proposal work. In prior attempts to revive the mansion, “folks that were selected were well-meaning but they didn’t have the experience and they didn’t know how to raise the capital,” he said.

Celadon’s proposal for the Harley Clarke, 2603 Sheridan Road, was rated highest among three responses Evanston received to its request for proposals, or solicitation of developer interest, said Cynthia Vargas, communications manager for the city. The final decision rests with the City Council.

Vargas said city staff’s recommendation for Celadon will be introduced to the council on Oct. 14. She declined additional comment on the proposals.

Henry’s plan would preserve the gardens and open land around the mansion for public use. He said he has a commitment for a Black-owned ice cream parlor to operate in the mansion and, in a partnership he sees as vital, has an endorsement from a community group for restoring gardens designed by famous landscape architect Jens Jensen.

He proposes to lease the five-acre property from the city for 99 years at $1 a year.

Officials rated his proposal higher than one from Ratio Architects and development firm Farpoint, which sketched out a similar plan for event and dining space.

Representatives of Ratio and Farpoint could not be reached for comment.

The third submission came from the nonprofit Evanston Community Lakehouse & Gardens. It imagined the property as a “community campus” for local organizations with rental income from group events, estimating the rehab work at $8 million.

Patrick Donnelly, vice president of ECLG, said the volunteer organization tapped high-powered board members to develop a financial plan he thought was more realistic than Celadon’s. Evanston rejected an ECLG proposal for the site in 2018 on concerns about fiscal viability.

“This is the most talked about property in Evanston,” he said. “It’s the last spot on the lakefront.”

But Donnelly said rather than preserve it for the community, the city has appeared to favor for-profit use. “The process has felt unfair to us,” he said, although he's partial to any plan that preserves the home.

Evanston officials have tried different strategies for the mansion — at one point turning down an offer from investor Jennifer Pritzker to make it a hotel. In 2018, the city worked with citizens who wanted to demolish the building to restore lakefront dunes. But that was short-circuited when the city’s preservation commission rejected the idea. Evanston voters in an advisory referendum that year threw 80% support behind saving the mansion.

The city has owned the site since 1965 and for years leased it to the Evanston Arts Center. Artists Book House, an educational group for book production, was last to use the space. It broke a long-term lease and left the property in 2013.

Henry said that if his idea for commercial reuse were proposed 10 years ago, the city probably would have rejected it right away. But he speculated that budgets have gotten tighter and the city has grown tired of well-intentioned plans that have fallen flat.

Celadon has tackled other renovations, including the conversion of a former school in West Pullman into senior housing. In Maywood, it converted the Baptist Retirement Home into supportive living apartments with new amenities.

The group Landmarks Illinois urged Henry, an architect before he ventured into real estate finance, to take a look at Evanston’s mansion.

“We are often known as the last man standing before the wrecking ball,” Henry said. “This is a fight we wanted.”

The three-story mansion is an official Evanston landmark. It started life in 1928 as the home of Clarke, a utility magnate in the early 20th century.

Reports done for Evanston have shown the mansion to be in generally good condition. Henry agreed with that assessment.

“The bones are way ahead of their time,” he said.