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Landmark presentation planned for Monday
12-Jun-08 – An organization with ties to Marina Towers Condominium Association is promoting a presentation scheduled for Monday to discuss landmark status for Marina City. A memo was distributed to resident owners this week about a “Professional Presentation” on June 16 at 7:00 p.m. in the MTCA meeting room on the concourse level. The memo is from an organization calling itself “Landmark Marina City Now, Inc.” The organization has a web site, www.landmarkmarinacitynow.org, that is registered to Ellen Chessick, Secretary of Marina Towers Condominium Association. According to public records with the Secretary of State, the not-for-profit Landmark Marina City Now was incorporated on April 28, 2008, by Waveney G. Cameron, who works for the General Counsel for the Illinois Secretary of State, the job MTCA President Donna Leonard once had. According to the State of Illinois telephone directory, as of June 12, Leonard still works for the Secretary of State, in the Inspector General’s Office. Cameron, listed as the registered agent for the corporation, and Leonard both work on the 11th floor of 17 North State Street, which is an office of the Secretary of State. A voicemail message left with Ms. Cameron on Friday afternoon was not returned. Critics of this latest drive for landmark status point to a 2003 agreement with commercial owners that prohibits MTCA from supporting landmark designation of Marina City. Appearing at Monday’s meeting, according to the web site, will be Lisa DiChiera, Advocacy Director of Landmarks Illinois; Victoria Granacki of Granacki Historic Consultants, a historic preservation consulting company; and T. Gunny Harboe, an architect whose firm, Harboe Architects, specializes in historic preservation. “There is no question that Marina City is a landmark building,” says Landmark Marina City Now on its web site. “We are taking action so we can make it official and protect the architectural integrity of the building that is at risk. There have been, and continue to be, changes to pieces and parts of Marina City that are neither in the spirit of the original design, nor are they done with any concern for the long term quality of the complex or its role in the city. Over the past 10 years, there has been renewed commercial activity at Marina City, and this is a good thing. However, there is no sense of the whole and Marina City is being treated more as a carcass to be exploited than as an icon and architectural landmark of the city. This is a shame and we need your help to stop this and protect our investment in Marina City.” According to the site, official landmark status “will cost Marina Towers condo owners nothing other than the maintenance and preventative maintenance that is normally being performed anyway. Additionally, there could be financial benefits such as 12 years of frozen real estate taxes and other income tax write-offs.” The site claims that the market values of landmarked buildings have increased faster than comparable non-landmarked buildings, although no examples are given. The address of Landmark Marina City Now, Inc., is listed as unit 2635, which is a one-bedroom unit in the east tower owned by Victor Koroshak. There was an employee of Chicago Transit Authority by that name as recently as 2003.
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