Emanuel scraps eminent domain, announces deal for Old Post Office

After threatening the use of eminent domain to wrest Chicago’s Old Post Office from Englishman Bill Davies, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Tuesday that a tentative deal had been struck under which Davies would sell the property to a developer who will finally make something of the long-vacant building.

Davies failed to bring to fruition any of the big plans he had for the building since taking ownership in 2009 for $24 million.

“This agreement establishes a strict timeline for the sale and a plan to redevelop the Old Main Post Office and turn it into an economic driver for the city of Chicago,” Emanuel said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon by his office.

If the fact that the words “tentative settlement” are used four times in the two-page statement are any indication, the arrangement is anything but final.

“Under the tentative settlement the city will suspend both its plan to acquire the building from the current owner and the Request for Proposals that was issued last month for its mixed-use redevelopment,” the statement said.

Emanuel took the rare step of threatening eminent domain in February following decades of neglect and deterioration.

The developer seeking to buy the Post Office is New York-based 601W Companies, which currently owns One and Two Prudential Plaza, as a well as the Aon Center — Chicago’s third-largest skyscraper. All three buildings are located just north of Millennium Park.

The deal sets a June 1 deadline to “complete the outright acquisition” of the 2.5 million-square-foot structure and adjacent properties owned by Davies’ company, International Property Developers North America.

A spokeswoman for the company referred questions to Davies’ attorney, Joseph Bisceglia, who did not immediately return a phone message Tuesday afternoon.

Representatives of 601W Companies could not be reached.

Under the arrangement, “the city would also require approval of a formal redevelopment plan, including a budget, economic disclosures and financing arrangements, as well as uses, site plans, timelines, phasing and related development and construction details,” according to the statement.