STREETERVILLE — It's not another Stanley Cup, but Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz will add to his trophy case this week when he's designated a "Legendary Landmark" by a leading architecture-preservation group.
Landmarks Illinois will honor Wirtz as one of three new "Legendary Landmarks" in the group's 10th annual celebration of such honorees Thursday at the Four Seasons Hotel.
"It's a wonderful honor, and it should be a very nice evening," Wirtz said earlier this week while sitting in the family business offices in the stately old building at 680 N. Lake Shore Drive.
In effect, the architecture award brings Wirtz full circle in the family business. His grandfather Arthur Wirtz launched his financial empire with real estate in the Roaring Twenties, while other investors were buying stocks. That enabled him to survive the 1929 crash, and also put him in a position to buy more buildings when others panicked.
"He'd water down the debt and get control of them," Wirtz said.
"That's how he got into the sports business," Wirtz added. His grandfather might buy a building like the Chicago Stadium, "and then he bought the tenants, so he got into sports by buying the tenants," first in Detroit with the Red Wings and later with the Blackhawks. He was also the first person to sign figure skater Sonja Henie to a professional contract, as a way of booking additional events at the old barn on West Madison Street.
Everyone knows the Wirtzes as the Hawks' longtime owners, and they're also well-known for their liquor distribution company, but their Wirtz Realty holdings are often overlooked. Wirtz said he's lost count of how many buildings they actually own in the city, but they control 2,000 apartments, as well as some other stylish silhouettes on the city skyline, above and beyond the United Center where the Hawks and Bulls now play 20 years after the old Chicago Stadium was demolished.
Wirtz can still talk about what a grand old building that was, but he's being honored Thursday for his stewardship of buildings they've managed to not only maintain but enhance, such as the slender, elegant Art Deco skyscraper at 333 N. Michigan Ave. It's the main reason for the Landmarks Illinois recognition, as it's just completing an 18-month renovation — not coincidentally, of course, including the move of the Blackhawks Store from a cramped street-level space into a sprawling second-floor location with a view of the Chicago River and the Magnificent Mile beyond.
"That's worked out great," Wirtz said, as it's turned out to be a mecca for Hawks fans coming into the city for a game and making a day of it with a little shopping on Michigan Avenue beforehand.
Yet the overall rehab reflects Wirtz's philosophy toward keeping buildings vital.
"We like to bring them back to their original shape," he said. "Bring the same charm that the building had, then modernize it."
Wirtz said, "The secret is not to let it get decrepit," and that applies to all Wirtz realty holdings, including the United Center, which gets $3-$5 million a year in repairs "like clockwork."
The UC is looking at more work than that this summer, "after the last playoff game," Wirtz said, when construction begins on an adjoining office building that will move team employees and other stadium staff out and allow the UC to be reconfigured for a better fan and player experience.
It's part of $400 million in public and private investments in the area surrounding the stadium, and Wirtz and the Hawks aren't done there. Wirtz confirmed they're looking into constructing a new team practice facility, on the order of what the Bulls have already built.
Wirtz will be honored along with Tim Samuelson, historian with the city's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and Allen Bulley Jr., representing the construction firm of Bulley & Andrews.
"It came out of the blue," Wirtz said.
And his personal choice for a favorite building? Believe it or not, not the United Center or 333 N. Michigan Ave., but the big, broad apartment complex at 3240 N. Lake Shore Drive, which he described as "an old building with charm."
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