WEST LOOP — As an homage to the street's gritty history as Chicago's Skid Row, a stretch of Madison Street that runs through the West Loop soon may be called by a new name: "Madison Row."
The name, part of a larger effort to brand the street, aims to revamp Madison Street into the West Loop's "Main Street." A committee aimed at improving Madison Street between Halsted and Ashland approved the new moniker at a meeting Thursday.
As the streetscapes on bustling Randolph, Lake and Fulton Market are growing to new heights, Madison Street business owners and landlords are building a blueprint to keep the milelong stretch that connects the Loop to the United Center quaint and unique but full of action.
"We want people lounging on Madison Street, people hanging out on Madison Street. We want to make it special," said Armando Chacon, president of the West Central Association, who is spearheading the effort with Susan Rothman, owner of Pure Barre West Loop, and others.
So many of the West Loop's restaurants and bars — the neighborhood's "eat, dine and party" action — are north on Randolph or Fulton Market, said Chacon, a Realtor at 1161 W. Madison St.
"We want it to be just as much of a destination as the Fulton Market district, and that's just not the case right now," he said. "We want to make it a destination, not a place you pass through."
Despite some chains moving in, there are signs that Madison is becoming a culinary destination in its own right. Gina Stefani's joint, MAD Social, buzzing Madison Bar + Kitchen and celebrity chef Sarah Grueneberg's lauded Monteverde have all opened on Madison in the last 1½ years.
"Monteverde was a game-changer," Chacon said. "And we want to build on that momentum."
Celebrity chef Sarah Grueneberg's Monteverde restaurant has helped Madison Street in the West Loop become a culinary destination. [Galdones Photography]
Entertainment district
With Madison long known for its sports bars — convenient beer stops before a Bulls or Blackhawks game at the United Center — business owners now want the thoroughfare to be known as its own entertainment district destination.
The branding push to attract new indie retail tenants aims to make physical changes to the street, too. In addition to a parade and block party, Madison business owners want to improve the streetscape, potentially remove the planters on Madison, hang holiday decorations and banners and develop awning and sign guidelines for the street.
While the Madison committee still is discussing ways to fund the improvements, upgrades could be paid for with Neighborhood Opportunity bonus funds or by creating a new Special Service Area, in which property owners pay extra real estate taxes to fund improvements in the area, Chacon said.
Attracting unique retail is a challenge on Madison Street, said Tom Meador, CEO of Michigan Avenue Real Estate Group, the prominent West Loop development firm that owns Madison and Throop, a luxury apartment building, and other Madison Street properties.
"We do need to work on the retail. What we're getting is office tenants or restaurants," Meador said. "We don't have enough foot traffic, and because of the parking problem, you can't get real retail."
Branding Madison and improving the streetscape will give landlords the tools they need to lease vacant spaces as more apartments are built in the area, increasing foot traffic, Meador said.
"Until we do that, you're going to continue to get restaurants and offices," he said.
The Madison at Racine, a 216-unit apartment development, opened in January 2015, bringing more foot traffic and new retail to Madison. [Madison at Racine]
Not another Armitage
Madison Street is the home of a number of unique shops — including The Fig Tree, Cat & Mouse Games and Smitten Boutique.
And while a boom in residential development has brought more foot traffic to the area, Ann Sinclair, owner of The Fig Tree, a boutique gift shop at 1037 W. Madison St., said she hopes Madison Street's indie shops won't disappear as retail chains move in.
"I don't want to see it go the way of Armitage, or like every other shopping area that goes corporate," said Sinclair, who has owned the shop for nine years. "I know we're getting an Anthropologie and Free People [nearby], but I don't want to see more corporate stores."
Stefani, daughter of restaurateur Phil Stefani, said the street's "neighborhood feel" was what persuaded her to open up shop on Madison.
"We definitely were not looking on Randolph," she said. "Monteverde had just opened, and it felt right. It felt like the start of a trend."
Instead of filling empty storefronts with chain retail shops, Chacon said he wants to build a thriving retail district with unique boutiques and restaurants where people can spend the whole day — "like Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice Beach or Clark Street in Andersonville."
Some Madison Street business owners said they were disappointed a Domino's recently opened at 901 W. Madison St. instead of a local restaurant.
"We should be courting a better business," Chacon said. "If we take a national, it should be a national [brand] that people really like."
Armando Chacon, president of the West Central Association, at a West Loop meeting in November. [DNAinfo/Stephanie Lulay]
Madison as 'Main Street'
Chacon, a Little Village native who lives in the West Loop, said he wants Madison to become the West Loop's "town square," a meeting place for residents in the condominium-heavy neighborhood.
"When you go to a small town, or a residential neighborhood, you do feel that quaintness," Chacon said. "Here, people live next door to each other, and they've never met."
In an effort to build community and expand on programs at Mary Bartelme and Skinner parks, Madison Street businesses would like to host a parade, block party and sidewalk sales in the summer.
The group has presented its plans to 27th Ward Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. and 25th Ward Ald. Danny Solis, and will meet with the city's Department of Planning and Development Monday.
To kick off the effort to improve Madison, the group of business owners is hosting a Clean and Green event on Madison April 22. More details are expected to be announced soon.
From Skid Row to Madison Row
For decades, Madison was home to migrant workers and countless single men who worked on the railroads that ended at Union Station.
But when the Great Depression threw many into poverty, Madison and surrounding streets between Clinton and Damen became known as "Skid Row" where a slew of homeless slept in the streets day and night. In 1949, Time magazine described the area as the "Land of the Living Dead," according to a New City article, a haven for alcoholics, criminals and prostitutes.
Landlord Van Tomaras has owned buildings on Madison since 1994, before the former Mayor Richard M. Daley cleaned up parts of the West Loop before the 1996 Democratic National Convention at the United Center.
Back then, "It was still Skid Row. We had people being shot, we had drive-by shootings," said Tomaras, who owns a building at 1018 W. Madison St. Since then, "it's drastically changed."
Many dilapidated buildings were torn down, leaving empty lots between the neighborhood's meat packers, restaurant suppliers and other industrial companies. Homeless people made the street home.
As a reminder of the street's past, the Madison Street group plans to install plaques to mark Skid Row landmarks on Madison.
Even after improvements and as major residential developments were built on the street, Tomaras said people still came to Madison Street for two reasons — to work, or for a pre-game drink.
"Nine to five and they are gone, or we have the bars," Tomaras said. "But that's not a neighborhood. That's not a destination."
But with a new name and other changes coming, hopefully that's changing.
"The West Loop is so unique in that most of the east-west streets are major thoroughfares," said Carla Agostinelli, executive director of the West Loop Community Organization. "I think in the next couple of years, Madison will develop into more of a destination spot."
