Celadon Wins bid to Develop Hotel at Historic Evanston Mansion

A $29 million investment from Celadon Construction could bring the historic Harley Clarke mansion in Evanston into the future as a boutique hotel and event venue.

The nonprofit subsidiary of Celadon Partners beat out competitors for the privilege to negotiate a lease and repurpose the city-owned lakefront property, which spans 18,500 square feet at 2603 Sheridan Road, Evanston Now reported.

Celadon would enter a 99-year lease with the city, and besides the 10-key hotel, the development would include a restaurant, ice cream parlor and basement speakeasy, while the carriage house would be renovated for the nonprofit Jens Jensen Gardens. The adaptive reuse is expected to generate $1 million in annual tax revenue.

The Harley Clarke mansion (City of Evanston)

The Evanston City Council considered four proposals, including one from Evanston Community Lakehouse and Gardens, which proposed a campaign to raise $8.5 million for renovations to use the property as a community space, gallery and museum.

The Celadon proposal comes 11 years after Evanston rejected Jennifer Prtizker’s proposal to convert the mansion into a 57-key hotel. But Pritzker wanted to buy the property for $1.2 million, and the plan was rejected because of opposition to privatization.

Celadon has a track record of complicated adaptive-reuse projects, and it won a Landmarks Illinois Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation Award last year for its work on the Maywood Supportive Living, a low-income senior living community in Maywood.

The mansion was designed by architect Richard Powers and built in 1927 for a wealthy utilities magnate and his family. Prairie School landscape architect Jens Jensen designed the grounds. It is adjacent to the historic Grosse Pointe Light and Lighthouse Beach on Lake Michigan.

The city of Evanston bought it in 1965, and it was leased to Evanston Art Center until 2015.

— Andrew Terrell