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MICHAEL JORDAN’S OAK BROOK RESTAURANT EXPECTED TO OPEN NEXT YEAR

Chicago Tribune by Phil Thompson

Michael Jordan plans to open another Chicago-area restaurant next year.

The Bulls legend will license his name to a new, 8,500-square-foot eatery at Oak Brook 22, a west suburban office complex that has undergone its own rebranding in the last two years.

Michael Jordan’s Restaurant is expected to seat more than 200 and open between the spring and summer of 2017, and will serve as the keystone to a two-year redevelopment plan for the 389,000-square-foot office complex at 1225 W. 22nd St., west of Spring Road and across from Oakbrook Center shopping mall.

The steakhouse will be the fifth one managed by Chicago-based Cornerstone Restaurant Group and Waterbury, Conn.-based Jump Higher LLC.

Chicago-based developer Golub & Co. and Alcion Ventures pitched Cornerstone on the former Oak Brook Executive Plaza, which Golub and Alcion acquired for $60 million in 2014, and they’ve been upgrading meeting spaces, Wi-Fi and other amenities. Golub had been on the hunt for a restaurant tenant when they caught wind that Jordan’s group was looking at suburban locations.

“We went after them,” said John Ferguson, senior vice president at Golub. The lease will run a minimum of 10 years and has options for up to 20 years, he said.

Jordan’s latest restaurant will mark yet another dining collaboration with Cornerstone CEO David Zadikoff, who has had a hand in designing and operating four current Jordan restaurants, including two in Connecticut, one in New York and Chicago’s Michael Jordan Steak House, which opened on Michigan Avenue in 2011, and two that have since shuttered, One Sixtyblue and the namesake restaurant on LaSalle Street.

The Oak Brook deal offers Jordan’s group about $1 million toward renovations, and additional upgrades are expected, possibly featuring high-end wood, stone and glass.

“According to Cornerstone and the architects (DMAC Architecture) it will have somewhat of an interactive kitchen,” Ferguson said. “The restaurants of yesteryear, you couldn’t really see the kitchen; it was always Houdini. And now this will be more open where you can see into it and see the activity, see hustle and bustle. It creates a little more energy inside the restaurant.”

Through a statement, Zadikoff said the menu “will house an array of cuts, from all natural to grass-fed to USDA Prime” and focus on seasonal ingredients. Drinks will include cocktails, domestic craft beers and a wine list that “mirrors Michael Jordan’s tastes and highlights his private collection.”


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