The 234 Apartment

As you do more banking by smartphone, that bank branch you used to visit may soon turn into a restaurant, a day care center or even a condo tower. After a branch building boom a decade or so ago, banks are closing offices by the thousands as more of their customers bank online . They're leaving behind space ready to be transformed into something else, whether an urban storefront or a free- standing brick building with a drive-thru in the suburbs. "If the real estate is strong, any number of things can happen to the property," says Kim McGuire, senior vice president in the Chicago office of CBRE. It's a problem or an opportunity, depending on your perspective, that will be here for a while. Banks operate about 89,300 branches in the United States today , down 8 percent over the past decade, according to Chicago- based real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle . JLL expects an additional 20 percent drop over the next decade. In the Chicago area, the number of branches d...

We are looking back at what is now part of the “Entertainment District,” the 500 block of Third Street, so I will try to compare the then and now if I can as we take our walk on the east side which are the odd numbers. Starting at the corner which is now Wine on Third at 501 Third, which has taken over the next three individual store fronts at that address, we first find the McClure’s Drug Store owned by James McClure who lived in Lewiston with wife Janet. David Gleason, DDS occupied 503 Third and he and Lois lived at 808 Ashland Ave. In the same building was Joseph Puerner, MD who resided at 1235 Norwood Ave. with wife Annabelle. Next door at 505 Third we find Billings Mutual Insurance Agency and Remington Rand , Inc. William E. Billings, the manager, was well known for many years in the insurance business . Their advertising read: “Call Us Before You Need Us” which is very appropriate for this type of business. He and Thelma lived in LaSalle at 215 60th St. Remington Rand sold off...