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Chicago Tribune - Sunday, May 5, 1985
Author: Article by Nick Thimmesch.
Just about everything Philip Klutznick has done in his 77 years seems to

be upper case. He has been Secretary of Commerce under Jimmy Carter,

Ambassador to the United Nations` Economic and Social Council under President Kennedy, Federal Housing Commissioner under FDR, President-emeritus of the

World Jewish Congress and Honorary President of B`nai B`rith International.

(snip)

Klutznick`s success with Marshall Field led to the building of Water

Tower Place, a $180 million, 74-story amalgamation of stores, shops, offices, apartments, theaters and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. ``I got a call one day from a man named John Moore, who told me Phil had signed a $10 million contract to

start Water Tower Place,`` recalls Newton Minow, Klutznick`s attorney. ``He

told me Phil had written a four-line agreement on an envelope and signed it.

Moore sent a photostat. When I saw it, I knew it was Phil`s signature, so I

called him in New York, where he was in a meeting.

``Phil said, `I meant to tell you, Newt, but I didn`t want the deal to

evaporate.` I told him that wasn`t the way we wrote contracts today, but it

was binding. And that`s how Water Tower Place was bought.``

Klutznick`s firm, Urban Investment and Development Co., was sold to Aetna Life & Casualty Co. in 1970, and in 1984 was bought by JMB Realty Corp. of

Chicago. But Klutznick didn`t retire. He plunged into other projects, the most notable being Dearborn Park, begun in January of 1974. The plan is to complete a 3,000-unit, $250 million complex of middle-income housing on a 51-acre site in the South Loop near the historic Dearborn Station.

``We are doing inner-city development—the big push of the `80s—and this is the start,`` Klutznick said at the time. Recently, he explained how he and the other developers got the Dearborn Park project moving. ``We went to see

Mayor Daley ,`` Klutznick recalls. ``It was John Perkins, president of

Continental Illinois National Bank; Thomas Ayers , the retired chairman of

Commonwealth Edison; and myself. Daley just asked, `What do you need?` and I

told him an agreement for the land. He called in a city official and told him, `I don`t want anything put in their way, all right?` Then he told us that

if we had any trouble, come right back and see him. There was no delay in

working with Daley . We had to renegotiate with the city, but it took 60

minutes and a handshake with him, instead of six months with someone else.``

(snip)

SUCH A DEAL - ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO STRUT THEIR STUFF TO THE WORLD
Chicago Tribune - Sunday, February 2, 1986
Author: Article by Mitchell Locin, a SUNDAY, Magazine staff writer.

EXCERPT

... in 1976 that Mayor Richard J. Daley created the

city`s Economic Development Commission, naming Commonwealth Edison`s chairman, Thomas Ayers , to head it.