There were 32 members present and 6 guests:  Marilyn Prodromos and Carol Fessler (Grant guests and Winnetka Village trustees); Robert Adam (Kotz guest); Anita Maiworm (VanCleeve guest); Todd Roth (T. Nash guest); Carolyn Kambich (guest of “several”); and Mary Birkenstein (stopped in for the speaker).

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Denny Lauer

ANNOUNCEMENTS: President Thomas announced that our Rotary Club will join the local Chamber of Commerce; Mark Kotz and Ned Meisner have done a great job on getting speakers, but with their assignment ending, the job has been shifted to the Membership Committee, David Birkenstein- current Chair;that the October 19th four hour “Visioning Session” with Patti Van Cleve is very important to develop our Club’s forward plan and everyone should participate;  that the “Time to Shine” segment of our regular weekly program will be continued with the speaker spending 4-5 minutes talking about their business/interest; and that the Community House will be asking for volunteers to help with the children’s Halloween party.

Anita Maiworm, Kaskaskia DAR, gave a short presentation on what a local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution is doing for our military personnel. Cleaning services and supplies are not covered by Food Stamps so her organization is taking donations of money and items to pass on to those military personnel and veterans in need. Rotarians were urged to bring to our October meetings such things as laundry detergent, garbage bags, shampoo, paper cleaning products, brooms, cooking utensils-- as well as games, puzzles, movie theater tickets and restaurant gift cards. Anita also explained the DAR  “domicile” program which provides apartments for homeless vets. Most of these apartments house up to 16 men/women and are located close to the Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chigago.  The DAR collects used furniture for these domicile apartments. If you can support this very important DAR program, Anita should be contacted at beachhouse7@icloud.com

HAPPY BUCKS: Rob Mardirossian gave $100 for the use of Bob Baker’s Cubs’ tickets and John Stone’s generosity in picking up a drink tab at the Park—also the general support given by many Rotarians to his Family Services organization; Ned Meisner recognized his Mother’s birthday; John Thomas was happy with a visit from his sister and her husband; and Tony Kambich recognized the fact that his wife (in attendance as guest) had received a special DAR award when she was in grade school.

DIG N GRIN: Rich Lalley started by listing the 5 organizations that depend on Rotarians’ donations to provide coats for children and that donations can be made via PayPal or by check to  Winnetka Northfield Rotary Charitable Foundation. He then told a couple stories about problems with Catholic politicians’ confessions and  senior citizens  reading road signs.

SPEAKER DAVID STROSBERG RE NORTHSHORE 770 DEVELOPMENT:  (Refer to last week’s announcement of this meeting for details regarding David’s background.) David, and his Marketing Manager Alison Solway, presented information regarding this recent Mariano’s-anchored shopping center and 347-unit apartment building located at the corner of Dundee and Skokie Boulevard in Northbrook. Mariano’s new store is 72,000 square foot versus its  50,000 square foot store in Northfield—which they intend to keep in business.   David founded Morningside Group in 1993 as a real estate firm focused on mixed-use and multi-family development. Its offices are in Chicago and Ann Arbor. The Northbrook project has 100% occupancy in the shopping center and the apartment building started leasing last August with first occupancy set for next January. The rental apartments vary from 700 to 1500 square feet; will be under leases for up to 2 year; have a doorman, rooftop pool, golf simulator, putting green, 10’ ceilings in penthouses (9’ elsewhere), granite counter tops, inside heated parking and a cinema room with a 135” TV set for use by residents. The location has been for sale since the 1990’s and changed hands a couple of times, but developers were having trouble finalizing their  plans, especially the financing of such a large project. A Texas bank ended up with the property in 2010 and Morningside was able to buy it from them. David said that his company went to the Village representatives and door-to-door with the residents to get their support. For the most part, local businesses supported the project, with the exception of a couple of local super markets. It is a great location for retail since daily there are 40,000 cars passing the site on Skokie Blvd.; 20,000 cars passing on Dundee; and 120,000 cars passing the adjacent Edens interchange. His company had to buy the Zengler property and relocate them on the new facility; it had to spend considerable money improving the adjacent roads and traffic signals; and it had to pay the local park district and schools “impact” fees. Ninety-five million was the final cost of the project and several banks handled the financing. David’s power point showed the exterior of the buildings and the interior of the apartments. It is obvious that Morningside put a lot of “extras” into the project to make it look very attractive to consumers, residents, and the local community.