The Aragon Ballroom at Lawrence and Winthrop avenues. Photo: Warren LeMay from Chicago, IL, United States / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Uptown’s main business organization will hold its annual meeting this winter in one of the neighborhood’s best known buildings. Business Partners, the Chamber for Uptown, has scheduled its annual membership meeting for noon to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 30, at the Aragon, 1106 W. Lawrence Ave.
The program includes a luncheon with a Cuban theme, a chance to meet other members, an update on the group’s plans and elections for the board of directors. Only members whose dues are paid in full can vote, with one vote per member organization. Tickets cost $20 per person, and reservations are required.
A landmark setting
The Aragon opened in July 1926 as a lavish ballroom, built by the Karzas brothers with a Spanish palace theme and a dance floor that covered roughly 21,000 square feet. During its big band peak it drew huge weekly crowds. Ballroom dancing there ended in the 1960s, and the building has since lived on as a rock and Latin music venue.
The building has also become a regular site for community gatherings, and holding a business meeting under its ornate ceiling is a reminder of how much of Uptown’s identity rests on its old entertainment palaces.
What’s on the agenda
Board elections will set the group’s leadership for the coming year. Issues on the minds of local owners include development in the Wilson Yard tax increment financing district, empty storefronts along Broadway and the long-running question of what will happen to the shuttered Uptown Theatre down the street.
Members can reserve by email or phone. The group accepts checks and credit cards for the luncheon.
Marcus Hadley covers business, transit and real estate in Uptown.
