A request to raze a possible city landmark has been delayed despite a developer’s promise to bring more than 100 new jobs to the medical office they want to build.

Staff with Chicago-based Healthcare Development Partners LLC requested the Berwyn City Council’s approval Tuesday, Sept. 23, to demolish Marik Funeral Home, 6507 W. Cermak Road.

The developers want to build an about $10 million medical office complex on the site. But preservationists have been working to determine whether the 1920s-era building could qualify as a national landmark.

Brian Howard, vice president of development with the company, said building the 30,000-square-foot medical office would bring about 135 new jobs to the Berwyn area. The company’s national health care real estate firm already has a signed lease “with a prominent family practice group,” which can draw from 10 regional community hospitals, he said.

“We’re really excited about the project,” said Todd B. Bryant, president of the firm. “If this was something not looked upon favorably, we would likely have to look outside of Berwyn to accommodate it.”

Alderman Nona Chapman, 1st Ward, questioned why Bryant’s staff wanted demolition approval Tuesday and appeared to have a tighter project approval schedule than the city.

“As I sit here right now, you’re shoving this down our throats. Yes, you are,” Alderman Mark Weiner, 3rd Ward, said as Bryant started to protest. “We can work with you. I’m not going to work with you the way you’re currently working with us.”

Aldermen voted 6-2 in favor of staying the demolition request until after the Berwyn Historic Preservation Commission hosts a public hearing.

Lori Thielen, chairwoman of the Historic Preservation Commission, said local preservation commission ordinances dictate that commissioners have 45 days from the date the request was made — Sept. 17 in this case — to set a date for a public hearing on such projects. She said commissioners will decide at their Thursday, Oct. 9, meeting when to host that requisite public hearing.

“In our experience, these types of debates, if they become heated, take longer than 45 days, 90 days,” Bryant said.

Members of the family practice group – whom neither Bryant nor Howard named because the project has not been approved by the city — have signed a lease and anticipate hiring new staff for the office by October 2009, Howard said. That is the tentative date the group would like to open the office complex, Bryant said.

However, residents and preservationists who attended Tuesday’s City Council meeting and preceding Committee of the Whole meeting voiced opposition to the proposal. They said the 1920s-era building, which features a slate roof and original stained-glass windows, might qualify for national landmark status. They are checking into it, Thielen said.

“It’s significant architecturally and culturally,” Historic Preservation Commission member Rebecca Houze said. “It has a connection to Berwyn’s Bohemian-Czech community. It’s a very important building.”

Marik Funeral Home has been vacant for years, and the proposal to build a multiple-story family medical center is not the first development proposal calling for razing the structure.

Thielen said she spoke out before City Council members in July 2006 when officials from Washington Mutual wanted to build on the land. Aldermen rejected that request, she said.

“We looked, we really looked for another site in Berwyn,” Bryant said, but no other locations were as suitable.

The funeral home site did pose some parking questions. Mayor Michael O’Connor asked whether the 26 to 28 proposed parking spaces on the site would be enough to serve the complex’s staff and patients.

“I think we have ample parking, given we have public transportation in the area,” Bryant said. “Will parking be tight sometimes? Sometimes.”

The medical offices would serve an estimated 40,000 to 45,000 patients each year, he said.

“I’m 100 percent behind it,” Alderman Thomas Day, 5th Ward, said. “It means jobs. It’s a win-win for Berwyn.”