[Mr Downtown]

We're mixing together two different kinds of redevelopment. Private-ownership sites, like Central Station or Riverline or even Finkl Steel are seldom so large that their owners feel the need to break them up. Urban renewal districts, such as Mission Bay or the North Loop, typically have been assembled from many small holdings that were seen as a blighting influence, so cities aren't anxious to parcel it out into such small pieces again, though very seldom do they look for one developer to do more than one square block/100,000 square feet. Occasionally, as at Battery Park City, the government agency has a big single-ownership site that they do want to parcel out to different developers, so they put in place a street framework and a specific plan regarding uses and building envelopes, often even architectural design guidelines. But usually the city is looking for a big, game-changing project to happen. I was part of a brainstorming session about 2000 over what to do with Block 37. My suggestion that it be parceled out went over like a fart in church, because the idea of just ending up with a three-story Best Buy or OfficeMax after all that trouble was so unsatisfying to policymakers.

Chicago just doesn't have the persistence or the expertise to properly do a specific-plan redevelopment that might last many decades. And some projects that were broken up for multiple owners—LaSalle Park, Cityfront Center, North Loop, Glenview NAS, Riverview—haven't been particularly memorable or rewarding.