CHICAGO | General Developments

[J_M_Tungsten]

^Nice, they're building a lot of parking lots...

[thewaterman11]

This disappoints me so much; it hurts.

[bnk]

Originally Posted by spyguy

Ugh, look at how the retail portion of McCaffery's Lakeside project has evolved:

https://vimeo.com/139740267

Please no. Someone talk me down here. This is not real is it.

Looks nothing like this from feb 2013.

• Video Link

And this one from 5 years ago

• Video Link

WTF happened here

[untitledreality]

Originally Posted by bnk

WTF happened here

Reality happened.

[PKDickman]

Looks like "Randall Rd meets Lake Michigan"

[Randomguy34]

From the video. This just makes we want to cry. And to add insult to injury, look at what picture #4 says

[Busy Bee]

While it's nauseating, this clearly is a placeholder development. They aren't convinced there is a strong enough market to go for the dense mega development and they surely feel they've got to do something to start getting a return on their investment. I think we ALL knew the vision would be a couple decades away. These throwaway retail structures will be easily redeveloped when serious momentum for something closer to the vision occurs in the future.

Is it better than an empty field? It depends I suppose. It sucks but I'm not going to loose sleep over it.

[wierdaaron]

Maybe he couldn't get financing to do what he wanted?

[untitledreality]

Originally Posted by wierdaaron

Maybe he couldn't get financing to do what he wanted?

When the surrounding neighborhood is full of sub $100,000 properties, and the median family income is under $35,000/year, you should have foreseen trouble financing a massive mixed use development touting middle tier shopping, upscale condos, and marinas.

[ChiTownWonder]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

While it's nauseating, this clearly is a placeholder development. They aren't convinced there is a strong enough market to go for the dense mega development and they surely feel they've got to do something to start getting a return on their investment. I think we ALL knew the vision would be a couple decades away. These throwaway retail structures will be easily redeveloped when serious momentum for something closer to the vision occurs in the future.

Is it better than an empty field? It depends I suppose. It sucks but I'm not going to loose sleep over it.

exactly what i was thinking. it is relatively easy to tear down those structures and tear up those parking lots. bringing a bit of use to the land and making a name for it isn't bad for the time being while the visionary plans are finalized.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by wierdaaron

Maybe he couldn't get financing to do what he wanted?

^ Of course he couldn't get financing for that pie-in-the-sky concept. This is the far south side of Chicago, not Zurich, Switzerland. The south side is just a totally different animal. Just be happy to be able to get something off the ground unless you're around Hyde Park or Bronzeville.

[the urban politician]

I just saw a listing for a 2 flat for sale on 68th st for.....$3700.

Sorry, but just be happy if a Save A Lot gets built. Totally different universe than Wicker Park or Edgewater

[wierdaaron]

Not to say that the concept couldn't have worked down there. I just don't see why they'd even stoop to this level of suburban planned development parking lot when what they had in mind was something so much grander. Maybe this is to raise some dough to do something more real to the east.

[emathias]

The trouble is they still haven't addressed the transportation questions. To attract sufficient people who earn the kind of money needed to pay for that area, it's pretty much a requirement to have fast, regular transit service to the Loop. I mean, Metra Electric from 87th is 35 minutes, which seems decent until you realize it's going to take you 15 minutes from most of the site to get to the current station and 5-10 minutes on the other end to get to the office, so you're looking at an hour commute with lots of walking or transfers. And then the last train from downtown departs at 7:15pm after which you're looking at at least an hour on transit, again on top of whatever it takes to get to each station. That's just not going to cut it for most people when you're not in a town surrounded by farmland and near an expressway, but in an enclave surrounded by unstable neighborhoods at least a couple miles from the nearest expressway.

I mean, without transit being a solid part of the initial plans, even if not fully implemented, but well-considered, I don't see this becoming even as dense as the surrounding area, let alone as dense as the vision plans.

[wierdaaron]

This set of early early early maps of Chicago that just surfaced should be of interest to many here: http://www.hjbltd.com/VirtualCatalog/theogdenarchive/

More info: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/reale...aps-discovered

[UrbanLibertine]

So nauseous

[munchymunch]

http://www.stratachicago.com/

[ardecila]

Interesting, looks like they also shifted the location of the retail center... originally it was supposed to be inside the curve of LSD around 81st St. Now it's been shifted 6 blocks south to 87th. I'm sure they did this to bring the retail closer to Skyway offramps, since it's pretty clear that the shoppers will not be coming from the immediate surroundings.

Unfortunately the corner of LSD and 87th is also the closest section of the site to Metra service. Really, though, unless Metra gets its head out of its ass and upgrades Metra Electric to metro levels of service, the transit to Lakeside will have to be of the express bus variety.

On a different note, did anyone notice the Steelworkers Park that opened up at the end of 87th along the lake? I totally missed this. It's good to have some more public lake access this far south, even if the development isn't materializing yet. It gets people out to the site and starts to build demand. Looks like there will be a bouldering wall on the old ore pit (only the second public wall in the city!)

[nomarandlee]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

While it's nauseating, this clearly is a placeholder development. They aren't convinced there is a strong enough market to go for the dense mega development and they surely feel they've got to do something to start getting a return on their investment. I think we ALL knew the vision would be a couple decades away. These throwaway retail structures will be easily redeveloped when serious momentum for something closer to the vision occurs in the future.

Is it better than an empty field? It depends I suppose. It sucks but I'm not going to loose sleep over it.

I sense panic. Not completely unfounded panic but panic nonetheless. After the Olympics didn't come to fruition. After the Obama Library didn't come there way. After the Great Recession lingered on. After they realized that most people middle class people still wanted to build and live on the north side within 5 miles of the Loop and the speculative market 10 miles from downtown would be hard selling at best. They have opted to go very conservative to get a kick start. I think its definitely unfortunate for the the city and people who care for urban planning but its understandable from a market perspective. Still disturbing as hell as to see their new vision though.

[bcp]

That's all about streets and infrastructure. ..still nauseating. ...wow, awful.