CHICAGO | General Developments

[k1052]

Belmont has had vacancy issues from Halsted to Sheffield basically as long as I can remember. Adding residents and subtracting retail footage might actually help. At least what they are putting in is divisible so that they don't have to find a single tenant who will take all 10k feet.

[Jibba]

Originally Posted by ardecila

The site plan is pretty typical for a Chicago condo. Front door on Wayne, the two BK curb cuts will be closed off and the garage doors accessed from the public alley. Actually with the ground floor residential, the whole Wayne frontage and half the frontage on Irving Park is lined with "real" windows.

Unfortunately you will see the garage doors from Irving Park and Clark because the senior housing site plan is so open, but there's nothing the developers can do about that.

Yeah, never mind — one of the elevations I saw had me confused; thought the garage door was fronting Irving (not sure that would even make code).

[Zapatan]

Is the Tribune Tower renovation finished? I wonder how sales are doing.

[gandalf612]

Originally Posted by dewbs

https://chicagoyimby.com/2024/03/fur...lake-view.html

they're cutting the retail space by half: "will replace a pair of existing two-story commercial buildings with 18,960 square feet of retail space...The new ground floor will hold approximately 9,900 square feet of retail space instead."

So more housing density -- "210 residential units [!!] made up of 90 studios, 43 junior one-bedrooms, 58 one-bedrooms, and 19 two-bedroom layouts" -- but also much less retail.

Housing can go either on main streets like Belmont or on side streets, but retail is only allowed on the main streets. The end result is that developments like this kind of inevitably push out organic retail. Would be nice to have the Jane Jacobs-style retail around the corner off the main streets to allow for more variety.

Chicago has tons of empty retail space so this is IMO a good thing. In general the US has a ton more retail square footage than Europe but I doubt anyone would accuse European retail streets of not being vibrant.

[dewbs]

Originally Posted by gandalf612

Chicago has tons of empty retail space so this is IMO a good thing. In general the US has a ton more retail square footage than Europe but I doubt anyone would accuse European retail streets of not being vibrant.

It's not 100% clear from the plans, but at least some of the square footage reduction is coming from parking going back there, which is probably not how it would go in Europe. At least part of the reduction is from a residential lobby.

And the point here is that this retail space wasn't empty. Sure, put in residential where the retail is empty.

[Toasty Joe]

I still can't help but feel frustrated by the 925 W Belmont proposal, mostly a combination of the following:
- the fact they could build a tastefully slim tower on the parking lot behind the existing structure, which isn't an architectural gem but still adds character to a busy retail street
- the soulless replacement... if you're going to knock down something near our 2nd busiest CTA stop (outside of downtown), at least put up something interesting or taller or both! Seeing NYC, London, Tokyo, etc address neighborhood mid- and high-rise infill with more thoughtful designs leaves me wanting more for our city.
- there's been an uptick in demolitions of perfectly fine ~1880s buildings around this area, despite a bunch of vacant lots or more reasonable teardowns
- the handful of planned megadevelopments that haven't found steam yet and sit vacant while the city overall seems to be in a high-rise lull
- I often pass a bunch of vacant & parking lots near transit in Wicker, Bucktown, LP, Logan, Old Town, and Lakeview that could use the investment without anything to knock down


I want Lakeview to be more urban, but developers have made a ton of questionable decisions there lately, like knocking down the beautiful Fifth Thirds bank building for a bland low-rise grocery store, or the missed opportunity with the Target. This feels like another example we'll look at in 10+ years as a missed opportunity, but I'd love to be proven wrong.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by Toasty Joe

I still can't help but feel frustrated by the 925 W Belmont proposal, mostly a combination of the following:
- the fact they could build a tastefully slim tower on the parking lot behind the existing structure, which isn't an architectural gem but still adds character to a busy retail street
- the soulless replacement... if you're going to knock down something near our 2nd busiest CTA stop (outside of downtown), at least put up something interesting or taller or both! Seeing NYC, London, Tokyo, etc address neighborhood mid- and high-rise infill with more thoughtful designs leaves me wanting more for our city.
- there's been an uptick in demolitions of perfectly fine ~1880s buildings around this area, despite a bunch of vacant lots or more reasonable teardowns
- the handful of planned megadevelopments that haven't found steam yet and sit vacant while the city overall seems to be in a high-rise lull
- I often pass a bunch of vacant & parking lots near transit in Wicker, Bucktown, LP, Logan, Old Town, and Lakeview that could use the investment without anything to knock down


I want Lakeview to be more urban, but developers have made a ton of questionable decisions there lately, like knocking down the beautiful Fifth Thirds bank building for a bland low-rise grocery store, or the missed opportunity with the Target. This feels like another example we'll look at in 10+ years as a missed opportunity, but I'd love to be proven wrong.

Agreed.

And as I have pointed out, it's not like there is a swath of dead retail space here. Most of the spaces on this block are full of active businesses/retail/food.

[SolarWind]

April 1, 2024

[Toasty Joe]

doesn't look like this rain affected their pour schedule too much

[BVictor1]

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...moving-forward

Johnson to greenlight four Loop office-to-residential conversions
By Danny Ecker

Four projects that would use massive taxpayer subsidies to help turn outmoded office buildings on and near LaSalle Street into nearly 1,100 apartments are poised to move a key step closer to reality.

Mayor Brandon Johnson is expected to announce tomorrow that the city will move forward with negotiations for proposed office-to-residential conversions of properties at 111 W. Monroe St., 208 S. LaSalle St., 30 N. LaSalle St. and 79 W. Monroe St., according to people familiar with the plan.

Sources familiar with the LaSalle Street initiative said the Johnson administration continues to work with other development teams seeking city financing for office-to-residential conversions, but that the four projects were chosen to move forward now with a formal city review process.

A budget document obtained by Crain's shows the LaSalle Central TIF is projected to bring in over $175 million in 2024, rising to $203 million in 2030, the year the district is set to expire. That annual amount would likely allow the city to both fund LaSalle Street projects — which get paid in increments as developers meet major milestones — and still have surplus money from the LaSalle Central TIF to pay down future deficits.

Three of the four projects slated to move ahead — those at 111 W. Monroe St., 208 S. LaSalle St. and 30 N. LaSalle St. — were part of Lightfoot's shortlist.

[BrickellBased]

Not very tall - but this is a large project. The building has such a huge footprint. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this affects the neighborhood.

Originally Posted by SolarWind

April 1, 2024

[Toasty Joe]

There's been some activity lately at the iconic St. Paul’s Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church on North Ave in Wicker Park. I'd noticed the roof on the spire had started deteriorating for the past few years and couldn't be more excited it's being fixed up. Any news on redevelopment plans?

Preservation Chicago has an article from 2 years ago saying they were looking for a buyer after 2 failed residential conversion attempts in 2017 and 2019.

[Via Chicago]

just because theres scaffolding dosent mean its being fixed, could just be a safety thing. see St Adalbert which has had massive scaffolding for years now with no active redevelopment plan. in this case it has code violations and dosent seem to have any new permits pulled

[dreamy-developer]

Not sure if this belongs here, but thought I'd share this news from Brandon Johnson's admin his plan dubbed "Cut the tape" to fast track development in Chicago.

Fast-tracking Chicago’s housing, commercial development

Key Highlights in the article about helping fast track development:

Policy: Initiate expedited reviews for affordable housing projects
Zoning: Adopt transformational zoning changes, including eliminating minimum parking requirements, streamlining special-use permits and more
Boards & Commissions: Evaluate the feasibility of streamlining the Community Development Commission and Chicago Plan Commission
Design & Construction: Streamline the Department of Housing’s Architectural and Technical Standards manual
Design: Reduce the number of internal design review meetings in the Department of Planning and Development from three to one; reassess the role of the Committee on Design
Environmental Review: Eliminate Phase 1 & 2 environmental reviews as a requirement for the sale for environmentally cleared city-owned parcels
Finance: Expand the pilot for cash advance payment options
Finance: Create an online “city wallet” account to improve options for customer billing, online payments and debt check
Procurement: Evaluate the feasibility of reducing the administrative burden of the city’s Economic Disclosure Statement

Really hope that a majority of this is passed through the City.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

just because theres scaffolding dosent mean its being fixed, could just be a safety thing. see St Adalbert which has had massive scaffolding for years now with no active redevelopment plan. in this case it has code violations and dosent seem to have any new permits pulled

Adalbert is very much alive:



Spot the mason in the bell tower working on stabilizing it. They are putting serious money into the structure of this building which is a relief. You can also see the new balconies they are adding.

[LouisVanDerWright]

In other preservation news, they are trying to raze a whole district of historic loft buildings designed by Alfred Alschuler in North Lawndale. These buildings were occupied as recently as last Fall and have been cleared out so they can be razed and replaced by a diesel exhaust belching microplastics distribution center for Amazon. To make matters worse, they are straight up Hilcoing it, blasting out the old factory windows with hammers to "abate asbestos glazing" as if launching glazing chunks and glass all over the place with hammers and no canopy is abatement of anything:















Everything you see here is coming down in about 30 days if the Alderman doesn't pull the demo permit. The alderman is Mile Rodriguez, call his office and let him know this is a travesty. This district was featured on Preservation Chicagos Chicago 7 this year so now it seems IDI Development is attempting to rip it down as quickly as possible before the public can chime in.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Adalbert is very much alive

That's St. Boniface. Adalbert is in Pilsen / white terracotta cladding falling down. The building is falling apart while Byron Sigcho and the archdiocese dick around with each other.

The Landmarks Commission voted to landmark it, but it still hasn't even been introduced at City Council. There have been proposals to turn it into a music academy and an event venue, but no smart developer is gonna sign a purchase contract with so much uncertainty hanging over it all.

Turns out it's insanely hard to repurpose a gigantic ornate cathedral in a profitable way, especially when the alderman keeps letting the community dictate terms. At least with St Boniface the community was pretty open-minded about different reuse schemes, they just needed to find a developer who could make it pencil.

Back in Pilsen, Sigcho is also trying to expand the industrial corridor TIF to cover the whole neighborhood and he's already making plans to use it as his personal slush fund to dole out to homeowners and businesses. The funniest possible situation is that the city buys St Adalbert with TIF money, and still lets people worship there so we get a city-owned Catholic church. It was my grandma's parish church growing up so I'd love for it to be saved but this whole situation is such a clownshow it's ridiculous.

[Randomguy34]

50 unit building proposed for 1440 W Fillmore, continuing the midrise mini-boom we're having

https://chicago.urbanize.city/post/z...440-w-fillmore

[intrepidDesign]

Preservationists are seeking an eleventh-hour reprieve for a historic 152-year-old River North building facing imminent demolition...


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/hi...b94d412d&ei=31

WTF, how can they tear this down? This building is awesome! What a waste. Who do I email!!

[mh777]

Originally Posted by intrepidDesign

Preservationists are seeking an eleventh-hour reprieve for a historic 152-year-old River North building facing imminent demolition...


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/hi...b94d412d&ei=31

WTF, how can they tear this down? This building is awesome! What a waste. Who do I email!!

The new one will be just as awesome!

https://blockclubchicago.org/2022/08...ng-to-chicago/