New Renders

Sorry in advance for the large images

https://sterlingbay.com/wp-content/u...rd-gallery.jpg

https://sterlingbay.com/wp-content/u...rd-gallery.jpg

https://sterlingbay.com/wp-content/u...rd-gallery.jpg

https://sterlingbay.com/wp-content/u...rd-gallery.jpg

https://sterlingbay.com/wp-content/u...rd-gallery.jpg

https://sterlingbay.com/wp-content/u...rd-gallery.jpg

https://sterlingbay.com/wp-content/u...rd-gallery.jpg

https://sterlingbay.com/wp-content/u...l_fb_01_5k.jpg

Link: https://sterlingbay.com/properties/t...lincoln-yards/

Wow looks amazing, now let's get digging!

1665 N Throop St has a permit that's pending, so that'll kick off the Steelyard

One thing that sticks out in the renders, the first image, is the water taxi. Since moving to NYC, I have come to appreciate the ferry system along the East River. It's both a fun and surprisingly useful way to get to Manhattan and Brooklyn from my neighborhood in Queens.

With the Lincoln Yards, the casino, the 78, and other developments along the branches, the water taxi system can help fill in some additional public transportation gaps. It's not a cure-all, obviously, but it helps. And it is fun.

that's a lot of office space

are they allowed to change course towards residential in the PD?

Yeah, I think if Chicago embraces the water taxi, it could really change the feel and identity of the city. Originally the public lakefront did this, and more recently the Riverwalk has been a huge change to the feel of downtown. If the North Branch riverfront really gets developed with commercial/residential/retail like this, I think this could be how many people remember and associate with Chicago.

100% agree with this. I'm really hoping once the next phase gets going, along with the casino, the city starts investing into the North Branch. There's so much potential here.

Also, maybe I'm being greedy, but I really hope we get a couple cool signature towers in this development. Not necessarily signature in terms of height (supertalls, etc), but signature in architectural style. Given how apart from downtown this development is, and it's visibility, I would hate to see a good opportunity squandered.

Sweet! I walked by the development recently and noticed the life sciences building still has some work left to be done. It was so crazy to stand there in front of the vast open land and try to imagine this all fully built out.

And an incredibly inefficient use of taxpayer dollars.

Fiscal year 2021 the East River Ferry subsidy, per rider, was $12.88.

Meanwhile subsidies for MTA subways were $1.05 per rider. MTA buses? $4.92 per rider.

Perhaps Chicago is doing a little better since the fare is higher and the service is minimal by comparison. Does anyone have metrics to share?

Chicago Water Taxi is a private company. (Operated by Wendella). It doesn’t actually receive taxpayer subsidies.

They pay the city to lease the docks, though sometimes the city will sponsor a new vessel purchase.

When Chicagoans discuss expanding the Water Taxi service, it’s about building new docks. Wendella ultimately decides whether it’s a desirable route or not.

https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/...Water-Taxi.pdf

Does the East River in NY freeze over for 2-3 months of the year?

Well, it's salt water, so.....

Yea, that's the point. Water taxi's in Chicago are more novelty than utile. A good thing but nothing that can be relied on on a yearly basis like in NYC. Just don't seeing it taking off much more than that.

Hover craft. They use them in Dnemark and the Netherlands. They can go right over the ice in winter. If there was a high speed hover craft flying down the Chicago river in January I'd be on it every day and I dont even work anywhere near the river.

Not technically in the Lincoln Yards PD, but directly across the street (not "several blocks north") and proposed by Sterling Bay:

I wonder if ridership could ever get to the point that year round service was needed. If so, maybe the city could invest in a few more river icebreakers (we have 1 or 2 currently, IIRC?) to keep the river channels navigable all year. Obviously this would be a big expense, so ridership would *really* need to surge on a significant level for that to happen.

Good catch on the location. Looking it up on maps, I would have confused it as being technically being part of the Yards project. Would be great if this and the other next phase can get off the ground by the end of the year.

Considering the water taxi isn't even running Mon-Thr currently (based on their website, at least) I'd say this is never going to happen unless the city starts to significantly subsidize the service.

The Shoreline Water Taxi runs every day, but it's pretty exclusively for tourist destinations and more expensive. https://shorelinewatertaxi.com/

that home depot parking lot needs to go....

but the building looks nice. Waiting to see the next building to rise up in that megadevelopment

Ha, I just rode by this today, funny tot see it pop up right away here. This is actually a pretty big building. Nice to see it almost finished so that hopefully the next building/phase can commence.

I can't imagine Home Depot will give up their busiest store in the city.

They might be willing to rebuild the store with rooftop parking like the South Loop store though, and redevelop some of the parking lots with retail or mixed use.

I have no problem with a standalone Home Depot. Something like the one in the South Loop would be good. The massive parking lot is just an eyesore and waste of space in an area that property values are gonna skyrocket in the coming years

Same, although it would be cool to have the LY riverwalk extend south and connect to the North Ave. bridge some day. That would be nice.

Which is exactly why Home Depot (assuming they own the land) is quietly probably planning for just that. Wait until the area goes crazy with value, then sell off the land and rebuild the store with a parking ramp integrated within the new neighborhood.

Home Depot is going to do a lot of business from contractors upgrading the luxury condos in Lincoln Yards.

that poor home depot gets picked on so much on these forums, but somehow none of the vacant lots, parking lots, auto dealers, or other large retailers in the same area get any mention....:shrug:

that best buy with the massive parking lot facing the street and all those shitty suburban strip mall land use in the clybourn corridor needs to meet the bulldozer.

Except for Costco...... Costco can stay.

Sterling Bay is proposing a 359 unit, 15 story, 168 foot building at 2031-2033 N Kingsbury St. Even though it's not the same PD as Lincoln Yards, posting here since it's immediately adjacent kinda like 2100 N Southport Ave.

App: https://chicago.legistar.com/Legisla...vanced&Search=

Nice. The area needs so much help for urbanity sake so this is awesome! Not TERRIBLY far from the Brown Line either. Can't wait to see what changes come on because of Lincoln Yards to the general area..

Lincoln Yards has many indications of becoming a secondary CBD, except for transit access. If the North Branch transitway gets developed, I was originally thinking a BRT route would be good enough. However, with megadevelopments along the river such as the casino, Halsted Point, Onni's adjacent parcel, NOMA, greater Lincoln Yards, and nearby West Loop developments, there's potential of: almost 20,000 units, almost 10 million sqft of office, and of course a late-night casino. At minimum this should be light-rail, possibly a light-metro like how the DLR was built for London's Canary Wharf.

Legitimate question, why doesn't Chicago pursue light rail? It's like the city thinks heavy rail or bust. light rail would be perfect for these mini corridors like lincoln yards, the 78, casino district, etc. It's far cheaper and would be quicker to develop, and is better than buses. LA does it well.

Could Chicago not improve its bus system by adding dedicated lanes and transit signal priority measures--from what I understand the parking meter deal is an issue when it comes to the dedicated lanes part of the package?

Seems like it would be far more cost effective to implement these measures than to build light rail--unfortunately you'd be asking a lot of the pig drivers who cruise the city's streets.

Not to get too far off topic but I just spent three weeks in Chicago shooting a new film and the behavior of drivers is abominable.

Anyway it would be great to see some robust transit oriented solutions planned for LY--has anyone seen details for the revamped Metra station/transit hub?

The mode is irrelevant. Light rail is cheaper than heavy rail, but we can't afford to do either. As a region we don't have a good source of matching funds for federal grants. We just cobble stuff together ad-hoc for each project, so we aren't set up to pursue any major transit expansions like LA or Denver.

Getting the local match for RPM took years of work before the state authorized a transit TIF, and that only covers 1/3 of the project (the other 2/3 are still just a wisp of smoke). Next they are trying to get a similar TIF set up for the Red Line Extension, but since Roseland/Pullman/Altgeld have very low property values, they are setting up the TIF in South Loop and Bridgeport/Bronzeville instead, and then sending the money 9 miles to the south.

You can see how this kind of f*ckery is not a great way to get lots of transit projects built. All these mid-tier transit expansions like the North Branch Transitway will also remain as wisps of smoke forever until our region gets serious about funding transit expansion. That will take a big push from the mayor and the governor. Biden's infrastructure bill is sorta helpful to Chicago, but the Feds always want to stretch their money as far as possible, so they will prioritize those cities and states that put up a big local match.

Very interesting that they are doubling down on this strategy of building just outside Lincoln Yards. I wonder why? Does the Lincoln Yards PD come with too many costly strings attached?

If that's the case, then what's the long term plan? Keep building midrises around Lincoln Yards until you generate demand, and then maybe SB can raise rents enough to build inside the PD itself? And what does that mean for the infrastructure buildout inside of Lincoln Yards? Is that just on hold indefinitely?

Also, this new building is a longboi. Reminds me of the Father and Son tower on North Ave with the one angled corner.

There have been various projects to pursue it - then they fell through.

Ha, the Father and Son tower was also the first thing I thought

Sterling Bay of course has projects all over the US, and all over Chicago. Likely comes down to who the client is for the project, of which SB might be the long term holder or not. I think LY is a long term hold for them, whereas this additional project right next door may not be. The zoning application you linked to shows 11 different owners/funds of this project so that might be your answer.

Another explanation that occurred to me is that 2100 N Southport will no longer be in the 2nd ward and will instead be in the 32nd. If Sterling Bay has several projects that will end up switching wards, they may be trying to approve as many projects as possible while Hopkins is their alderman.

You might onto something with that.

Ahhhh.... didn't consider the remap! Gotta get your votes from Brian Hopkins while you still can before NIMBY Waguespack takes over.

Sterling Bay plans big apartment building next to Lincoln Yards
 

Rendering of the building from Crains:

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...-lincoln-yards

https://s3-prod.chicagobusiness.com/...NKingsbury.jpg

I like the Kingsbury, build it.

Decent infill that looks like it could be found in Anycity, USA. Pretty tall of the area (right now, at lease).

I could see some NIMBY pushback result in a couple sacrificial floors get lopped off the top. I think a solid number of neighbors are eager to relitigate Lincoln Yards at every turn.

I assume SB is looking to take new "Connected Communities" TOD ordinance? I believe this is within .5 miles of the Clybourn Metra and the Armitage CTA stop.

As time goes on I'm more convinced that maybe the focus on architecture from a distance isn't what we should be going for. I feel the architecture should focus on the human experience at ground level.

I'm in Boston now, temporarily, and Boston certainly does not build signature towers but it does exceed at building for people who walk by.

I don’t think it’s anycity USA. This would by “high end design” for the mid sized cities under 1 Mil where 5 over 1’s are par for the course

I'm a little confused as to why you would criticize this as decent infill that could be built in any city. This isn't in the central business district. Until they build the skyscrapers of Lincoln Yards, it's significantly taller than anything surrounding it. This is a big development for the area.

there are maybe 5 cities in the US where you could see something like this. and 2 or maybe 3 where you would see this is a residential neighborhood far from the CBD.

I think this thing is on par with the nicer multifamily work in places like Atlanta, Nashville, Salt Lake, Twin Cities, Arlington VA, etc. as well as sunbelt cities throughout Texas, Arizona, and Florida.

Boston's success at ground level is mostly about putting parking underground, so there is more active frontage, fewer blank walls. And they have a higher design standard for sidewalks around new development - granite curbs (which are standard in New England), brick pavers, proper landscape.

In Chicago, underground parking is almost never done. The only recent one I can think of is One Chicago, but that also has significant parking above ground. Or we have the multi-level streets hack in certain areas, which effectively puts the parking underground but at a lower cost.