April 21, 2016

^ready to go.

WAIT THIS IS ON SITE PREP?! sorry i must have missed something, what is the site prep for? an actual building or just site layout

^ I believe Curbed had an article not too long ago that work on one of the buildings (30 stories) on the site was imminent

Mar 31








April 7


April 21


A few hours after SolarWinds's set, and Lindahl is pulling out

What's the permit situation down there? Marothisu?

Not sure. Can't find anything pending for 600-700 S Wells or 201-251 W Harrison. I remember One Bennett Park though and I couldn't find anything on there then they all of a sudden got a permit. Something like that could happen where in a few weeks they could all of a sudden have some permits .

Window wall has been awarded.

it's insane that's still vacant. Look at the location. It's ridiculous

I'm excited that something is finally going up, well maybe not so excited we're essentially getting a little village of glass blue boxes, but at least the site no longer remains vacant. Will be interesting to see how close they stick to the current plans. Fingers crossed for height increases.

There's tons of vacant land in and around downtown Chicago. That's one of the reasons our city is so affordable compared to coastal cities. There's just this enormous band of post-industrial and railyard land surrounding the Loop.

This particular site is on the (smelly) South Branch, with no lake views and it's not within easy walking distance of dining, entertainment or transit.

The reason this site is getting developed now is A) the South Loop north of Roosevelt is getting filled up, and B) various park and riverwalk investments have caused Chicagoans to re-evaluate the way they see the River.

Bertrand Goldberg saw potential here back in the 70s, but the market did not agree with him. We'll have to see if well-heeled renters are willing to live in this location (the strong leasing at the AMLI projects indicates yes).

The whole city of Chicago is not downtown, and while there's vacant land available - a big majority of it is in South Loop. There's some in River North obviously but it's not as much as you think especially versus South Loop. This isn't the reason why real estate is cheaper here than say NYC - at least not the full reason.

It's not my favorite area of town, not do I think it's completely amazing with walkability but I have 3 friends who live extremely close to this site and you are not correct. It's not teeming with entertainment or dining, but there's definitely that stuff around there within walking distance not to mention there's multiple train stops near there within walking distance - LaSalle Blue Line, LaSalle Street Metra, and the Harrison Street red line stop and also bus lines right nearby.

Are you sure you actually know where this site is? Within walking distance to there is Sociale, Cafe Press, Blackie's, Villain's, First Draft, Sofi, Flaco's, Pat's, Hackney's, Bar Louie, Amarit Thai, Meli Cafe, etc and over a block or two more near State or Wabash are things like Jazz Showcase, Buddy Guy's, Spanglish, Epic Burger, Lou Malnati's, etc.

A little village of glass blue boxes? Is that really your assessment of the proposed architecture we've seen of this project?

except i doubt you would have wanted to live in this general area 20 years ago either given the other affordable, more attractive choices available. and honestly its still far from my favorite place to spend time...even most of the new developments down there leave a lot to be desired IMO and come off frankly as cold and impersonal. but ive always preferred established leafy human scaled neighborhoods to post-industrial boomtown highrise neighborhoods (i feel the same way about LSE), so your mileage may vary.

I really would like to an effort to develop some of these large parcels in the form of traditional neighborhoods rather than "planned communities"

It's not that far from Printers Row, there's some dining in Roosevelt Collection, theatres there, it will draw in more just by virtue of the population it brings.

The furthest part of the site is less than a 10 minute walk from the Lasalle subway station on the Blue Line or the Harrison stop on the Red Line subway, and maybe an 11 minute walk from the Lasalle/VanBuren loop station. The north end of the site is less than a 5 minute walk from the Blue Line, and 5-6 minute walks to the Loop or Harrison/Red. While I agree it doesn't "feel" close to transit, it's actually not badly served. I mean, sure, if I were King, the Orange Line would come north over the Metra tracks and then cut over to Wells just south of Congress to join the Loop at Wells/VanBuren, with stations at Polk, stretching south from Roosevelt, and at 15th, with 15th re-opened as a public through street through Dearborn Park 2. But even without that, there is rail transit nearby and for most of the site it's only a 5 minute walk to some or all of the 22/Clark, 36/Broadway and 24/Wentworth buses. And if they do make a Polk bridge, the 156, 157 and 125 buses won't be far, either.

I agree. I actually with the City would have just bought the land, plotted it, added utilities in the street robust enough for the zoning and sold off the plots that way, with "walkable streets" design requirements. It'd probably be a much more interesting area in 20 years if they'd done that.

I'm not sure what you're asking. Are you implying that blue glass is not the visually dominating exterior material of these buildings? I'm getting the feeling you're someone that really likes glass boxes and you're looking to silence any dissent on them...

This really needs to happen with the 62 acre site to the south that Related now owns. I'm a bit scared to see what Related plans to do with it now...

^ As with most industries out there, Government hates small business. They are difficult to control. It's more convenient to deal with one large player.

This applies to real estate as well. But I agree, and I find it odd that not one person anywhere in Chicago appears to have ever advocated this approach for a large, undeveloped parcel of land.

Grading and building streets and laying utilities isn't free. It costs millions, maybe hundreds of millions for a large site, and all government work is subject to bidding and contracting rules (community hiring, MBE/DBE, prevailing wage) that drive up cost.

Much easier and overall cheaper to let developers plat things on their own and handle street/utility construction according to a common set of city design standards.

Yeah, Roosevelt Collection is sort of a game-changer. Without that, I doubt many people will walk across the river to shopping over there that isn't really pedestrian-oriented anyway.

Still, though, you don't really have the kind of "scene" that you get in River North, Gold Coast, Old Town, Wicker Park, Lakeview, the South Michigan corridor, or West Loop. It just feels very sleepy and disconnected at the Riverline site, the Metra viaduct and Dearborn Park are giant walls severing it from the bulk of South Loop. But yeah, perception and reality are not always the same thing. Hopefully a few strategic shopping and dining options at Riverline will help activate Wells Street.