So is this basically the last step before someone steps in to actually re-develop the land west of the Brown Line tracks (ie, Cabrini)? Hopefully all at once so they can fix the street grid too.

The land along Orleans is privately owned and can be redeveloped.

The CHA is on their own timeline for redevelopment (and they won't tell anyone what that is). More infill around Cabrini will not make them move any faster. But yes, theoretically they will rebuild the street grid:
https://www.chicagoarchitecture.org/...ns/page-23-10/

Basically CHA is expecting private developers to do all the work of not only building but financing any new construction, and the whole area is covered by a court-ordered consent decree so building purely market rate is not an option. That means developers are stuck turning to limited funding source like LIHTC that are massively oversubscribed. There's just no resources to subsidize low-income housing.

^ Do micro units count? Can they get zoning to add additional market rate units on top? Can they build the affordable housing elsewhere?

"Affordable Housing" has such a negative connotation in some circles - let's just call it servants quarters.

Ouch...

Priced right, it could be student housing, and/or housing for workers who aren't in careers that start out paying will, but who still want to live in the thick of things. It doesn't have to be "servants."

The city and the CHA are obligated to provide 1800 public housing units between North, Orleans, Halsted, Chicago, and any new developments on CHA land must contain between 33-40% public housing. The units may not be substantially different from the market rate units, so no micro units and no off site.

Oh, and the kicker - 50% of the developer fee that is supposed to compensate the developers for their efforts must instead go to the Cabrini Green Local Advisory Council, who use the money as a slush fund for personal expenses. https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/7/...e-carol-steele

Well, those requirements don't apply to developments outside of CHA land. So there have been several market-rate projects in the Cabrini area on privately-owned land (Xavier, Basecamp townhomes, SL by Belgravia, stuff along Larrabee). The only requirement they faced was a 20% affordable requirement instead of the 10% ARO that applied elsewhere in the city. No public housing requirements for those, although CHA can and has purchased/rented a few units in those buildings at market rate to house their tenants. But now the 20% affordable has been formalized into the ARO citywide, so there is effectively no difference between the Cabrini area and the rest of the city assuming your site is privately-owned.

The gas station at Division/Halsted is on private land so they could have easily done housing or mixed use there, they just didn't want to. The zoning is B3-5 which would have allowed some pretty dense housing.

The requirements here are super complicated and honestly make my head spin sometimes. That said, the CHA land is horrifically screwed up by the consent decree which is basically tailor-made to ensure that the land doesn't get redeveloped.

they seem to be pounding out another new building of decent size every year or so on the CHA land

102 units nearing completion now: https://chicagoyimby.com/2021/03/con...orth-side.html

recent article on the topic of CHA and TIF usage: https://www.bettergov.org/news/city-...ransformation/

^ Holsten is still churning away on the ParkSide development that was started 15 years ago and it's still not done. I'm not sure how the dude makes it work but it seems like he is the only developer willing to put up with all the BS.

Officially the Cabrini redevelopment (including all 1800 public housing units) was supposed to be done by 2022... I'm gonna put $10 down that that won't happen...

Saw soil testing in progress in the parking lot at 920 N Wells this morning

JDL kicking *** and taking names :worship:

Is there a rendering of the building going up at 920 N Wells yet?

^ Thanks!

That presentation and rendering is old. Page 33 of this presentation has a more recent rendering: https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/...2421_final.pdf

920 N Wells looks like the original design for 640 N Wells that I always wanted

Looks like 205 W Oak got a haircut, now at 475'. Lost a 500 footer with the newer site plan. But the two taller towers got 10 stories added to each, bumping them up to 620' and 695'. I'll take that trade.

I didn't realize JDL also did 640 N Wells which is one of my favorite shorter towers to go up recently. I already like 920 N Wells and think it could turn out similarly well.

JDL purchased their first batch of land for this. The first building I'd scheduled to break ground in March

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...ible-site?s=09

I'm loving this extra *moody* rendering from the Crain's story...

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

So the first building will be 920 N. Wells

https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/ng/ser...126615/enhance

https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/ng/ser...126612/enhance