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.