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https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...900F38D22E2508

May 05, 2020 06:27 AM UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Developers detail plans for Michael Reese site
The proposed first phase of a larger $6 billion megaproject would include 1 million square feet of new buildings and a park along 31st Street.

DANNY ECKER

The former Michael Reese Hospital site would be redeveloped over the next five years with 1 million square feet of new buildings and a park along 31st Street under a bold plan unveiled for the sprawling Bronzeville property.

That's the proposed first phase of a larger $6 billion megaproject a group of developers is pursuing for the city-owned property just south of McCormick Place. Presenting details of the vision during a virtual town hall to create a 15 million-square-foot mixed-use campus with an emphasis on the life sciences industry, the group led by Chicago-based Farpoint Development said it's aiming to introduce its plan to City Council this month with a goal of breaking ground on the first buildings by the third quarter of 2021.

Infrastructure projects such as the Metra station and an entirely new street grid for what is a mostly vacant site today would cost an estimated $175 million for the project's first phase, according to the developers.

The proposal GRIT will submit to the Chicago Plan Commission includes about 8.2 million square feet of development and 8.8 acres of open space, roughly half of which would come from the 31st Street park and another one along 29th Street.

A separate plan for a development site east of the Metra tracks on truck marshaling yards used by McCormick Place would feature another four acres of open space and 5.5 million square feet of buildings, including apartment towers rising as high as 800 feet, according to the GRIT presentation. That phase wouldn't begin until 2028.