Quote:
Originally Posted by Handro
Not really, Fulton Market was a meat packing district until it wasn't. River North was slum. Streeterville was a swamp. Logan Square was a farm.
The OPO is a once-a-generation transformation bringing thousands of office workers the neighborhood, plus the BMO tower currently under construction. Naturally, residential was going to follow. Until the past couple of years developers didn't have much reason to invest in residential in this area. A new, modest residential tower two blocks from the OPO and Clinton blue line stop is the simply the natural evolution of the neighborhood. In the next 5-10 another residential tower or two, some offices, some retail, etc. That's how neighborhoods change.
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The "southwest Loop" area is currently zoned DS (Downtown Service) which explicitly prohibits residential use. When Bond Companies tried to get the zoning changed to put residential at The Maxwell, DPD refused to support the zoning change... which is one of the few times Planning has gotten their way. (Of course, Solis was the alderman at the time so who knows what kind of shenanigans went on in the background.)
The long-standing planning goal for this area has been to preserve it for service businesses, and a secondary goal to establish a major regional retail district for big box stores. Both of these uses would get pushed out if the zoning opened up to allow highrise development. It may seem odd for the planning dept to advocate for less-intense uses, but planners have to consider the bigger picture. Keeping a pocket of DS zoning allowed important service businesses (package delivery, janitorial, auto services, eventually back-office development, etc) to have a place reserved for them close to downtown.
On the retail side, establishing a retail area here was a way to counter the food/retail deserts on the South and West Side and prevent "leakage" from city residents driving to the suburbs to shop. Roosevelt Road has been a black shopping district since the Maxwell Street days, but with the growth of the South Loop city planners saw a way to serve both the Black community with major national retailers, and the newly wealthy residents of downtown/downtown-adjacent areas.
If the city's policy towards Roosevelt Road/Southwest Loop has changed, I'm not aware of it... but we are in a new mayoral administration, so anything's possible. It's also possible that Golub could get slapped down the way Bond Companies was - even though, as a pretty big player, I would expect them to know better. Important to note that if/when it does open up, it will not be a "natural" transition but the result of centrally-planned changes to city planning policy. Fulton Market was not a "natural" evolution but the result of concerted efforts in both the public and private sectors, combined with significant changes in the zoning map and city policy.
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