CHICAGOLAND | Urban Development in the Burbs

[r18tdi]

Urbanize has fresh renderings of Optima's new Wilmette project:

https://chicago.urbanize.city/post/o...easing-gallery

More buildings like this please:

[Tom In Chicago]

Originally Posted by sentinel

Might be my bad, I drove by and saw work, but perhaps 'extensive' was not the best descriptor

Basically, there is ongoing site work.

Well you're right. . . those excavators are clearing the site. . .

. . .

[Randomguy34]

Kenosha's downtown redevelopment got approved. It'll be weird seeing 20 story highrises that far north of Chicago. Ha, maybe in 100 years there'll be a string of highrises connecting the Chicago and Milwaukee skylines

Split into multiple blocks of development and built in phases, the completed project calls for 1,080 residential units, over 70,000 square feet of retail space including a grocer, 423,000 square feet of office space, over 1,100 vehicle parking spaces, and a 200-key hotel. While all the designs are placeholders, the tallest tower within the renderings is shown rising nearly 20 stories in height and becoming the city’s tallest.

https://chicagoyimby.com/2023/06/sit...velopment.html

[Tom In Chicago]

Originally Posted by Randomguy34

Kenosha's downtown redevelopment got approved.

https://chicagoyimby.com/2023/06/sit...velopment.html

This is good news. . .

. . .

[glowrock]

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

This is good news. . .

. . .

No doubt! Very good news!

[Steely Dan]

damn, that would really be something for little old kenosha!


and for those curious about the context, here's the current sad state of affairs of the land in question:

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.5876...!1e3?entry=ttu



let's hope this happens!

[Tom In Chicago]

Something is happening out here in Oak Brook. . .

. . .

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

Something is happening out here in Oak Brook. . .

. . .

Told ya!

[Tom In Chicago]

^yep. . . I acknowledged that back on the 22nd. . . there was no caisson drilling rig back then. . . this is much more than pushing dirt around. . . this is a weird development. . .

. . .

[KOgc]

The developers of Northbrook Court are having a meeting tomorrow and then again next Tuesday to discuss what they're planning for the property. Does anyone here know what they're planning already?

[ardecila]

A 5+1 apartment building, or several. That is the go-to move for declining shopping malls these days. Yorktown in Lombard has a few already, so does Fox Valley Mall in Aurora and Hawthorne in Vernon Hills. Old Orchard is planning a big one and the one for Northbrook Court will be even larger with as many as 2,000 apartments. That's almost as many as Lincoln Yards in the city...

[Randomguy34]

Redevelopment plans for downtown Gary. The plan though also includes demolishing some nice looking nearby buildings, such as the old Gary Theater


https://www.nwitimes.com/business/re...087a868ee.html

[ardecila]

The old facade on the Gary Theater is long gone. The current facade is somewhat interesting as a kind of Afrocentric Modernism like the Ebony/Jet Building in Chicago.

I'm glad to see this kind of proper TOD development getting a serious look in satellite cities like Michigan City, Gary, Kenosha. However these places have notoriously depressed real estate markets, so they seem kinda like a pipe dream to me. All 3 of them are on top of previous urban renewal schemes that failed to make a difference. TOD seems to have become the new "silver bullet" strategy for failing cities.

[gandalf612]

Originally Posted by ardecila

I'm glad to see this kind of proper TOD development getting a serious look in satellite cities like Michigan City, Gary, Kenosha. However these places have notoriously depressed real estate markets, so they seem kinda like a pipe dream to me. All 3 of them are on top of previous urban renewal schemes that failed to make a difference. TOD seems to have become the new "silver bullet" strategy for failing cities.

Yeah I could see it working in really expensive cities like Boston or SF, but Chicago is cheap enough where people who want to live near transit for commuting can just do so in the city and not 30 miles out

[Steely Dan]

^ I don't think the real issue is distance.

Downtown Arlington Heights is 23 miles out from the loop, and downtown Gary is 24 miles out from the loop.

TOD has certainly worked in Arlington Heights.

Gary obviously has much bigger structural issues that go FAR beyond its distance from downtown.

[Tom In Chicago]

The Jahn designed Pritzker Archives and Memorial Park Center up in Kenosha is nearing completion. . . and looking very nice, if I do say so. . .

When this thing is done I'm going to go up and take a lot more photos. . . I can't overstate how cool this building is, actually. . .

. . .

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^ I don't think the real issue is distance.

Downtown Arlington Heights is 23 miles out from the loop, and downtown Gary is 24 miles out from the loop.

TOD has certainly worked in Arlington Heights.

Gary obviously has much bigger structural issues that go FAR beyond its distance from downtown.

Arlington Heights is a dining/entertainment destination for a big swath of wealthy suburbia. Based on those lifestyle amenities, it was able to start growing a downtown residential population - which anecdotally is mostly empty nesters who wanted to sell the big house and backyard.

Gary and Kenosha both suffer from the same problem (at different scales obviously) which is that anybody with money in the area wants to live a suburban lifestyle dream in Crown Point or Pleasant Prairie respectively, and anybody who wants an urban lifestyle can easily just move to Chicago. Which speaks to the "bigger structural issues" you're talking about. Those places have real problems but also suffer from a profound hatred by their white-flight neighbors.

[bhawk66]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Arlington Heights is a dining/entertainment destination for a big swath of wealthy suburbia. Based on those lifestyle amenities, it was able to start growing a downtown residential population - which anecdotally is mostly empty nesters who wanted to sell the big house and backyard.

I grew up in the area. "Wealthy suburbia" have plenty of places to go to besides AH. It has a nice RTA station and "had" a race track. You could go in and out of AH twice and be done with it.

[Randomguy34]

294 units proposed for 5400 Old Orchard Road. Skokie has been on fire in terms of new developments. Would have been real nice if the Yellow Line extension was approved


https://www.chicagotribune.com/subur...laa-story.html

[sentinel]

Jahn posted pictures of the completed Pritzker military museum in Kenosha, and it looks fantastic:






https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jahn_...member_desktop