CHICAGO | Highrise Projects & Construction, v7

[SoLoop]

Interesting bit of information from this Crain's article about the Fifty/50 Restaurant Group's planned projects:
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...double-revenue

What caught my eye was the following:

Beyond the high-profile Old Town project, Mohr and Weiner are readying other ventures. A fourth, supersized Roots Pizza will open in the South Loop next summer. The 11,000-square-foot, two-story restaurant will sit atop a 15-story luxury micro-apartment building going up at Dearborn and Polk streets.

I do not recall any news regarding that project recently, and the site remains vacant without any activity. I assume the article is not mistakenly referring to retail space in the under-construction single family home across Dearborn since that will cover only a single floor.

[jc5680]

Gr333n and stuff

[harryc]

June 28







June 29

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

The thing that kills the streetscape is blank first floors like all those precious midrises in the West Loop. No one is ever like "this building has a nice tower and a first floor full of retail, but I'm not going to walk by it because it has parking on floors 2-6". That just doesn't happen, and if you think it does, you are spending way too much time in the SSP echochamber.

Nobody's arguing in favor of blank first floors, but all the West Loop culprits you keep talking about are from before the recession, when city policy basically mandated 1:1 parking everywhere. Midrise buildings weren't economical to build without ground floor parking. Now that the requirements have been relaxed and the market has shifted in favor of rental, most new midrises have well-designed activated first floors with only a few condo-building exceptions like the Hayden.

[SolarWind]

July 2, 2018

[SolarWind]

July 2, 2018

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Nobody's arguing in favor of blank first floors, but all the West Loop culprits you keep talking about are from before the recession, when city policy basically mandated 1:1 parking everywhere. Midrise buildings weren't economical to build without ground floor parking. Now that the requirements have been relaxed and the market has shifted in favor of rental, most new midrises have well-designed activated first floors with only a few condo-building exceptions like the Hayden.

That's not true, Hayden is like that, Circa is like that, even the nice little lowrise across from MCD and Hayden has parking on the ground floor. Most of the nicer buildings are in the pipeline right now or planned, it's hard to credit unbuilt or under construction buildings with today's built environment. The majority of new midrises have been dirt, the good examples are the exception rather than the rule and are, as you say, a more recent phenomena mainly in the form of nice zero or low parking office buildings.

[Koodoo25]

July 2nd
Paragon

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

That's not true, Hayden is like that, Circa is like that, even the nice little lowrise across from MCD and Hayden has parking on the ground floor. Most of the nicer buildings are in the pipeline right now or planned, it's hard to credit unbuilt or under construction buildings with today's built environment. The majority of new midrises have been dirt, the good examples are the exception rather than the rule and are, as you say, a more recent phenomena mainly in the form of nice zero or low parking office buildings.

Yeah the office buildings and hotels are mostly great, residential's more of a mixed bag but the majority of the proposals and U/C are honestly office/commercial right now, not residential so I stand by my claim that the midrise boom is great for the urban fabric of West Loop.

Specifically for residential, though:

I'm fine with CA Washington. Some here don't like it but the materials are pretty handsome. The Aberdeen and Carpenter sides are lined with a series of individual lobbies, so it's only the Washington side that's blank. Hayden and Circa are pretty blah but okay, that's two. Hayden specifically is an exception because it was designed with two parking spaces for every unit, and zero one-bedroom or studio units. Plus, there's another Hayden coming down the pipeline! The developers have plans for a very similar building around the corner on May. Michigan Ave Real Estate Group is doing a lot in West Loop also, but everything they build is utter dogshit.

On the other hand, 900 W Washington and Illume are pretty good. The Madison is also a great midrise urbanistically despite having a more than 1:1 parking ratio. Union West and 845 W Madison will also be great if built as rendered.

I guess it depends on where you draw the line for midrise. I usually think about is purely relative to street width, so a midrise would be anything up to 2x the street width. The streets in West Loop are either 66' or 80' wide, and then Randolph is a monster at 150'. That would make the top end of a midrise at 11-14 stories depending on street width. Maybe set a floor for midrise too at four stories minimum so you rule out six-flats and such.

[harryc]

June 28







June 29

[BuildThemTaller]

Building Up Chicago posted that the Bentham got its permit for foundation and construction up to the 3rd floor. The Bentham is going to be a luxury 15-story mixed use development with 31 units, 3,000+ sf of retail, and 53 parking spaces. This is on the southeast corner of the block with the Marlowe and FLATS Chicago going up right now.

[west-town-brad]

went to the new Gibsons concept at River Point Tower last night... the location and views are pretty amazing. nothing else like it. go for a $10 beer and soak in the visual feast of skyscrapers and river activity.

[i_am_hydrogen]

Hopefully this bodes well for 130 North Franklin.

The [office] market is on fire'
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/reale...buildings-open

by Danny Ecker
The CNA Center at 151 N. Franklin opened its doors during the second quarter, one of two recently finished major downtown office buildings. - CoStar Group
Photo by CoStar Group The CNA Center at 151 N. Franklin opened its doors during the second quarter, one of two recently finished major downtown office buildings.

Demand for downtown office space was so strong in the second quarter that a massive, entirely empty new building opened and the vacancy rate barely moved.

Overall vacancy in the city's central business district was 13 percent halfway through the year, just slightly higher than the 12.9 percent rate at the end of the first quarter but down from 13.6 percent during the same period in 2017, according to data from CBRE.

It's an impressive feat, considering the two new office towers that opened over the past three months: The 800,000-square-foot CNA Center at 151 N. Franklin St. debuted with about half of the building leased. And the 20-story tower at 625 W. Adams St. was finished in April, but developers White Oak Realty and CA Office have yet to announce a tenant for the 432,000-square-foot building.

The deliveries of those two buildings would significantly boost the downtown vacancy rate but for tenants pushing hard to find office space. The strong economy and local job market has a lot to do with that, as well as the trend of companies moving from the suburbs to the city or increasing their space in the city to help recruit and retain young talent.

"From what I'm seeing, the market is on fire," said CBRE Executive Vice President Kyle Kamin. "I've never seen so much velocity in the marketplace."

[The Best Forumer]

Originally Posted by west-town-brad

went to the new Gibsons concept at River Point Tower last night... the location and views are pretty amazing. nothing else like it. go for a $10 beer and soak in the visual feast of skyscrapers and river activity.

I looked it up... very nice!

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by i_am_hydrogen

Hopefully this bodes well for 130 North Franklin.

The [office] market is on fire'
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/reale...buildings-open

by Danny Ecker
The CNA Center at 151 N. Franklin opened its doors during the second quarter, one of two recently finished major downtown office buildings. - CoStar Group
Photo by CoStar Group The CNA Center at 151 N. Franklin opened its doors during the second quarter, one of two recently finished major downtown office buildings.

Demand for downtown office space was so strong in the second quarter that a massive, entirely empty new building opened and the vacancy rate barely moved.

Overall vacancy in the city's central business district was 13 percent halfway through the year, just slightly higher than the 12.9 percent rate at the end of the first quarter but down from 13.6 percent during the same period in 2017, according to data from CBRE.

It's an impressive feat, considering the two new office towers that opened over the past three months: The 800,000-square-foot CNA Center at 151 N. Franklin St. debuted with about half of the building leased. And the 20-story tower at 625 W. Adams St. was finished in April, but developers White Oak Realty and CA Office have yet to announce a tenant for the 432,000-square-foot building.

The deliveries of those two buildings would significantly boost the downtown vacancy rate but for tenants pushing hard to find office space. The strong economy and local job market has a lot to do with that, as well as the trend of companies moving from the suburbs to the city or increasing their space in the city to help recruit and retain young talent.

"From what I'm seeing, the market is on fire," said CBRE Executive Vice President Kyle Kamin. "I've never seen so much velocity in the marketplace."

There are some big leases yet to be signed, the office market is holding up nicely.

[r18tdi]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

There are some big leases yet to be signed, the office market is holding up nicely.

Especially surprising considering all the spec projects in the West Loop.

[IrishIllini]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

There are some big leases yet to be signed

Tell me everything

[emathias]

Originally Posted by BuildThemTaller

Building Up Chicago posted that the Bentham got its permit for foundation and construction up to the 3rd floor. The Bentham is going to be a luxury 15-story mixed use development with 31 units, 3,000+ sf of retail, and 53 parking spaces. This is on the southeast corner of the block with the Marlowe and FLATS Chicago going up right now.

Just when I think we're approaching the end of construction within a block of me, another one gets going! At least at this point, after the Bentham, things will finally be done within a block of me until/unless existing buildings start being demolished. The two-block radius still has some candidates, though - the replacement for Carson's might reasonably start before the Bentham completes, and that proposal for the lot on the north side of Huron between Orleans and Franklin. And, of course, it's entirely possible for that surface lot on the south side of Chicago between Lasalle and Wells could always get going. But I think Fogo and the employee parking lot for Catholic Charities across from Fogo are both safe for now. I do kinda hope that the lot on the NW corner of Superior/Clark gets built out soon, too.

[SolarWind]

July 3, 2018

[SolarWind]

July 3, 2018