CHICAGO | General Developments

[LouisVanDerWright]

^^^ It's not leased until the ink is dry, surely as someone involved in the office market you know that.

Originally Posted by joeg1985

Not to belabor this but this isn't totally correct. The Pols and Czechs didn't leave necessarily because they were priced out of the hood by poor immigrants, they left because they were racist and didn't like the Hispanics moving into their hood. I know this for a fact because the 86 year old sister of my grandmother who used to live in Pilsen and now lives in Burbank told me so with her own mouth. The Hispanics being pushed out by hipsters is an economic thing. One is not like the other.

Also, buying a place doesn't mean that you won't be pushed out. People live in a hood like Boystown because they want to be around other gay people. If all those other gays have left and been replaced with straight Cubs fans or whatever, then you no longer live in the same hood. Even though your location has not changed. So buying a place in and of itself does not guarantee that you won't feel pushed out of your hood.

And it's not at all racist to resist gentrification because "it changes the fabric of our neighborhood"? That's just code for "we don't like that white hipsters are moving here". Any statement that revolves around race inherently has racist overtones. One can't say "I want my community to stay intact" if your entire community is a single race and not be racist. That's basically saying "if you aren't like us, you are not allowed".

I just find comments like the second paragraph of your post disturbing. Do we really think that "Lakeview is for the gays" and that it should stay that way forever? For a set of voices that is demanding more diverse incomes in our neighborhoods, the anti-gentrification crowd seems to have a huge problem with more diverse sexual orientations, races, religious backgrounds, etc. And yes, when a white yuppie moves into a majority gay neighborhood, that neighborhood becomes more diverse. When a white hipster moves into a neighborhood that is 98% hispanic, that area becomes more diverse.

Also the whole "I don't like the new neighbors" reason for moving is nothing new in Chicago nor is specifically linked to skin color. It's just a part of the lifecycle of cities. Just look at how the Germans and Irish pushed the Protestant old guard of Chicago progressively further north and away from the city center throughout the 1800's. This is what happens when new immigrant groups arrive and it's not about old Polish people being racist, it's about everyone being "racist" and preferring to live near people with the same background as them. The one group that is the clear exception to this normal immigration and assimilation process is African Americans, but that's a whole 'nother wall of text that we shouldn't even get into.

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by SamInTheLoop

Do they take Millennials for absolute morons? What draws them to the lofty warehouse into office reuse spaces in not insignificant part is the authenticity, the character, the history, etc.......Sterling Bay and its architect are simply flat-out mocking them here with this awful design choice...............

Millenials arent driving these decisions. This is about as corporate boardroom as it gets. If you get a job at Google or SRAM, I suspect the surroundings are mostly secondary. And neither could exactly be called a startup at this stage.

That aside, I agree that this re-development was a massive disappointment aesthetically given the potential.

[wierdaaron]

Before people get too excited about the CMK land grab, the Crains article says they bought 1.9 acres north of River City, but that whole vacant grassy lot north of River City is way more than 1.9 acres.

The full lot is way over 8 acres:



Whereas a 1.9 acre purchase would look more like this:



So unless Crains got the number wrong, and given the low buy price ($10.5 million) I don't think they did, CMK only got a sliver of that juicy Polk-Harrison-River land. I'm not even sure if it's enough land for much of a building.

[Ned.B]

Originally Posted by harryc

Hope somebody salvages the terracotta .

The building has already been gone for a few weeks now. I wasn't there during demolition to know if anything was saved.

It's inaccurate to say that the project replaces a vacant Ace Hardware. The Hardware store was still open and running last year. If anything bugs me about this project, it's that it replaced a functioning retail store (which are already too rare in Buena Park) with parking behind a blank wall.

Interesting design or not, this is essentially a contemporary 4+1, and doesn't belong on Broadway.

[munchymunch]

Originally Posted by wierdaaron

Before people get too excited about the CMK land grab, the Crains article says they bought 1.9 acres north of River City, but that whole vacant grassy lot north of River City is way more than 1.9 acres.

The full lot is way over 8 acres:



Whereas a 1.9 acre purchase would look more like this:



So unless Crains got the number wrong, and given the low buy price ($10.5 million) I don't think they did, CMK only got a sliver of that juicy Polk-Harrison-River land. I'm not even sure if it's enough land for much of a building.

At the bottom of the new article it says they are negotiating for that land.

[wierdaaron]

I bet if you carefully examine squatter's rights laws, that land is technically owned by the cast of Divergent.

[Chi-Sky21]

I am thoroughly confused now, are we talking about the land north or the land south of River City for this new CMK development? Both have been referenced in the last few posts.

[gallo]

Smaller infill development near Clark/Cornelia by Studio Dwell. 20 units with 16 parking spaces replacing and old wood-frame single-family home:

[SamInTheLoop]

^^ It's a bit of both, however the main parcel that this megaproject will be focused on will be south - between Roosevelt potentially all the way north to River City....

^ Nice find. While I like it, it's not Studio Dwell's best.....more glazing coverage, por favor.....

[SamInTheLoop]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

^^^ It's not leased until the ink is dry, surely as someone involved in the office market you know that.

Actually, the percentage I was quoting was (I believe to be) on a dried-ink basis.....

[Ryanrule]

lets talk about some sort of mega-development here.

[SamInTheLoop]

I think we're on the cusp of a lot of positive change in the Loop retail market. Some things I've been reading and seeing very recently:

Some sales that likely point to large investments in redevelopment of retail space:

- 100-112 S State (believe this is Amalgamated Bank)
- 174 N Michigan

Those two are just a couple examples I noted literally this week.

Some closings of stores recently that open up space for new retailers: That awful Walgreens on N Michigan (exactly 1 block north of 200 N Michigan development) closed in recent weeks. Great news. My hope is that we can actually get an entire demo and redevelopment going quickly here rather than rent the space out......Just to the south and across the Street from 200, Einstein Bros recently closed........there's a redevelopment going on of the building at SW corner of Lake/Wabash opening up some new ground level retail space there, and in that building there will be opening a culinary arts-focused charter high school I believe (this is my interpretation of notice posted on building, it didn't spell it out quite that clearly).......we have some new restaurants opening further south on Wabash - ate at Good Stuff Eatery recently, thought they make an incredibly tasty burger.........we have the coming redevelopment of the Gap building on State Street, we have all of the new retail/food/entertainment that will be opening up in Block 37 within the next 15 months, we have fantastic new retail space opening up at 200 Michigan, as well as at the London Guarantee Building hotel redevelopment, some more stuff I'm no doubt forgetting (hopefully the unfortunate situation holding up the Hotel Indigo on Michigan gets resolved quickly - I wish the city would jump in and sit down with the owner of the 150 Mich office tower and try to talk some sense into them, to come to a quick agreement so that hotel and restaurant can actually get moving and open), and of course many more re-tenantings that I think we're in store for over the next couple years..........bottom line, really good times for street level activity, foot traffic, new retail, dining and entertainment options, etc etc for the Central-East Loop are on the way......

[SamInTheLoop]

^^ Yeah, for sure....the city's working on putting that back into play I think........it is such a massive parcel though.......making it a challenge to initially gain some traction on.......city needs to be smart here about putting a plan in place/lining up a team of developers that can actually start to making something happen, piece by piece.....

[ChickeNES]

State Street property poised for makeover after $35 million sale
Ryan Ori - Crain's Chicago Business - March 25, 2015

Tishman Realty paid $35 million for a big block of empty space on State Street and plans to find a retailer to fill it up.

New York-based Tishman and AXA Real Estate Investment Managers, a unit of Paris-based financial services firm AXA Group, bought the Amalgamated Bank headquarters at 100 and 112 S. State St. from Amalgamated, which is vacating the buildings and moving to a Loop office tower, the buyer and seller confirmed.

A large single-tenant property is one of a few options for the site, Rothenberg said. A big tenant, or a few smaller retailers, could lease space in the existing buildings, which could be reconfigured, he said. Or the adjacent four- and five-story buildings, built in the early 1900s and comprising about 80,600 square feet of retail and office space, could be razed for a build-to-suit structure, he said.

If the property were to be built anew, it could be constructed to accommodate 200,000 square feet of additional retail, hotel, office or residential space in a second phase down the road, Rothenberg said.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/reale...5-million-sale

[wierdaaron]

Originally Posted by SamInTheLoop

That awful Walgreens on N Michigan (exactly 1 block north of 200 N Michigan development) closed in recent weeks. Great news. My hope is that we can actually get an entire demo and redevelopment going quickly here rather than rent the space out

Remember this?



Sterling Bay and that "Times Square style retail" plan. There are some alternate configurations available, too. Now that Walgreens is out, they just need to get the Subway to vamoose and they can demo that thing and get started on the new stuff.

The entire Michigan Ave corridor between Wacker and Randolph is transforming very quickly, with new retail buildouts at 333NMA, 200NMA having 2 floors of mega retail, the Millennium Park Plaza retail buildout is almost done (already tons of tenants, Garrett Popcorn, Lids, Davids Tea, Protein Bar, and a pizza bar from Labriolla on the way), and of course 360NMA is also redoing their retail. That stretch of Michigan is going to have gone from dark, dreary, and dismal to being a practical extension of Mag Mile in maybe 3 years total. Exciting stuff.

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by Ryanrule

lets talk about some sort of mega-development here.

How about:

- 4,000 new housing units
- 3 million gsf of new office space, perhaps a new 1,800-2,000' mega-tall, situated along the river
- a new K-12 school
- a new CTA station
- a new park interwoven along that section of the river
- a new research center (3-4 buildings)

All kidding aside, I can't tell you how many times I've created conceptual drawings/renderings of this site - sadly, it'll probably sit like this for a while, or be relegated to something like 'Dearborn Park II: Electric Bugaloo', because anything other than that would 'hurt the moral character of our fine surroundings' or some such bullshit like that.

[wierdaaron]

Originally Posted by Ryanrule

lets talk about some sort of mega-development here.

It's in the making. The city will be punching Wells street through Roosevelt and building a connector street through that property to Wentworth, so the main problems with that land will be taken care of.

Previous problems:

• Low accessibility. Clark Street is walled off from most of it, and Roosevelt road is built above it.
• Ownership. The land was tied up in legal nonsense.

New solutions:

• Wells-Wentworth Connector will bring new traffic through the land.
• In order to do that, the city is sticking its hands in the legal muck to pull the land out of limbo and take ownership of it. Previous private attempts to do that have been fruitless.

I'd rather the city chop it up and sell it off to several developers, rather than trying to do a single megadevelopment. The parcel is big enough to invent a whole new neighborhood in there, and neighborhoods feel better when they are made from a combination of different styles and developments. If you give that much land to a single developer their heads explode and you end up with high-concept nonsense.

[Ryanrule]

well first off, they need to bury that train line. it cannot exist if that is to be a viable neighborhood.

[Ryanrule]

Originally Posted by wierdaaron

Remember this?



Sterling Bay and that "Times Square style retail" plan. There are some alternate configurations available, too. Now that Walgreens is out, they just need to get the Subway to vamoose and they can demo that thing and get started on the new stuff.

The entire Michigan Ave corridor between Wacker and Randolph is transforming very quickly, with new retail buildouts at 333NMA, 200NMA having 2 floors of mega retail, the Millennium Park Plaza retail buildout is almost done (already tons of tenants, Garrett Popcorn, Lids, Davids Tea, Protein Bar, and a pizza bar from Labriolla on the way), and of course 360NMA is also redoing their retail. That stretch of Michigan is going to have gone from dark, dreary, and dismal to being a practical extension of Mag Mile in maybe 3 years total. Exciting stuff.

i really think if we want a times square type area, it should be on state in the loop.

[Via Chicago]

ughhh can we just torpedo this whole times square envy...

state street and the Loop is beautiful on its own. it doesnt need cheap gimmicks to be a dynamic place. NY, Hong Kong, and Vegas can have it.