CHICAGO | General Developments

[rivernorthlurker]

Originally Posted by The Lurker

Great news. Would love to see something built on the surrounding parking lots. Does the developer own those lots as well?

Some people here have mentioned Loyola owns the weird giant shaped parking lot there. And that they plan to expand and will be a tough sell or something along those lines.

Edit: found that post

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

They will never sell, they intend to expand their downtown campus to the West into this area. They will likely retain ground and lower floors and partner with developers like they did at the Claire or with the apartment tower at Chestnut and State.

from https://www.skyscraperpage.com/forum...postcount=3299

But hey, everyone's got a price!

Edit #2:

Originally Posted by left of center

Nice!

Wasn't that building the US HQ for YMCA? The article seems to imply that it was merely a YMCA location, as opposed to their national US offices.

Wiki just says the HQ for YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor...son_House_YMCA

[BruceP]

Wiki just says the HQ for YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor...son_House_YMCA[/QUOTE]

The HQ for the YMCA USA is in Chicago at 101 N Wacker. Don't know if it was ever located in Lawson House. But the YMCA USA is just an umbrella organization with YMCA facilities locally owned and operated, like the YMCA of Metro Chicago.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Kngkyle

Yea... at 135k sqft the current building seems much too small. This does seem more like a redevelopment play. Does anyone know how much space they currently have leased at Merchandise Mart and 444 W Lake? The $232M they're getting for their Northbrook campus is probably enough to buy this site plus provide the equity to build a standard ~800ft office tower.

Edit: on second look, the site might be too small to support an office of that height, it's only about 1/8th of a block

Well, the calculus is different sometimes when you're a Fortune 500 company constructing your own building. HQ projects don't need to demand the same efficient floorplates that a developer would. A lot of the Loop's iconic office towers were built this way (Sears, Inland Steel, BCBS, Standard Oil, etc) because they didn't have to be bloated, stumpy boxes.

It is certainly a shallow site, but it has a half-block frontage on North Wacker which is the best corporate address in Chicago, and it's spitting distance to Ogilvie. 130 N Franklin could certainly support a bigger tower, but you lose the Wacker address.

I could even imagine Allstate working something out with AT&T to buy air rights over their building on Washington (since that's never going anywhere) to allow larger floorplates with a cantilever above the 20th floor or whatever. This is common in NYC now but I can't think of any similar project in Chicago.

[Jibba]

This is U/C:


https://chicagoyimby.com/2021/07/fou...in-uptown.html

[Via Chicago]

The Chicago Plan Commission signed off Thursday on the plans for a six-story affordable apartment building at 3201-3423 W. Ogden Ave. The Grace Manor Apartments development would include 65 units of apartments affordable at 60 percent of the area median income, as well as ground-level retail space.

The Ogden Avenue site is an underused parking lot for the nearby 10th District police station. The proposal will be sent to the full City Council for a vote next week.

The apartments will be developed through a partnership between East Lake Management Corporation and Grace Memorial Church, which is based in the K-Town neighborhood of Lawndale.

The apartments were originally planned for a city-owned lot at 13th Street and Kedvale Avenue, near Grace Memorial Church.

But developers set their sights on the underused parking lot because it is close to amenities like the Central Park Pink Line station, the Farm on Ogden and the $31 million Lawndale Redefined development, which could boost the impact of the affordable homes.

Lawndale Redefined combines a community arts and tech center, an affordable housing project and a grocery store with a rooftop bistro on vacant land at 3400 W. Ogden Ave. The project is part of the mayor’s INVEST South/West initiative to guide public and private dollars toward Black and Latino areas that haven’t historically gotten their fair share of investment.

Building the Grace Manor apartments near Lawndale Redefined will “cluster developments that would be transformative and catalytic,” Ald. Michael Scott Jr. (24th) said.

Grace Manor will be designed by architecture firm JGMA. The building will be designed to emphasize views of the city’s skyline visible along Ogden Avenue, as well as the legacy of Route 66, which spans the country from Chicago to the West Coast.

The apartment complex will have broad windows on each level, a landscaped roof and balconies and terraces to showcase the “unbelievable vistas of the city,” lead architect Juan Moreno said.

https://blockclubchicago.org/2022/01...left-lawndale/

[the urban politician]

^ Awesome, need more development like this, hopefully some private and unsubsidized housing can come to this area eventually

[Via Chicago]

I will say, JGMA REALLY likes color gradients.

Between this, Lawndale Redefined, Proxima Hotel, next phase of the Sinai development, potential for the Tapestry project that Lawndale Christian is working on securing land for with the city, this stretch could look very different in a couple years.

[ardecila]

The development is exciting but I'm a little concerned that all these developments keep trying to set back behind plazas. There's a reason you don't see those on great urban boulevards like the Champs-Elysees. The goal should be to make Ogden feel narrower, but all these plazas will just make Ogden feel wider and more hostile. Hopefully the city comes through and puts in some wider medians with trees.

[Via Chicago]

i dont disagree with what youre saying, and i think there are best practices we know improve dense urban developments. meeting the sidewalk and corners is one. but at the end of the day west ogden aint the Champs, or even Clark or Broadway or Halsted or Damen. if youre gonna be living on that street day in and out, some setback is probably pretty desirable.

[harryc]

Jan 21

Sheridan and Wilson - IIRC [ edit Broadway and Wilson ]

[thegoatman]

^what project is that

[Klippenstein]

Originally Posted by thegoatman

^what project is that

4611 N Broadway I believe.

It's definitely gonna change the feel of that corner.

[harryc]

Originally Posted by Klippenstein

4611 N Broadway I believe.

It's definitely gonna change the feel of that corner.

TY - the whole hood has been changed dramatically since the '80s.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by harryc

TY - the whole hood has been changed dramatically since the '80s.

I'd say even from 10-15 years ago. A number of new projects - still more coming. Double Door re-opening as a concert venue next door will be good. If only they could renovate the whole Uptown Theatre. Guess it make take a few more years to get some things in that universe back on track.

[rivernorthlurker]

$60m+ rennovation of Merchandise Mart first couple floors by Vornado announced. Via ChicagoYimby

https://chicagoyimby.com/2022/01/ren...ver-north.html

Love how the competition from the Post Office and Fulton have taken tenants from Merchandise Mart and are forcing them to up their game. Capitalism at work.

[the urban politician]

^ And I hope that they succeed

The Merchandise Mart is basically one of Chicago’s most iconic buildings.

[Via Chicago]

not sure i really understand whats being done to the main lobby there, considering they just redid it and the render dosent look different. otherwise kinzie changes should be nice

[BVictor1]

Bridgford Foods Demolition

01.24.22

[sentinel]

^^^I'm sorry, I cannot for the life of me remember what is replacing it...so many projects in Fulton, I don't know what's where anymore

[Fvn]

Originally Posted by sentinel

^^^I'm sorry, I cannot for the life of me remember what is replacing it...so many projects in Fulton, I don't know what's where anymore

Clayco's real estate arm owns it and I don't think they have announced any plans for it yet