They finally put an imagine online, but no specs or anything else that I could find.
http://www.mega-properties.com/bridgeport.gif

WOW!

Incredibly great find. That's been the single most under-publicized project I have ever seen. Either way, looks good, considering it's coming from a developer who has built nothing but strip malls from their inception.

I look forward to more structures like that in Bridgeport, especially along Halsted

Here's some more info and a link to larger pic:
Primary Type: Retail-Commercial
Street Retail
Total Space Available: 15,172 SF
Divisible To: 490 SF
Maximum Contiguous: 8,493 SF
Occupancy: 60%
Building Size: 38,375 SF
Year Built: 2005
Date Last Verified: 2/8/2005
http://index.loopnet.com/xNet/MainSite/Listing/Profile/14120539
http://www.loopnet.com/Attachments/9/7/3/973267BC-17D8-4A78-98C3-3E105CD5E9BC_or.jpg

^That's very purty.

I would like to see more stuff like that built on the south side

Okay, call this a needless bump but this thread hasn't had a new post in about 2 YEARS!

Are we keeping this thread in existence or not? Does anybody have any Bridgeport action to talk about?

I wish I did, but I haven't been to Bridgeport in about 4 years.

OK, well here's one from Dubin. The Lofts at Bridgeport Place
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/5850/rendering54631038west35he5.jpg

Um... I swear when i wake up there is a new house build on the block every day...
Any news on the Police station on 31st and Halstead?

As for development, 31st east of Halstead has a lot of new townhouse/restraunts that popped up last summer/fall.

They have been building an 8 story (what looks like condos) on Archer and Halstead. It may be almost done.

It looks like across from the low income housing they jsut rehabed/are rehabing on 31st there is condos/retail area just being finished.
I dont have any picture....

I think riverside, there is a family living type neighborhood being developed? I recall seeing plans for that...http://www.bridgeportvillage.com/ (a 2004 page about eh arcitect and development http://www.housingzone.com/probuilder/article/CA466683.html)i think someting bad went down with the developers not following code or something. sad.

I dunno that is all i have for now...Hopefully something real soon.

Last weekend I was on the Stevenson and I was stunned to see scads of new developments going up between the highway and the channel. Proper new stuff, too, not that bollocks that passes for new development in some quarters.

It gave me pause. New condos being built up against an industrial waterway, next to an active rail/L line and within earshot of a highway. Not just onesy-twosey, either, rather a good bit of investment where I never thought I would I see a drywall contractor's van parked. Cheers to that. Bloody well fantastic.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070603bridgeport1-story,1,615397.story?coll=chi-news-hed

TRIBUNE INVESTIGATION

Clout helped build flawed luxury homes
City missed defects in Bridgeport Village plans

By Laurie Cohen and Todd Lighty
Tribune staff reporters
Published June 3, 2007

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/thumbnails/blurb/2007-06/30214549.jpg
A 15-foot-tall steel brace in Bridgeport.


Four years ago, a gusty wind raced through a luxury housing development near the Chicago River, tearing apart a two-story home in the later stages of construction.

The debris was quickly swept away, and the project—the largest development of single family homes in the city—went on to win awards and attract more than 100 buyers, some of whom paid more than $1 million for their homes.

But the 2003 collapse eventually led to the conclusion that the buildings had structural problems so severe that they needed to be supported by towering steel braces between the homes—an unprecedented engineering fix designed to prevent their wood frames from twisting in strong winds.

Many residents are wondering why the city allowed such flawed houses to be built in the first place and why the defects did not come to light sooner.

The answer, pieced together through interviews, court records and city documents obtained by the Tribune through the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, involves the familiar Chicago mix of political clout and lax oversight.

The homes are in Mayor Richard Daley's native Bridgeport neighborhood in the 11th Ward and their creation feature a cast of political heavy-hitters with close ties to the mayor. Daley himself took an unusual interest, at one point asking his aides for a list of those buying homes in the project, known as Bridgeport Village.

The project was monitored by an understaffed Buildings Department that paid little attention to single-family home construction, especially when it came to making sure a politically connected development complied with the building code.

When the city quietly approved the plan for 15-foot-high braces—without notifying homeowners—officials made it clear that the decision was aimed at shielding the mayor from embarrassment.

"We are concerned above all with the safety of all the citizens and … also to protect our mayor," John Agrela, then chairman of the Building Board of Appeals, said at an April 4, 2006, meeting. "I mean, we don't want anything to look bad in the eyes of the public that, you know, these things are done."

The Daley administration already had been hit by a series of building-related scandals, including the collapse of a Lincoln Park porch that killed 13 people and the hiring of a teenage building inspector whose father was a top union official. Since late last year, 10 city employees have been charged with taking bribes or lying in connection with building permits and inspections.

City officials said that the houses are in no danger of falling down and that the braces were designed for improbably high wind speeds. Officials said homeowners were not immediately notified of the need for braces because they are common elements of the development, which individual residents do not own.

Residents aren't satisfied with the way the city handled the project.

"The city missed everything that was going up," said Bridgeport Village resident J.B. Bruederle, a veterinarian. "They just dropped the ball."

Others worry that bad publicity could hurt the value of their homes.

But the publicity has come anyway. The development filed for bankruptcy in March, claiming it needed protection from creditors while it sells nearby industrial property so it can raise money to repair the homes. One of the partners, Thomas Snitzer, alleged in a federal lawsuit that the city forced him out as manager because he refused to give favors and kickbacks to 11th Ward operatives.



Clout at ground floor
Early on, the development appeared to be stalled.

The partners were no lightweights: John Kinsella, a longtime Daley supporter and former chief executive of the advertising agency Leo Burnett; Sidney Diamond, a novelty candymaker; and Snitzer, a real estate developer.

Still, they didn't have the City Hall access they needed. Ald. James Balcer (11th), whose blessing was required for the project to proceed, had refused for a year to even discuss it, according to Snitzer's suit.

Court documents now show that the project's dealings with the city began to click after Kinsella brought in as an adviser Timothy Degnan, an 11th Warder and former top aide to the mayor, to steer the project through official channels. Degnan's business associate, Thomas DiPiazza, was hired as a consultant, to be paid up to $1.3 million.

According to Snitzer's suit, Degnan, DiPiazza and Kinsella attended a 1999 meeting at City Hall to talk about plans for the project with Balcer, Daley and the mayor's brother John, the 11th Ward committeeman and Cook County commissioner.

At the meeting, the mayor pledged to have the official in charge of the sale of city-owned land expedite the project, the suit says.

Jodi Kawada, a spokeswoman for Daley, said the city had no record of the meeting, but added that "the mayor frequently attends planning meetings that cover a range of developments all over the city."

Kawada said the mayor did not ask that the sale of the land be expedited.

City records show that the mayor's office kept tabs on the project's progress. In May 2001, Sheila O'Grady, then Daley's chief of staff, asked the building commissioner for an update on the status of the development's permits.

Many of the proposed homes were as narrow as Chicago's squat brick bungalows—20 feet wide—but were taller and had wood frames. Their first floors had large windows and open floor plans.

Despite the updated design, the city did not make sure the architectural plans for the houses met structural engineering requirements, including the ability to endure winds without swaying. Unlike many suburban communities, Chicago does not typically do structural reviews for single-family homes. The city says it puts its resources elsewhere because homes have a relatively small risk of structural failure.Since 2004, city officials said, plans for big housing developments get structural reviews from outside architectural and engineering firms.

As building got under way, problems began cropping up. Inspectors placed stop-work orders on 70 homes that did not have building permits. But for reasons that are unclear, the city allowed the work to continue.

Homes sold rapidly, and the project was hailed as a symbol of rejuvenation for blue-collar Bridgeport. It attracted buyers from across the city, including doctors, lawyers, former Chicago Bear Chris Zorich and former Daley aide Victor Reyes.

But problems kept coming.



Storm damage
On May 11, 2003, a storm blew over one partially built house and caused another to shift on its foundation. Anthony Splendoria, a subcontractor who left the project in a dispute over payment to his Brickcraft masonry company, noticed the damage and hired a structural engineering firm to review plans for the homes.

Stuart K. Jacobson & Associates concluded that the design did not have enough rigid walls to withstand the wind.

"We thought it was a serious issue," Jacobson said in an interview. "We believed the buildings to be structurally deficient as shown on the drawings."

The engineers found that wind pressure could cause "racking," a gradual twisting of the frame that can cause cracks in the masonry and drywall and dislodge windows and doors, leading to chronic leaks. In extreme cases, the buildings might collapse.

After receiving the report, Splendoria and his brother Robert say they became concerned about the safety of the houses.

"The houses were safe as long as it was not too windy," Robert Splendoria said.

For the next two years, the Splendorias crusaded to get the developers to respond to Jacobson's report, but their efforts went nowhere.

Snitzer hired engineers who vouched for the structural soundness of the homes, and the project architect said changes in the field during construction had strengthened the walls.

After years of allowing construction to proceed despite code violations, City Hall finally brought work on the project to a halt in 2005. To make sure that all work really stopped, the mayor told his aides to post an inspector at the project all day and bill the developer, city records show.

The reasons for the city's long-delayed move are in dispute. City officials said they halted work and helped persuade a state court judge to remove Snitzer as manager because they were getting complaints from homeowners and Snitzer was not moving quickly enough to fix problems.

Snitzer, in his federal suit, claims the city cracked down after he refused DiPiazza's demands to pay him more money and to stop acquiring real estate that 11th Ward power brokers had intended for others.

But the city still hadn't figured out that there were structural problems.

On May 9, 2005, the Splendorias met with then Building Commissioner Stan Kaderbek, giving him the Jacobson report and photos of the wind-damaged homes. Kaderbek, a structural engineer, immediately called in consultants at Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates to review the plans for Bridgeport Village.

The consultants agreed with Jacobson that the homes did not meet code. The firm recommended in May 2005 that the homes be reinforced within a year.But Kaderbek did not mention structural stability when he met with Bridgeport Village homeowners to announce that the new management team, led by Kinsella, had signed an agreement with the city to fix all problems. Instead, he said there were "serviceability issues" with some of the houses that could be fixed with a "low cost, minimal impact solution," according to a copy of his statement.

Kaderbek, who is a defendant in Snitzer's suit, declined to comment, but his lawyer, Mark Rotert, said in an e-mail that Kaderbek "acted properly in all respects."



A quick fix
Ralph Schmidt, an engineer hired by the project at the city's direction, came up with a plan to fix the buildings: braces installed between the homes, anchored in concrete and attached by steel bars at the second floor. Schmidt has told homeowners that such braces have not been used before but are similar to stone buttresses used centuries ago.Even with the braces, the plan did not meet the building code. It had to go before the Building Board of Appeals, a little-known agency that reviews requests to build in ways that don't comply with city law. At the meeting in April 2006, the main spokesman for the project was lawyer Jack George, whose partner at the firm of Daley & George is the mayor's brother Michael.

Approval was never in doubt, with Balcer and a handful of other city officials on hand to give support. The residents, who by that time had occupied 93 homes, were not told of the need for the braces until three weeks later.

Kinsella has since acknowledged that the braces are the cheapest solution and the only one he would pay for. So far only a handful have been installed.

Kinsella refers to the braces as "gates" because they are designed with ornamental gates at the bottom.In meetings with residents, Kinsella has acknowledged water leaks in many homes but said they were caused by construction flaws relating to windows and roofs and not by structural defects.

As part of the deal that allowed construction to continue, the developers had agreed to get certificates of occupancy for each home to show it met code. Usually such certificates are not required for single family homes in Chicago.

But Jose and Sandra Ruiz, who live in Bridgeport Village, were sold a larger home there in March 2006 even though it had no certificate of occupancy.

They have not moved in because of a series of problems: buckled floors, leaky windows and doors, an unconnected sewer line and a wood frame that was not attached to the concrete foundation. They blame the city for not alerting them to structural flaws.

"When we make an investment in something like this, we rely on the city to protect us," Jose Ruiz said.

lcohen@tribune.com

tlighty@tribune.com

The Chicago Tribune has lost all credibility when it comes to stories referencing Mayor Daley. Their litany of anti-Daley articles (virtually a campaign) has paralleled the same period of declining readership. :dunno:

The Chicago Tribune has lost all credibility when it comes to stories referencing Mayor Daley. Their litany of anti-Daley articles (virtually a campaign) has paralleled the same period of declining readership. :dunno:

Is this serious or sarcasm? So are you saying there is nothing going on behind the curtain? :cheers:

Is this serious or sarcasm? So are you saying there is nothing going on behind the curtain? :cheers:
Everything is going on behind the curtain, that's how things get done; just don't believe everything you read, especially from a source with an axe to grind.

..

They finally put an imagine online, but no specs or anything else that I could find.
http://www.mega-properties.com/bridgeport.gif

what corner is this on?

^^ Northwest Corner of 35th and Halsted. The building seems completed and there's a physical therpy office located in one of the store fronts. At one time it was rumored that Borders was going to be a tenent. South Central bank was supposed to move into the corner location but they are still in a strip mall at 30th an Halsted.

Um... I swear when i wake up there is a new house build on the block every day...
Any news on the Police station on 31st and Halstead?

As for development, 31st east of Halstead has a lot of new townhouse/restraunts that popped up last summer/fall.

They have been building an 8 story (what looks like condos) on Archer and Halstead. It may be almost done.

It looks like across from the low income housing they jsut rehabed/are rehabing on 31st there is condos/retail area just being finished.
I dont have any picture....

I think riverside, there is a family living type neighborhood being developed? I recall seeing plans for that...http://www.bridgeportvillage.com/ (a 2004 page about eh arcitect and development http://www.housingzone.com/probuilder/article/CA466683.html)i think someting bad went down with the developers not following code or something. sad.

I dunno that is all i have for now...Hopefully something real soon.

Over the past week alot of activity has been going on there. It seemed like they dug a hole about a month ago and then took 3 weeks off. Now there is a road closure to the south of the site, and alot more progress has been made.

I think the police station is underway, but the site is surrounded by gates with fabric covering it, so no one could see what is happening inside.

I work for a repro shop and we have been sending drawings back and forth all week. It's finally under construction:)

I work for a repro shop and we have been sending drawings back and forth all week. It's finally under construction:)


:banana:

Home to the Chicago White sox and U.S. Cellular Field (formerly Comiskey Park ), old churches, and some of the most beautiful architecture in Chicago:banana: :banana:

Does anybody know about the Jewel on Halsted and 30th? They have signs up everywhere that they are closing on September 6 at 3pm.

They have a mega huge parking lot that is more than 3/4 of a block long.

I wonder what are they going to build on that Jewel there...


*kinda hope for a Borders*

But given the price of land here in Bridgeport, probably more of those ever building, town houses.

Here is an excerpt of the article

_____________________________________________________________

Jewel-Osco grocery in Bridgeport to close
'FOOD DESERT' | Chain to sell property at 3033 S. Halsted

August 8, 2007
BY SANDRA GUY sguy@suntimes.com
A Jewel-Osco grocery store in Mayor Daley's old Bridgeport neighborhood will close Sept. 6 and the property will be sold

http://www.suntimes.com/business/501004,CST-FIN-jewel08.article

I don't think we'll know what will happen to the Jewel property until Supervalu actually sells it to someone. While this was a very old Jewel, I think the article is a little off on it's date, it was still serviceable to the community and I'm going to miss being able to walk to the store.:mad:

That sucks...a lot.

That Jewel, though ancient, is the only mainstream food store in Bridgeport. The only other food stores of any type are the Halsted Food Mart at 34th & Halsted and the little Egg Store across from that Jewel. Personally, I guess I'll end up splitting my shopping between that already over-taxed Jewel at Roosevelt & Wabash and the remaining places in Bridgeport for quick runs.

I agree, that land is probably pretty valuable as houses or townhomes or something otherwise wasteful of inner city land....or possibly something larger, such as condos, but Bridgeport is generally zoned too low-rise for that. Since we're losing our grocery store, people will now have to drive to buy groceries and other necessities, and therefore those new townhouses will now have large garages...

That 6-story condo building at 35th & Halsted, as previously mentioned, is pretty much complete.

There's a nice modern townhouse development at 33rd & Parnell that I walk by every day, but seems to get ignored. It seems about done also.

There's an 8-story building going up on only 2 lots next to Ferro's by 31st & Wentworth. They seem to have stopped after the first floor, though...

And, of course, there are single-family houses going up on vacant lots or in place of teardowns everywhere. The ones I really don't understand are the Armour Park Homes going up backing directly onto the railroad embankment along Stewart between 31st & 33rd in a somewhat industrial area. That rail embankment is actually a fairly large freight switching yard, and also carries Metra and Amtrak trains. And yet, they seem to be able to charge half a million for a row of identical, run-of-the-mill houses. Me no understand.

The new police station is definitely underway. Is it seriously going to be 2 blocks long?? What's gonna happen to the old one, though? Can't say it's particularly nice, but the fire station next to it is pretty handsome.

----------------

Retail-wise, Bridgeport has been pretty depleted for a while, with plenty of empty, ancient storefronts. There have been some positive strides recently, like Trattoria 31 and Scoops opening on 31st. The departure of Jewel is a major step backwards, though.

There's a sign in front of those Townhomes on 33rd that says there 60% sold. So far I think only one or two units have been occupied. I also thought those homes along Stewart were in a strange place.

As far as Bridgeport's Commercial District, I think the Police station will spur the redevelopment of Halsted. I think the land along Halsted, is zoned commercial so perhaps we won't get more Townhomes.

The new police station is definitely underway. Is it seriously going to be 2 blocks long?? What's gonna happen to the old one, though? Can't say it's particularly nice, but the fire station next to it is pretty handsome.



Chicago Firehouse Restaurant II?

Unfortunately, Chicago has been using new police stations as a way to occupy unused retail frontage along major arteries, as at 63rd and Homan. They take up one whole block with a parking lot.

Yeah, the new 9th district is taking up a block and a half stopping right next to Healthy Food, at least the police will have a close place to eat:)

I also find why would people live on townhouses where their backyard is the railroad at 32nd and Stewart.

Really, a new firehouse is going to be built, I have not heard of that.

Bridgeport may be lacking a retail business, but all of those big-boxx stores are going to be built 2 miles away at Canal and Roosevelt.

That sucks...a lot.

That Jewel, though ancient, is the only mainstream food store in Bridgeport. The only other food stores of any type are the Halsted Food Mart at 34th & Halsted and the little Egg Store across from that Jewel. Personally, I guess I'll end up splitting my shopping between that already over-taxed Jewel at Roosevelt & Wabash and the remaining places in Bridgeport for quick runs.

I agree, that land is probably pretty valuable as houses or townhomes or something otherwise wasteful of inner city land....or possibly something larger, such as condos, but Bridgeport is generally zoned too low-rise for that. Since we're losing our grocery store, people will now have to drive to buy groceries and other necessities, and therefore those new townhouses will now have large garages...


Indeed!
I used to live off of Halsted and 31st and walked there all the time!
The Halsted Market is way over priced and pretty nasty! I guess the Jewel at Roosevelt is going to be even more overrun than now! :mad:

Yet another reason for me to shop at Whole Foods...