Okay, in the storm of excitement about the Fordham Spire, I thought I would start a thread about a new mega-community being built in Chicago--something that will be as big as Lakeshore East but will also reshape the downtown landscape in ways never seen before. This mega-development will arise on a massive and important amount of land that, to date, has remained completely vacant.

Here is Riverside Park--and THIS is its official thread. Here's an article re-announcing the project's return to the spotlight, from New Homes Magazine:


July 25, 2005
Rezmar to start Riverside District in 1st quarter '06
Rezmar Development Group will open residential sales at the Riverside District, a 62-acre mixed-use community planned for the South Loop, during the first quarter of 2006, according to Alexandra Korompilas, director of sales and marketing for the company.


The planned-unit development is far along, but Rezmar continues to work with the city on logistics for what will be a complicated project. The developer also has been trying to plan an optimal sales center that will include space for construction staff, company principals and sales people as well as unit models, probably at the corner of Clark and Roosevelt.


The massive development, formerly called Riverside Park, will include around 4,700 residential units and up to 670,000 square feet of retail space as well as parking, parks, plazas and a landscaped riverwalk on a site bordered by Roosevelt Road on the north, the Chicago River on the west Clark Street on the east and 16th Street on the south


The Riverside District is expected to take 10 years to complete and will include a wide variety of housing types, including highrise and mid-rise condos, townhouses and single-family homes.


The first residential offerings will be 322 townhouses and about 1,000 condominiums in low-rise and mid-rise buildings. Studios will start under $200,000, according to Korompilas, and townhouses will be priced from the high $500s. Planned buildings are being designed so that tiers can be combined easily. While the largest standard units are 1,100 or 1,200 square feet, units of more than 3,000 square feet can be created seamlessly by combining two or three condos at no extra cost.


Commercial components will be developed at the same time as the residential, and the response from retailers so far has been positive, Korompilas said.

The website has been completely revamped. For the first time on the new website there are a few pics of the development plan. They are definitely different from the plans published originally, over a year ago:

http://www.riversideparkchicago.com/image/plan0104.jpg

http://www.riversideparkchicago.com/image/plan0204.jpg

More info is available at www.riversideparkchicago.com

this has been floating around for a while and i was actually just gonna ask if it was dead cuz their website was down but apparently it got renovated, i heard there might be an ikea. but this was the most exciting project to me in chicago against lse and central station cuz this area was such an eyesore. :)

this has been floating around for a while and i was actually just gonna ask if it was dead, i heard there might be an ikea. but this was the most exciting project to me in chicago against lse and central station cuz this area was such an eyesore. :)

Old news, buddy. Ikea was dead ages ago.

But the development lives on! :cheers:

traffic is why i believe. but at least u dont have that ugly blue and yellow building

It actually had nothing to do with traffic - they wanted their second Chicagoland location to be open as soon as possible to help alleviate crowding @ the Schaumburg store. They learned that this site (Riverside) wouldn't be ready until 2007, whereas the store that they ultimately decided to build in Bolingbrook will be open within the next couple of months. I wouldn't be surprised if they do, eventually, build a store somewhere in the City limits - there is certainly sufficient traffic and demand for their products to sustain so many locations in such a small area.

Actually, this development is now being called Riverside District, as opposed to Riverside Park. If a mod could change this thread's title, that would be great.

Do any of you have any opinions about the initial plans of this development? If you visit the website, www.riversideparkchicago.com you can get a little bit more info

I think the new version connects to the Clark/ Roosevelt/ 16st streetgrid better than the former proposal did. I like how another connection to Clark will be created, along with a stoplight, which is good in that it will discourage Clark st's transformation into a high-speed expressway.

I just hope the architecture isn't neo-traditional like we've seen elsewhere

I just hope they rework the Clark bus to continue all the way into this development. It stopping at Polk is something that I've never understood, especially in light of the new Target at Roosevelt.

fuck this

I just hope they rework the Clark bus to continue all the way into this development. It stopping at Polk is something that I've never understood, especially in light of the new Target at Roosevelt.

^There's no doubt in my mind they'll rework the system to make transit accessible to a neighborhood full of potentially 5,000 housing units! I just don't think a single Target Store is enough to create a new transit extension.

Personally, I like the layout of the development. I just hope the architecture of the buildings is good. I also hope the market will support this project's completion. For all the bitching and moaning about Block 37 and parking lots, the huge swaths of grass and weed between south Clark St and the River are the biggest eyesore of all time!

There are many on the outside and a few on the inside that say this project is going to happen under Rezmar, and to date it has a lousy track record. They are still working on getting TIF at this point.

The Harrison station on the Red Line isn't too far away, either. Do you think it'll see increased usage?

fuck this

Very insightful.

At any rate... TUP - I would hardly consider allowing a bus to travel four or five blocks further south as a "transit extension." I'm not asking them to rework the green line so it runs through the store - I just want the damn bus to go there. If you ever had the opportunity to walk down Roosevelt between State and the Target on Clark you'd realize that the demand for better transit is there - pedestrian traffic along that horrible stretch is out of control.

This development is moving forward. I saw the drawings/plans at CDOT yesterday.

If you ever had the opportunity to walk down Roosevelt between State and the Target on Clark you'd realize that the demand for better transit is there - pedestrian traffic along that horrible stretch is out of control.

Excellent! Roosevelt between State and Clark used to be DESOLATE when I was there. Only cars racing past you. Those elaborately carved books with the globes on them finally have someone to look at them. I'm thrilled to hear its bustling now. That view from the bridge is stupendous.

The view from the bridge is fine as long as you're not on the north side of Roosevelt... if you are, you're completely blocked by those horrible privacy fences they have in place. Other than that... the area is still horribly desolate... that is, aside from those walking westbound, empty-handed, and then returning eastbound Target in tow.

I was looking at a map, and I'm sure the CTA will easily rework a bus route into this development.

Also, pedestrians from the green and red lines (from the Roosevelt stop) can access it.

But what do you guys think about Metra adding some stations? Not remembering the names of the Metra Lines, here's what I think would work:

The 1st line runs right adjacent to this development and ends at LaSalle St. Station. How about creating a Metra station about a block south of Roosevelt on this line? That would be roughly 0.6 to 0.7 miles south of LaSalle St. Station, thus long enough that a lot of people would prefer using the train to get to the loop.

The 2nd line runs just west of the river, but east of Canal St. (the Burbank line or something?) and ends at Union Station. WHAT A PERFECT SPOT TO PUT A STATION--right at Roosevelt. Considering the Riverside District that is planned, as well as the huge amount of shopping centers being built in the immediate area, Metra would be crazy not to put a station here.

Any thoughts?

I am assuming this will slow down the development of Riverside District:

City tells developer not to count on $140 mil.

August 5, 2005

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter


Chicago taxpayers cannot afford to subsidize a massive South Loop development to the tune of $140 million, a top mayoral aide said Thursday, demanding that Gov. Blagojevich's chief fund-raiser Tony Rezko lower his sights.

Further complicating the issue, according to Planning and Development Commissioner Denise Casalino, is Crucial Inc.'s decision to forfeit its three O'Hare Airport restaurants rather than fight City Hall's contention that the concessionaire purportedly owned by an African American is a "front" for Panda Express and Rezko.

"Anybody who looks for public money has to file an economic disclosure statement and, if there's anything wrong on there, they're not gonna get public money," Casalino said.

"We're working with Law and evaluating that -- what the liability is, if any. That's another part of the equation that has to be looked at."

Earlier this year, a partnership co-owned by Rezko asked City Hall for a $140 million subsidy to finance the road, sidewalk, sewer and other infrastructure improvements needed to pave the way for Riverside Park.

The ambitious plan calls for the 62-acre-site at Roosevelt and Clark to be developed with more than 4,600 residential units and 670,000 square feet of retail space.

If the Daley administration granted the request, it would be the largest tax-increment-financing (TIF) subsidy in Chicago history -- far exceeding the $95 million TIF subsidy that bailed Millennium Park out of a sea of cost overruns.

But don't count on it. On Thursday, Casalino essentially told Rezko to get real.

The city wants to make sure the project would generate enough revenue to cover the subsidy, and fears handing over $140 million upfront would be too much.

"We have to look at the estimates of what the infrastructure costs," she said. "We have somebody evaluating that now."

Neither Rezko nor Judi Fishman, senior project manager for Riverside Park, could be reached for comment on Casalino's remarks

There are many on the outside and a few on the inside that say this project is going to happen under Rezmar, and to date it has a lousy track record. They are still working on getting TIF at this point.
To reiterate my July 28th post: this "development" has behind-the-scene issues that make it unlikely that this organization will ever bring this development on line. :ohno:

To reiterate my July 28th post: this "development" has behind-the-scene issues that make it unlikely that this organization will ever bring this development on line. :ohno:

^All of this is too bad.

All of the wrangling over finances and corruption, and we're still stuck with an enormous swath of vacant, ugly land between Clark St and the river :(

Sale near for South Loop project site
Development stalled amid O'Hare scandal

By Thomas A. Corfman
Tribune staff reporter
Published September 30, 2005

A European conglomerate headed by a controversial Iraqi-born billionaire is close to buying a 62-acre South Loop site whose owners include developer Daniel Mahru and prominent Democratic fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko.

About 4,600 residential units and 670,000 square feet of retailing have been proposed for the site at Roosevelt Road and Clark Street.

But it has been stalled after Chicago officials found that a Rezko-owned company improperly operated Panda Express restaurants at O'Hare International Airport that were supposed to be controlled by a minority-owned firm under the city's set-aside program.

The sale could set the stage for the development, called Riverside Park, to move forward again.

The buyer is General Mediterranean Holding SA, whose chairman and chief executive is Nadhmi Auchi, sources said.

Auchi is a British businessman who in 2003 was convicted in a French court in connection with an oil company kickback scheme. Auchi, fined more than $1 million, filed an appeal of the case, according to published reports. The status of the appeal could not be determined.

That same year, the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq awarded a cellular phone service contract to Orascom Telecom Holding SAE, an Egyptian company in which Auchi has a stake. U.S. officials are investigating allegations of impropriety and Auchi's role in the bid process. Orascom and Auchi have denied any wrongdoing.

General Mediterranean Holding is based in Luxembourg, with offices in London, and has business interests in banking, hotels, construction and real estate.

A company spokesman said he was unaware of the Chicago transaction. In an e-mail message, Charles Panayides said General Mediterranean "has always sought to make investments predicated on the principle that they not only bring GMH a fair return but effectively and transparently contribute to the well-being of the people of the host countries."

Rezko is chairman and Mahru is chief executive of Chicago development firm Rezmar Corp. A spokesman for the company declined to comment.

Rezko, a Syrian immigrant, has significant business holdings aside from Rezmar, including a restaurant company that operates fast-food franchises. The controversial Panda Express restaurant contracts were canceled in July.

Three years ago, a Rezmar partnership acquired the site, paying $67 million.

In 2003, Ikea dropped plans to be the anchor retailer for the project, a sharp setback for Rezmar. Instead, Ikea opted for a Bolingbrook location, where it just opened its second Chicago-area store.

Rezmar had been seeking a tax increment financing grant of up to $140 million from the Daley administration.

Discouraged about prospects of winning the subsidy, Mahru has been urging Rezko to sell the project for several months, sources said. But Rezko apparently believed that the City Hall logjam would eventually be broken.

The project has been a financial drain. Earlier this year, Rezmar's principals used money from General Mediterranean to pay off a lender on the project, New York investment bank Lehman Brothers, sources said.

The sale of the South Loop site to General Mediterranean is expected to be completed in stages, but would leave Rezko and Mahru without any ownership interest, sources said. Mahru may stay on as a consultant, sources said.

A few months back I signalled storm warning signs for this Rezmar development. The above story has its own dark clouds gathering, but I feel more optimistic that something will eventually develop on that large riverside site.

Finding the frontier
•Grapefruits and graffiti, down by the river

By MAX BROOKS, Staff Writer

http://www.chicagojournal.com/SiteImages/Article/1209a.jpgBetween Chinatown and the South Loop, an urban vacuum of weeds and graffiti dominates the view from the el. Photo by Josh Hawkins.




In 1991, precocious 18-year-old graffiti writer and hip-hop journalist William "Upski" Wimsatt sketched out an electric, crackling tour of the undeveloped swath of land stretching from Chinatown to Roosevelt Road—the largest vacant plot near downtown Chicago. The essay, titled "The Urban Frontier," was included three years later in his seminal first book, Bomb the Suburbs. If you were a Chicago kid in the mid-1990s and you weren’t reading this book, I’m told, you weren’t cool.


Fifteen years later, much of the frontier, created during a straightening of the Chicago River in the 1930s, is still vacant. There are plans for 63 acres of condos, boutiques, and more condos, known as Riverside Park, but problems with the Rezmar development team pitching the project have scuttled the effort for the time being. I thought it would be a good time to take stock of what still remains in this strange pocket of the South Loop, close enough to downtown to hit it with a well-thrown rock.


At the western end of the frontier near the edge of the Chicago River, the 16th Street train bridge rises forlornly into the sky, a much more haunting sculptural testament to Chicago’s coal-covered past than the iron horse Picasso. To the east, there are the Rock Island Metra tracks, the Red Line, and Clark Street. The southern border is a little less clear, but at the time of Upski’s writing, it stood, more or less, at Archer Avenue.


For Upski, though, the frontier was more a state of mind than a fixed geographical place.


"The frontier is the kind of place you’d expect to stumble on the planet’s umbilical cord … Entire chain-link fences, chunks of buildings, and
telephone poles lay strewn about as in the wake of disaster." It’s a place, he writes later, where "they don’t take Mastercard and they don’t take American Express."


The essay is organized as a tour, delivered in the voice of a circus-ring huckster, and I decided the best way to examine how the land has changed over the last decade and a half would be to go along for the ride.


"The next tour begins in five minutes," Upski writes. "The greatest opportunities in the world to explore the unknown, meet amazing people, and become cosmopolitan cost only a CTA token."


Last week, I dutifully dismounted the Red Line at the Cermak/Chinatown stop, turned right at the miniature pagoda on Wentworth Avenue, walked past a parking lot, and soon made my way across Archer Avenue.


I held a copy of the book in front of my eyes: "As you cross Archer Avenue, you have already entered the ghost city: If you see people on this street, your drinking problem is serious."


But I hadn’t had a drop to drink for a good 12 hours, and people were everywhere: walking on the sidewalk, driving slowly in German imports, giving me the once-over. The southern tip of Upski’s chaotic frontier, as it turns out, has given way to something much more tame, as he feared it would; the 1990s-era Chinatown Square, with cookie-cutter town homes and condos connected by alleyways broad enough for two Escalades to pass one another quietly in the night and concrete walkways that run in cute squiggles instead of straight lines:


As I approached 19th and Wentworth, now an informal parking lot for Chinatown shoppers, a woman in a maroon Passat rolled down her passenger-side window.


"Are you getting out?" she asked, hoping to get my parking space.


"No," I said.


She looked at me quizzically, as if to say "then where the hell are you going?" and found a space a few spots up. I waved nonchalantly as I passed. Crossing 18th Street, I closed in on what rightly could be considered the remaining frontier. There, Wentworth Avenue turns to dirt and then dead-ends. An improvised, diamond-shaped soccer and softball field is stamped out of the tall, snarled grass and mud to the left, but within 50 yards or so, I cleared that as well. As if on cue, I soon saw tumbleweed rolling desolately across the mess of mud and prairie grass. At the Metra tracks near 16th Street, I spotted a unmanned yellow Metra truck. I’d left civilization altogether, without passing so much as a "No Trespassing" sign.


Still, as I stepped over the railroad ties, I got the eerie feeling that I’d clearly crossed over to the wrong side of the tracks. The trees were short and sickly, and some bits of tarp and wet blanket around a fire ring indicated that I’d likely stepped into someone else’s home, even if no one was there.


Below the Metra tracks, there was a relatively dry gravel road that allowed me to proceed north unperturbed, visible only to curious condo owners living along Clark and keen-eyed dog walkers on Roosevelt. I hadn’t been on the road very long when I felt the sense of adventure Upski wrote about—the chance to meet fellow travelers, kindred lost souls, and dangerous encounters. Ahead, beside a potato-sticks-looking pile of old, tarred railroad ties, black smoke rose from a campfire burning unwatched, surrounded by a ring of uneaten grapefruits. I looked cautiously for the fire keepers, aware that they might not take kindly to an interloper poking around, but there was no one there.


One hundred yards or so beyond 16th Street, the land flattened out and turned to carefully graded dirt, signs of preparation for Riverside Park. Nearby, two helmet-clad engineers were taking sight lines. I waved, hoping they wouldn’t call the police, and the man by the tripod waved back. I decided to approach.


The other engineer claimed the first one knew as much as anyone about the frontier. I asked if they’d noticed the campfire.


They had: "Yeah. We were thinking of stringing up some chickens, or maybe a coyote," the shorter one said, mostly kidding.


Did anybody live on the frontier, I asked?


He pointed me in the direction of "the condo," an impressive construction of chain-link fences and blue and black tarp near the Roosevelt Street overpass and the Metra tracks. No one was home when I got up the courage to visit a few days later, but I estimated it to be about 300-square-feet in total, significantly larger than your average room in a transient hotel.


The engineer then gestured to the railroad bridge for the St. Charles Line, and said I might run into someone there wearing the same coat they had on, a parka with the logo of his engineering company. They’d given it to the man who was there a year ago on a cold Christmas Eve.


I asked if any of the squatters were dangerous.


"No," the same engineer said. But as he gave me directions to the paved path running along the frontier’s west end, he soberly cautioned me about a wild coyote he’d seen there several times. As I headed off, he waved goodbye.


"Good luck," he said cheerfully. "If not, we’ll find you next week."


I headed west to get a glimpse of the condo, but, for the time being, I thought better of approaching alone and perhaps surprising its tenant. Upski wrote about one frontier homesteader, a man named Shane, who pulled a knife on him when taken unawares, and though Upski came out of the scrape all right and got to know Shane better, I didn’t want to rush into things.


As I passed the condo and approached the Metra track, I was amazed that I still hadn’t been warned off by a railroad company thickneck. At the same time, I became acutely aware that the book I was holding in my hands had "bomb" splashed across it in big letters. If the wrong cop, FBI agent or Department of Homeland Security officer did find me out there, they might not realize that the "Bomb" in the title was a slang term for graffiti writing. I quickly stuffed the book in my backpack.


After doubling back and walking along a concrete walkway that runs near the river for a good way, I reached the next major point of interest: the daunting, upraised rail bridge crossing the Chicago River near 18th Street. Intrepid graffiti writers have managed to leave their mark on the very top of the scaffolding, though climbing it was not a feat I dared attempt. Instead, I passed under the bridge along the bank—two more tarp encampments stood nearby—and walked by a metal canoe that someone had stashed there for summer recreation.


As I crossed under the tracks again, I was met by a splash of color. There were literally hundreds of spent aerosol cans and paint buckets there, alongside the other offal graffiti writers leave behind. Surprisingly, plastic bottles of grape, orange, and fruit punch soda outnumbered beer bottles 10 to 1. On the pylons, intricate graffiti pieces, up to 30 feet across, covered the concrete, mostly free of the simple tags and throw-ups that mar many storefronts. Even the most hardened, graffiti-hating neighborhood advocate would have to admit their ingenuity.


On the westernmost pylon, I spotted a well-painted skull with colorful bubbles trailing behind it, marked by a haunting slogan: "Writers never die." Standing there, you could almost believe it. In Bomb the Suburbs, Upski quotes a fellow graffiti writer saying when he was in the frontier, he always felt like other graffiti writers were going to jump out from one of its wall and surround him. Though I’ve probably never been as far away from other people since moving to the city, I felt the same way, oddly crowded. There’s a physical symptom for this feeling: the goose bumps.


From the pylons, it’s a quick jaunt back to the frontier’s entrance. As I emerged back into civilization where I left it near 18th Street, a group of men playing soccer looked at me as if I’d crawled out of a crypt. It didn’t help that my white Keds were caked in a comical amount of mud.


I hadn’t done a whole lot—just kicked around for a couple hours, really, running into engineers instead of urban homesteaders. But the remnants of the frontier—the campsite, the graffiti walls, the upraised bridge—were still exhilarating to visit, in a way that Riverside Park, or whatever replaces it, will likely not be.


"You haven’t even gotten to the frontier yet, and already it’s shrinking," Upski wrote sullenly at the beginning of his tour, referencing the now-completed plans for the northern extension of Chinatown. As I made my way back to Wentworth Avenue, I briefly felt the same heaviness.


But perhaps this was a little silly. People moving back into the heart of the city, after all, is a good thing.


And, as Upski notes, there are other frontiers in Chicago. A frontier, he writes, can be anywhere that "train tracks, water, factories, parks, rooftops—or just plain neglect—conspire to create secret places in the city." For instance, the view out of a Green Line train, over the sooty factory tops and neglected boulevards of the West Side, suggests there’s more adventure to be had by intrepid youngsters who grow up long after the South Loop "frontier" is developed. They’ll only have to follow the old frontiersman’s credo: Go west, young man.

- edit

^ Sounds like the Block 37 story.

Sheesh!

Please correct me if Im wrong but I thought this was the devolopment that just went before city council quite recently and got approved...right or is this different?...the one with the 30 or 40 story highrise and then condo townhomes with a park area and then they also agreed to devolop the river area into a park ..?

No, I believe that project is north of Roosevelt Road. South of Roosevelt is a much more overgrown, woodsy area.

I dunno - there are so many good uses for such a central site that don't involve townhouses or condos. A small airport might work here, as would the sports stadium mentioned earlier.

If Daley wants a huge Olympic stadium, what better place to put it than here? It's relatively central, proximate to the athletic facilities at UIC as well as Soldier Field and the lake. The fact that development won't go through just makes it more attractive for a civil project. The only downside is a lack of transit in this area, but that can be remedied.

EDIT - Apparently there is transit around there. The Red Line has no stops between Roosevelt and Cermak/Chinatown, and the subway runs through the SE corner of the parcel.

Does anyone have any update on what is planned for the Riverside site
south west of Roosevelt and Clark?

I have searched on the internet, but could not find any recent info beyond mid-2006, when Heritage was looking for a buyer of the northern part of the lot.

There aren't any updates. Much of the property is owned by Mediterranean Holdings, IIRC, and they're doing nothing with the land while the corruption investigations run their course, on both sides of the Atlantic.

There aren't any updates. Much of the property is owned by Mediterranean Holdings, IIRC, and they're doing nothing with the land while the corruption investigations run their course, on both sides of the Atlantic.

thank you! Interesting that such large, prime real estate is not developed.

The property has no access and no infrastructure. Whoever develops it will have big upfront costs, and can't do it a little at a time.

^ The logistics of this location are a nightmare. The townhomes just to the east of it, the tracks, the metra shit across the river, no other access points unless eminent domain or something is used to build at least one more street east-west, with a new bridge across the river. Plus, things like this take years if not decades to materialize in this town due to corruption and BS. How can all these massive develpoments continue to spurt up with a wreck of a PT system that we have? There are just too many problems at the moment for this to materialize anytime soon. A couple years before the olympics would be my best hope for this to start going in a clear, positive direction of development.

British tycoon remains bullish on Chicago development

Auchi: Riverside Park project to create 10,000 new construction, retail and commercial jobs; it is a win-win for Chicago.

CHICAGO - One of Britain’s most successful businessmen says he remains bullish on investing in the American economy and wants to complete a proposed $2-billion real estate development near downtown Chicago.

Nadhmi Auchi, ranked by Forbes as one of the world’s wealthiest men with a reported net worth of $3.1 billion, looks forward to developing a 62-acre parcel just west of Chicago's "Loop" near downtown as part of a signature project, Riverside Park, that would include residential, retail, and commercial space.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=24332

Interesting read. I've never seen the whole story laid out in one place before.

Unfortunately, it seems like the development of this parcel will be postponed until after Rezko's trial is decided.

If Auchi is sincere about holding onto the parcel, then he will probably wait a year or two, until many Chicago high-rise projects are completed, and then cash in on lower construction costs from contractors eager for work.

I just wish the architecture was better. I don't have nearly as many issues with Pappageorge/Haymes designs as many forumers here, but they will basically be the exclusive designers of Museum Park, K Station, and Riverside Park - three HUGE developments that in the future will, together, make up 15-20% of the downtown area. Strange as it seems to say, I wish Auchi would take a page from Loewenberg/Magellan and bring in other firms (Studio Gang, Arquitectonica, SCB).

The other issue I have with the development is that the upper level streets (level with Roosevelt/Upper Clark) are not connected with the lower level streets except for a tiny, convoluted street (labeled Wentworth and 14th) or through the parking garages. A nicely-designed, publicly-maintained ramp should be integrated somewhere between Roosevelt and Wells. Also, a pedestrian bridge crossing both the Metra tracks and Clark Street should be built into DP II.

One last tidbit - as proposed, the maximum parking ratio for multifamily buildings will be 1.2 space per unit. :okay:

Here's the site plan as approved in the PD, with IKEA. It was done in 2004 by Pappageorge/Haymes and RTKL.

http://img352.imageshack.us/img352/4062/riversideparksiteplanml1.png

Once IKEA pulled out, they tried to pitch a lifestyle center in its place, and changed the name to the "Riverside District." Antunovich Associates is credited as "architect" in the booklet that includes this site plan:

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/233/riversidedistrictsiteplcu8.png

I'm sure lots of other things will change before actual construction.

..

The Chicago Journal says there is infrastructure work being done at the Riverside Park site. I realize they are a dubious source at best, but I remember seeing a bunch of equipment and materials on the site a few weeks ago. Can anybody shed some light on what may or may not be happening here?

http://www.chicagojournal.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=5870&SectionID=42&SubSectionID=120&S=1

"Alert neighbors at Burnham Station in the South Loop have pestered Chicago Journal about infrastructure work happening in the 62-acre parcel of land at the southwest corner of Roosevelt and Clark streets.

The parcel, once owned by convicted political fundraiser and real estate wheeler-dealer Antoin Rezko, has what appears to be a relatively new water main running east to west perhaps two blocks south of Roosevelt in the otherwise grass and shrub-covered site. A Department of Water Management spokesperson said it's not their work; a Department of Transportation spokesman said the same."

Metra is doing track work on the Rock Island... perhaps they are using some of Rezko's land for staging?

I think it's just the new sewer line going in beneath Financial and Wells. And it's not Rezko's land any more.

Right, it belongs to Auchi now.. my bad.

I found a new site plan for Riverside Park (now called Riverside District) on SCB's website. A 2008 date is given on the plan, making it newer than either the first plan by Pappageorge/Haymes or the second plan by Antunovich.

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/9566/2008siteplan0718xx7.jpg

It shares certain things with the two older plans (including the preservation of the lamentable barrier along Clark :down:), but overall, it seems to have much more in common with Lakeshore East - it is oriented around a sizable park at the center, and surrounds the park with high-rises. Unlike the previous plans, townhomes are merely kept to mask the towers' parking podiums.

On the one hand, I like this because it places tall towers along the river, effectively extending the density of the Loop southward. On the other hand, towers contain many more units than townhomes and take longer to build, meaning that this development will take far longer to fill in. Also, the existing mega-developments of Lakeshore East, Central Station, and even LaSalle Park/Franklin Pointe are only half-completed, and those developments are far closer to the popular areas of the city than Riverside District will be.

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/9566/2008siteplan0718xx7.jpg


I'm not a fan of the river walk. The old plans had a nice landscaped broader path that really was a great amenity to residents stretching from Ping Tom Park to Roosevelt (and hopefully ultimately onward to the Loop connecting to the river walk currently being constructing). This river walk looks like crap and could be a ghost town during the week and would not spur much development along the river. I wouldn't mind this if they put retail along the riverwalk such as restaurants, plazas, ice cream shops, bars, hotel courtyards, KAYAK RENTAL STATION, etc. This is the best asset of the development and it sucks in this plan(in my opinion). The majority of the frontage is lined with townhomes.

Perhaps extending Wells from Roosevelt (recently constructed north to Polk) to Wentworth by the City as part of the Stimulus (or part of state $5.9B capital improvements program after we jack up our gas tax!) would push this development through and give the City the upper hand in how this Riverfront is developed. Also, by placing high rises along the River, the development can mirror the north development by hiding parking podiums below Roosevelt grade along Wells.

Sorry to bring this up again. I was browsing the Pappageorge Haymes website and saw that the currently displayed design differs slightly from all images in this thread.
http://www.pappageorgehaymes.com/images/properties/urban-planning/RiversidePark/image-1.jpg (http://www.pappageorgehaymes.com/urban-planning/riversidepark.php)

Sorry to bring this up again. I was browsing the Pappageorge Haymes website and saw that the currently displayed design differs slightly from all images in this thread.


NOOOOOOO!

No townhomes please!!!

This lack of density is disturbing...

No townhouses is a pretty extreme criterion for a 62-acre parcel with no transit access.

There are plenty of midrises and highrises in the PD. But any intelligent developer for this parcel is going to include a variety of products to appeal to different markets and life stages. They would probably use the same model for staging as Central Station: start with townhouses, add some midrises to support the retail, then climax with high-end highrises once you've created a desirable neighborhood.

The size of that big box in the middle is alarming. On Wednesday I heard a rumor about Walmart doing a "Near South" store, but when it's a suburban broker talking, he could mean 47th Street. Who else could use a box that size? Meijer? Costco? IKEA again?

I always wondered why this spot is neglected

No townhouses is a pretty extreme criterion for a 62-acre parcel with no transit access.

There are plenty of midrises and highrises in the PD. But any intelligent developer for this parcel is going to include a variety of products to appeal to different markets and life stages. They would probably use the same model for staging as Central Station: start with townhouses, add some midrises to support the retail, then climax with high-end highrises once you've created a desirable neighborhood.

The size of that big box in the middle is alarming. On Wednesday I heard a rumor about Walmart doing a "Near South" store, but when it's a suburban broker talking, he could mean 47th Street. Who else could use a box that size? Meijer? Costco? IKEA again?

I mean detached townhomes. I like the idea of having townhomes cover up the parking base of the larger towers like in Auntonovich's plan that resembles LSE.

That big box is also oppressive as hell. Why can't they have a main street with shops and midrises along them?

And with the no transit access, I imagine once thousands of people move down there, the CTA could run at least one bus route, if not more along that route.

Well, that is a "main street" coming south from Roosevelt to the big-box anchor. It can't be a true main street because it doesn't go anywhere, and the experience across the street at Roosevelt Collection is not very encouraging for a destination lifestyle center.

Those buildings between "Riverside Drive" and the river are also midrises with retail bases, but how many high-end restaurant spaces can realistically be absorbed in this area?

Here's the site plan as approved in the PD, with IKEA. It was done in 2004 by Pappageorge/Haymes and RTKL.

And the one posted by Steve differs just a tad, notably in eliminating blocks B14/B15 (which they could easily do without resubmitting the PD). Are we sure that the new owners even have contact with P/H?

I dug out my Riverside Park file, and you're right. The site plan Steve posted appears to be essentially the same one that was in the approved PD. So I think it's very doubtful that this is a current project.

What this area DESPERATELY needs is a bridge.
I think Taylor or Polk would be the best option.

BOTTLENECK on Roosevelt for pedestrians and cars.
I sometimes opt for 18th street but that is pretty backed up as well.
And the other problem for the area is that there is huge gap in entry ways into Lakeshore Drive as well,
its ridiculous that there is no other access to LSD
inbetween 31st street and Roosevelt.

Roosevelt is a nightmare for those reasons,
no other way across the river until you hit harrison
or 18th street and the other being no other access to LSD
until you hit 31st street.

A bridge at Taylor is definitely in the city's long-term plan. Part of it already exists - the city made Southgate Market build the west approach.

The problem is that Roosevelt Collection just blocked the right-of-way with their loading docks, so if the city does build a bridge, all the cars will need to turn north or south on Wells. I suppose they could build a dogleg into Taylor so it meets up with 9th Street and the planned Metra underpass there, but that's just too difficult.

I don't think there's much of a need for a vehicular bridge at Polk after the Taylor bridge is built, but as the area west of the river starts to get more residential buildings, Polk should get a pedestrian bridge.

^^^^Thats good to hear, because Im around that area alot
and I do like it, but as it is right now its a traffic nightmare.

I remember one fateful day this past summer or so
there was an accident at canal and roosevelt
and that was during rush hour, can you IMAGINE the TRAFFIC
that ensued after that?

I know cars arent the greatest means of transport,
but geez, you do need functioning roadways at the very least
and as it is right now, that area is barely functional.

I wonder when the bridge at Taylor will be built.

http://forgottenchicago.com/features/chicago-infrastructure/bridge-out-for-good/

didnt know that both streets Polk and Taylor used to have bridges,
shame they arent bridges there now,

I don't have the slightest clue wtf is wrong with our planning commission or whoever has the say so on what ultimately gets destroyed outside Daley...