Millennium East Plaza is interesting, certainly, but the site plan is uninspiring. The first render seems to show the building as separated from Canal by a strip of parking. The second render shows the building right at the corner, which is more appropriate. I would assume the surface parking isn't going anywhere, but it can at least be shifted further back away from the main streets.

^ yeah, See Wong's website still shows the site plan in which the building has front parking. I'm hopeful that the second rendering is a redo to create a more urban steetscape, perhaps at the urging of city planners. Does anybody know?

If that is true... then he only has about 70'-80' to work with. I am assuming that there is an easement next to the tracks too that would make it even more difficult. I suppose it was done north of here with a 6th story building and hotel rooms (condo-hotel) are usually smaller than your run of the mill apartment/condo. I would assume they are stashing parking on the other side of the tracks.

From what I recall of their roll out there wasn't any real outside parking lot -- it was contained within the hotel. I think just a few spots outside.

Three South Side sites proposed for mixed-income housing (http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/portalContentItemAction.do?BV_SessionID=@@@@1321381908.1209132040@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccfadedmeelhikcefecelldffhdfhg.0&contentOID=536985035&contenTypeName=COC_EDITORIAL&topChannelName=Dept&blockName=Planning+And+Development%2FI+Want+To&context=dept&channelId=0&programId=0&entityName=Planning+And+Development&deptMainCategoryOID=)

TIF would enable construction in West Elsdon, Bronzeville and Greater Grand Crossing

Mayor Richard M. Daley introduced separate plans to City Council today to build mixed-income housing in three South Side communities.

"The City uses many development tools to foster new housing opportunities for Chicagoans of all income levels," Mayor Daley said. "These proposals show the many ways in which we support our strong and diverse neighborhood housing stock."

In the West Elsdon community, the City plans to support the construction of 89 single-family homes, 74 townhouses and 18 three-flats near 51st street and Lawndale Avenue. The $61.9 million project, to be built by New West Realty, will provide a total of 181 housing units, of which 36, or 20 percent, will be made affordable for households earning less than the area median income. The plan includes $7.4 million in Tax Increment financing (TIF) assistance or 12 percent of the total project costs.

To date, Chicago's TIF program has committed TIF assistance to the construction or rehabilitation of more than 14,000 residential units, 38 percent of which are affordable units for low-income households.

In the Bronzeville neighborhood, the City plans to contribute a long-vacant parcel of land at 4514 S. Cottage Grove Ave. to the development of a five-story mixed-use building. The developers, Marko Boldum and Art Gurevich, plan to construct 24 condominiums and 6,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. Three of the condos will be made affordable for households earning less than the area median income. The parcel was recently appraised at $180,000. The City plans to sell the property to the developers for $1. The land write-down is about 2.7 percent of the total project cost.

In the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood, the City plans to contribute a dilapidated playground parcel at 7408 S. Woodlawn Ave. in order to add four more mixed-income housing units to a 90-home project currently being developed by Revere Community Housing Development. The playground will be moved across the street and quadrupled in size through a $400,000 development project, also under consideration by the City Council.

I found a site plan for one of the first phases of South Works, a retail center. I'm extremely unimpressed - it belongs in the suburbs, not along Chicago's lakefront.

According to the alderman, it'll be called South Shore Market Commons and, per an illustration flashed in this Trib video report, will bear a striking resemblance to McCaffery's Clarendon Market Common development in Arlington, Va. Did she say there would 150 shops?

http://tinyurl.com/6f5urh
(about 1:40 in)

McCaffery and Antunovich have partnered for 4 other "Market Commons" complexes, but this is the first one outside the East Coast. They all have that wide boulevard/park down the middle, of course - token landscaping financed by retail sales. At least the green space isn't a grassy setback from the street, though - thanks be to God.

I've come to terms with this suburban wanna-be, so long as the rest of South Works is build according to plan. However, who's gonna patronize the high-end, likely chain, stores that will occupy this development?

Arlington Median Household Income: $87,350
South Shore Median Household Income: $31,121

EDIT: Alderman Jackson really seems gung-ho about the South Works development... it's extremely refreshing. Plus, she's not old...

That's funny. I was shopping in Market Commons in Arlington just yesterday. Having been there I will say that it feels a little fake. We have a lot of these types of developments all around the DC area. There are the decent chain stores in the Market Commons: Crate and Barrel, an Apple Store, Ann Taylor, Barnes and Noble, and some high-end home entertainment store whose name escapes me. People making only 31k a year might come into these stores to look around, but they might not buy anything.

Overall, the local feel of the area certainly been lost with these types of developments. However, there are some good things about it. It's only a block from a metro station (subway). There are a lot of local stores around. Everything is very pedestrian friendly, built at a human scale, and the buildings properly address the street. There are no blank street walls. There are homes and condos in the buildings as well as all around the neighborhood so local people can easily walk to the shops from where they live.

Perhaps South Works will have the critical mass of people (with a high-enough income) to sustain this.

http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/1830/50862862ys9.jpg

^ Remember this?

Crains is reporting that the developers are very close to signing a couple leases, one of them being with Roundy's. Of course, they've been "very close" to new leases for a while now. Article @ link below:

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/mag/article.pl?articleId=30149

http://www.hpherald.com/pg3.html

Antheus buys 5110 S. Harper
Will rehab, likely to become 9 new apartments

By KATE HAWLEY

Antheus Capital has added one more property to its stock of more that 70 Hyde Park buildings; an abandoned greystone on South Harper Avenue that has a history of neglect and rat infestation.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/mag/article.pl?articleId=30250

Big plans for Pullman
By: Thomas A. Corfman July 14, 2008

Billionaire banker Michael Kelly is picking up where utopian visionary George Pullman left off.

...The 170-acre Ryerson site at 720 E. 111th St. abuts Park National's 10-story office building along the Bishop Ford Freeway and the landmark Pullman District, where many of the buildings from Mr. Pullman's quixotic experiment still stand.

Crain's has learned that Mr. Kelly envisions a development with up to 1,000 single-family homes in keeping with the adjacent Pullman District's architecture, as well as big-box stores. Development on such a scale hasn't been seen on the South Side since the postwar era, and the project could transform a largely dormant industrial area into a new neighborhood.

..."We are going to build a suburban community within the city," says Mr. Beale, whose ward includes the Ryerson site. "We're looking at curved (streets), a gated community, the attached three-car garage."

From the Hyde Park Progress (http://hydeparkprogress.blogspot.com/)blog

Antheus Capital's plans for the Village Center, designed by Studio Gang, include a 10 and 24 story building with 170 units, about 116,000 sq. ft. of commercial space, and over 500 parking spaces.

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/3066/towerfromkenwoodacadbw7.jpg
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/5347/aerialpeckham4ch0.jpg
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/7750/nightviewonlpzy6.jpg
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/986/crosssectionsz5.jpg

Very "artsy" looking building. I think that I like it.

Definitely cool.

Good for Hyde Park. Once the real estate markets are out of the dumpsters, I'm hopeful to see some great new projects down the pipeline.

Definitely cool.

Good for Hyde Park. Once the real estate markets are out of the dumpsters, I'm hopeful to see some great new projects down the pipeline.

Also the U of C and City are preparing to release an RFP for the development of Harper Court and the city owned parking lot at 53rd & Lake Park. This will be a high density mixed use project.

I've come to terms with this suburban wanna-be, so long as the rest of South Works is build according to plan. However, who's gonna patronize the high-end, likely chain, stores that will occupy this development?

^ I just saw renderings for "Bridge Street Town Centre" planned in Joliet. I've made up my mind... it's just not worth it to build something of this sort at South Works.

I have nothing but disdain for these kinds of projects. They are not main streets, they make a mockery of them. They are nothing more than outdoor shopping malls with seas of parking that the owner will keep as parking until the bitter end, and I really don't think building a shopping mall is in the best interests of a future lakefront neighborhood like South Works.

I say forget the retail portion altogether and just build housing. If developers can't build retail without giant seas of ugly, permanent surface parking, then to hell with retail.

I have nothing but disdain for these kinds of projects. They are not main streets, they make a mockery of them. They are nothing more than outdoor shopping malls with seas of parking that the owner will keep as parking until the bitter end, and I really don't think building a shopping mall is in the best interests of a future lakefront neighborhood like South Works.

Indeed. The plan for Bridge Street Town Centre looks exactly like a typical indoor shopping mall with the roof taken off and the main pedestrian corridors replaced with streets.

Developers love this type of format, because they can cash in on people's yearning for a traditional town setting and save millions on heating/cooling costs (since each store only pays to heat/cool itself and not the common areas).

However, that's no reason to dismiss the "lifestyle center" format entirely. In urban settings with high land values, parking lots can indeed be reclaimed/replaced with garages, whereas low land prices in the suburbs make this pointless. So it seemed like a miracle when, recently, Yorktown Center in Lombard realized that their parking was never full except on Black Friday, so they redeveloped some of it as a lifestyle center. Old Orchard has slowly been shifting their parking into garages, and I've heard rumors that they plan to build a few additional ones and redevelop the remaining lots. If the Yellow Line is extended to the mall, this will be more likely.

Besides, I've seen you heaping praise on the planned shopping center at State and Pershing, which is the same lifestyle center concept, only with a Modernist veneer.

Besides, I've seen you heaping praise on the planned shopping center at State and Pershing, which is the same lifestyle center concept, only with a Modernist veneer.

^ There is a key difference. At State/Pershing part of the parking will be underground, and the lots that will have surface parking already are planned to have highrise residential replace them. Compare that to South Works, where all of the parking is surface parking and there are no plans that any of us have seen or heard of for that parking to be converted into a different use in the future.

Oh, and State & Pershing is a TOD

^^ A South Works streetcar, carrying people to/from Metra Electric, is an integral part of SOM's master plan. I doubt McCaffery will want to pay for it, but who knows. Streetcars are relatively cheap (DC's now building two lines), especially when the roads can be built wide enough to accommodate the tracks, so the city might even be able to shoulder the cost. At any rate, all of South Works is planned as a TOD, which should be obvious from the built density.

I'm not sure high-rises on the parking lots is any more likely at State/Pershing than it is at any other recently-built strip mall in the city. The developer is clearly making lots of promises to placate the planners and get his TIF funds, but whether he is serious about those planned high-rises remains to be seen.

Big splash in the HP Herald today. Another irrelevant AlderNimby trying to assert their importance. And all the more reason why I've become bitterly against affordable housing set-asides and the so-called "right" of lower-income people to hang onto prime real estate. If you look further in the Herald, Ald Dowell also writes a belligerently emotional letter to U of C (discussing the low enrollment of African Americans at U of C, as if that has jack squat to do with the land acquisition at hand):

Dowell: University of Chicago buying up land west of Washington Park (http://www.hpherald.com/breakingnews.html)
Alderman Pat Dowell to University of Chicago: Respect our Community Alderman, university clash over acquisition plan
By Kate Hawley
Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) said Friday that the University of Chicago has begun acquiring land just west of Washington Park - in an historic foray west of the Hyde Park neighborhood.
The university, which only in the last decade ventured south of Hyde Park into Woodlawn, has its eye on at least 15 privately owned parcels along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Garfield Boulevard (see map and list of addresses), according to Dowell.
The university wants the land "to satisfy their future development needs.
They believe that Garfield Boulevard is the gateway to the University of Chicago campus," she said.
Dowell said she's "disappointed" that the university has left the local community out of the loop about its plans, since the acquisitions could have a major impact on her ward.
The lots under negotiation fall in both the 3rd and the 20th wards. Dowell said she will reach out to other local aldermen as the university's acquisition plans move forward.
A university official confirmed that negotiations are underway but disputed Dowell's characterization of the university's dealings with her office.
"I can confirm that the university is in a variety of different stages in purchasing a modest amount of property in the Garfield Boulevard and King Drive intersection," said Sonya Malunda, assistant vice president and director of community affairs for the university. She declined to name the specific parcels, citing the ongoing negotiations.
"The university's planned acquisitions are just one piece of a larger puzzle," Malunda said. She did not give details about what that larger plan might comprise.
"The university would not initiate that conversation," she said, adding, "It is our hope that we can work with the city, the community and local alderman to craft a redevelopment vision."
Any comprehensive plan for the area would require the university to work closely with the city, which owns many vacant lots in the Washington Park neighborhood, she said.
According to Dowell, university officials told her in March that no negotiations to buy properties had begun, but when she met again with officials in June, negotiations had started for eight properties.
Dowell expressed anger that she and her community hadn't been included, accusing the university of "land banking" - holding property for development planned far down the line. That could prove detrimental to the 3rd Ward, long plagued with vacant and underused lots, she argued.
"Their eyes are bigger than their stomachs, Dowell said, of university officials. "They're being greedy."
And she said that if the university pays top dollar for the properties, it could have a destabilizing effect on land values in a neighborhood.
Malunda countered, "I can't see how the purchase of a handful of parcels will drive the market for Washington Park."
The broader goal of purchasing the land is to "help facilitate economic development west of the park, in partnership with others," she said. "We look forward to providing community benefits" as part of a redevelopment plan, she added.
Dowell said the university's dealings so far had left her unconvinced of its motives. "I will not use any of my power as an alderman to support the University of Chicago until they agree to work with my office and the community in a transparent and honest way," she said.
While aldermen can't stop private property from changing hands, they do have the power to approve or deny zoning changes that developers may need in order to proceed with a project.
Part of Dowell's anger appeared to stem from the university's track record of dealing with communities as it expands. In a June 26 letter to university president Robert Zimmer (see letter), she wrote, "Considering the history of the university's development initiatives, it is not difficult to understand why the African American community in Chicago's South Side would have a negative perception of them."
Malunda conceded that, "the university has had a mixed history with the community over five to six decades." But the tide has shifted, she argued.
"Over the last decade we've worked really hard to develop partnerships and programs that benefit the South Side," she said.



SUMMARY

The University of Chicago has its eye on the following properties, according to a "Land Acquisition Map" that university officials provided Dowell at a June meeting. Dowell said a few projects already had been purchased, and Cook County records show that transactions have been completed in recent weeks on three properties.

Likely already purchased:
356 E. Garfield Blvd.
344 E. Garfield Blvd.
301 E. 55th St.

Under negotiation:

226 E. 56th St.
323 E. 55th St.
325 E. 55th St.
331 E. 55th St.
371 E. 55th St. (western half of parcel)

Planned for future acquisition:
305 E. 55th St.
309 E. 55th St.
315 E. 55th St.
353 E. 55th St.
365 E. 55th St.
370 E. Garfield Blvd.
371 E. 55th St. (eastern half of parcel)

Big splash in the HP Herald today. Another irrelevant AlderNimby trying to assert their importance. And all the more reason why I've become bitterly against affordable housing set-asides and the so-called "right" of lower-income people to hang onto prime real estate. If you look further in the Herald, Ald Dowell also writes a belligerently emotional letter to U of C (discussing the low enrollment of African Americans at U of C, as if that has jack squat to do with the land acquisition at hand):


And what has the community done for itself in the past two decades? Garfield is really a mess, and particularly the stretch just West of King Drive. Nothing but a bunch of disheveled empty lots and abandoned buildings. Oh, there is the liquor store that you need to stand in front of while waiting for the bus from the green line - that's still open. I take the green line to the Garfield stop all the time, but would never recommend that route to out of towners - it just looks scary.

Meanwhile, for better or worse, Garfield is one of the main entrances to the University - the other being LSD - and it gives a very, very poor first impression.

I'd imagine that the campus is tired of waiting and is finally doing something about the situation themselves. I say "finally, and good luck!"

I have no problem with the University buying lots and buildings anywhere. However, they do not have a great record of saving such buildings, even when the buildings are terrific vintage structures.

I hope they are not planning to clear-cut the area.

I hope they are not planning to clear-cut the area.

A non-issue in this case as most of the area immediately to the west of the park has already been clear-cut through decades of total neglect.

http://www.suntimes.com/business/1245087,CST-FIN-hyde28.article

Hyde Park condos may replace shopping plaza
REAL ESTATE |
150-unit project has resident support, needs city OK

October 28, 2008

BY DAVID ROEDER AND FRAN SPIELMAN droeder@suntimes.com/fspielman@suntimes.com

A developer has asked city officials for authority to tear down a 1960s shopping plaza in Hyde Park and replace it with high-rise housing built over new stores and offices.

The project involves a 2.5-acre parcel at 5101 S. Harper, currently the home of the Village Center shopping mall. The property owner, Antheus Capital LLC, wants to build 150 condominiums atop a parking structure and a commercial base.

.......Eli Ungar, Antheus chairman, said the company is well-capitalized and isn't afraid of starting its project in a slow market for home sales. "Hyde Park is different," he said. "It hasn't seen a lot of new construction in the last 20 years."

.......The proposal groups the condos in a 22-story building and a separate mid-rise. Peter Cassel, Antheus' director of community development, said they will be connected by parking for 519 cars and 116,000 square feet for retailers or offices.

Full article in link

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r77/tootshibbard/102808hydejpg_20081028_03_19_24_13-.jpg
Sun-Times photo

Oakwood and Lake Park
66 units total
http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/8162/1html22wp9.jpg
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/3087/9html10vs2.jpg

http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=32472

Lawsuit seeks to halt planned Hyde Park project
By Eddie Baeb, Jan. 05, 2009

The owner of the Village Foods grocery store in Hyde Park has sued to stop a developer’s plans to demolish the Village Center shopping/office complex and build a 24-story residential tower and shopping center there.

The plans, which were detailed in October as part of a zoning amendment request made by New Jersey-based Antheus Capital LLC, would “almost certainly result in the total destruction of plaintiff’s business,” Village Foods’ owner Liberty Foods Corp. alleges in a lawsuit filed Dec. 23 in Cook County Circuit Court.

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/theskyline/2009/01/phillip-enquist.html#more

Philip Enquist on the Lakefront Master Plan
Blair Kamin

...The developer is responsible for providing public access along the slip. There will be waterfront houses, cafes and more.

...In the Burnham Plan, there was a proposal for a very large industrial harbor. We propose a 1,000-boat marina.

...Public transportation will be supported by three Metra stations and bus lines near and through the project. South Shore Drive will be rebuilt to be less a truck route and more a pedestrian-friendly boulevard.

A giant breakwater that protects the mouth of the Calumet could provide wind energy, if we could locate windmills on it. That part of Lake Michigan is especially deep and cold and might be a way to provide cooling at reduced energy rates.

^ Sounds ambitious, which is good or bad.

Good: Make no small plans--yea!

Bad: Never ends up happening. Ay caramba!

http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=32807

Hyde Park’s Rosenwald apartment complex on the market

Chicago-based brokerage firm Melvin M. Kaplan Realty Inc. has been hired to sell the Rosenwald, a historic two-building apartment complex with a total of 447 units at 4600 S. Michigan Ave. in Hyde Park, says George Kaplan, executive vice-president with the company. The buildings total 465,544 square feet, with 16,400 square feet of first-floor retail, and are owned by AMA Realty Group LLC, which bought the complex in 2003 for $8 million, according to public records. The complex was built in 1929 by Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck and Co., with the goal of providing quality, affordable housing for working-class families.

Seeing the Rosenwald going into new hands makes me worry. It will still be mothballed for another five years (at least) with five more years of risk of water getting in the roof and windows.

The current owners have kept it sealed, so they claim. What about the future owners? I don't trust the city to enforce the sealing of buildings, especially historic buildings, e.g., the city allowed the stunning St. Boniface School building to remain unsealed. The result? The interior floors rotted and collapsed, leading to complete demolition of the school, which stood next to the always-threatened St. Boniface Church.

Hear that, city? Force the new owners to keep the Rosenwald sealed. And to Pat Dowell, please just landmark the darn thing.

Full article in link

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r77/tootshibbard/102808hydejpg_20081028_03_19_24_13-.jpg
Sun-Times photo

Wow that is fugly.

The Market Common, SouthShore
Chicago, Illinois
Features

* 1 Million SF Retail
* 17,000 Residential Units
* 1,500 Slip Marina
* Total Retail: 1,000,000 SF
(Grand Opening 1Q 2012)
* Total Residential at Completion: 17,000 Units
* Residential Phase 1 Breakdown: (To Open with 1,000,000 SF of Retail)
* Residential Above Retail: 250 Units
* Tower Residential: 594 Units/ 3 Towers @ 22 Stories
* Town homes: 136 Units
* Total Residential: 980 Units
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/9458/southshore3lgsh5.jpg
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/2372/shouthshore4lgid1.jpg

http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=32807

Hyde Park’s Rosenwald apartment complex on the market

Chicago-based brokerage firm Melvin M. Kaplan Realty Inc. has been hired to sell the Rosenwald, a historic two-building apartment complex with a total of 447 units at 4600 S. Michigan Ave. in Hyde Park, says George Kaplan, executive vice-president with the company. The buildings total 465,544 square feet, with 16,400 square feet of first-floor retail, and are owned by AMA Realty Group LLC, which bought the complex in 2003 for $8 million, according to public records. The complex was built in 1929 by Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck and Co., with the goal of providing quality, affordable housing for working-class families.

Just noting that 6400 S. Michigan is not in Hyde Park. That's probably Bronzeville?

Roundy's has signed a lease for Metropolis, according to CRED, (http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=33025) but the project is now 123,000 sq ft (rather than 330,000) and the condos have been dropped.

So this is now basically a grocery and drug-anchored neighborhood strip center, I guess. I predict Roundy's, a CVS, a cell phone store, a Dock's Fish, and three vacant storefronts in which starry-eyed entrepreneurs will occasionally open "African jewelry" boutiques and slowly eat through their savings. Better than nothing at State/Pershing, but not what we'd hoped for.

^ Perhaps they will design it so that more elements can be added in later

Here are some renders of the current renovations of U.S. Cellular Field. I am a bit confused though. It doesnt look like anything is new, just a redesign of the existing ramp.

http://www.isfauthority.com/managex/index.asp?x=172&y=173&y3=250&articlesource=250

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/cbotnyse/35thStreetProjectRenderings-1of2.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/cbotnyse/35thStreetProjectRenderings-2of2.jpg

http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.com/cgi-bin/page.pl?id=2166

Chicago: Grand Imperial Hotel, 2014-2126 S. Clark St, 175-room hotel, September 2009, $50 million.

---
Grand Imperial Hotel
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/4909/grandimperialnortheast.jpg
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/7506/grandimperialsoutheast.jpg
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/8467/grandimperialwest1.jpg
Lobby
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/6962/grandimperialreception.jpg

Mystery condo building (Eastern Tower) at Archer and Wallace
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/6529/easterntower1.jpg

18th and Canal
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/4889/18thcanalretail1.jpg
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/1940/18thcanalsite.jpg

^^^^[QUOTE=spyguy;33275172]http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.com/cgi-bin/page.pl?id=2166

Chicago: Grand Imperial Hotel, 2014-2126 S. Clark St, 175-room hotel, September 2009, $50 million.

---
Mystery condo building (Eastern Tower) at Archer and Webster

great find as always.....Can you tell me that you meant something else other than "Webster" I am confused as to where this is ....I thought that webster is in lincoln park?

^Oops. That should be Archer and Wallace.

They want to turn Chinatown into a big Walgreens strip mall?

Did we turn the clock back to 1973?

What is going at the "Eastern Tower" in that photo? Is that a full garage or is that a mall with parking on top?

What is going at the "Eastern Tower" in that photo? Is that a full garage or is that a mall with parking on top?

^ I think it's a mall with parking on top.

The plans look okay to me. The "strip mall" at least has shops built to the sidewalk, so it's not as aesthetically offensive as, say, if it were just a traditional strip mall set back from the street by a giant parking lot

^^I agree, even though the architecture is banal and I generally loathe one level retail buildings I can appreciate the building meets the sidewalk. Small but important victory.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=33439

Money partner drops out of South Works plan
By: Alby Gallun and John Pletz March 25, 2009

A key partner has dropped out of the massive development proposed on the former South Works steel mill site, but the property’s lead developer has no plans to find a replacement as it pushes ahead with the long-awaited project on the south lakefront.

Lubert-Adler Funds, a Philadelphia-based real estate firm, has pulled out of the 530-acre development about five years after committing to it, says Daniel McCaffery, president of McCaffery Interests Inc., the project’s lead partner.

^ I think it's a mall with parking on top.

The plans look okay to me. The "strip mall" at least has shops built to the sidewalk, so it's not as aesthetically offensive as, say, if it were just a traditional strip mall set back from the street by a giant parking lot

Maybe - if this were being built in Schaumburg. But it's not. Its in Chicago - with solid transit access. Raise your standards.

http://www.gazettechicago.com/index/?p=177

Supermarket coming to Bronzeville
By Trish Hoffman and Jeff Fisher

Capri Capital Partners LLC of Chicago has signed a long-term lease agreement with Roundy’s Supermarkets Inc. of Milwaukee, WI, to be the anchor store at the Metropolis, a $50 million commercial and retail development at State Street and Pershing Road.

...“Roundy’s will be part of a great shopping experience for the Bronzeville neighborhood,” said Stephen D. Lane, a partner in Capri’s asset management and development area. “The development is aligned with green design principles and will include a nicely landscaped plaza that will provide an inviting, comfortable place for the community to gather.”

The new Roundy’s will measure 60,000 square feet and will open in fall 2010.
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/3268/47798647.jpg

Per the Sun-Times today, the Grand Imperial Hotel is on hold.

^ http://www.suntimes.com/business/roeder/1516039,CST-FIN-roeder08.article
DYNASTY ON HOLD: Ancient Chinese dynasties were supposed to provide the design inspiration for a new hotel near McCormick Place. And the developer, See Wong, insists his ambitious Grand Imperial Hotel will rise at the southwest corner of Clark and Archer. It'll just take a little longer.

Wong said his 15-story hotel is on hold because of the credit crunch. "The banks want 30 percent to 40 percent equity," he said. "It used to be 20 percent." Builders have dreams, after all, so long as somebody else is writing the checks. Wong has zoning approval for the hotel, which promises to stand out with a pagoda-style roof.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/green/chi-wed-solar-powerapr22,0,5438800.story

Exelon plans to build solar power plant on Chicago's South Side
Company would rely on Energy Department loan guarantees for $60 million project

By Joshua Boak | Tribune reporter
April 22, 2009

Exelon Corp. will unveil on Wednesday plans to build a $60 million solar power plant on Chicago's South Side, a small step to fighting climate change that leans heavily on government funding due to the high cost of turning sunlight into electricity..............

The advantage of solar power is panels do not have to be clustered in one location, unlike a nuclear, gas or coal plant. Exelon would install 32,800 panels on a 39-acre former industrial site in Chicago's West Pullman neighborhood, the largest project in a U.S. urban center.

The SunPower Corp.-made panels would track the sun's path, maximizing exposure. Gray Chicago skies should not be an obstacle, said Julie Blunden, vice president of public policy for SunPower.

"Chicago has better sun than Germany," Blunden said. "And Germany is the largest solar market in the world today."...........

From Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2009-04/46428191.png
An aerial-view rendering of the proposed Exelon Chicago Solar Power Plant. (Exelon)

^^ Good stuff!

53rd and Cornell
53rd and Cornell is a unique high-rise mixed-use residential building near the University of Chicago in historic Hyde Park. This 22-story student/faculty residential building contains 218-market-rate apartment units for the University with the Chicago shoreline as a front yard. The project also includes 200 structured parking spaces along with 7,500 sq. ft. of ground floor retail space. Situated above the parking levels at the base of the tower is a verdant resident park with walking paths and shaded congregation areas.
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/6983/53rdcornell3.jpg
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/4432/53rdcornell.jpg

Market Common
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/6716/marketcommons1.jpg
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/2333/marketcommons2.jpg
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/5993/marketcommons3.jpg
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/4282/marketcommons4.jpg

is that market common part of hte south works project?

ugh, i hate the prevalence of all the parking space, but i guess it's a necessary evil considering how underserved by transit and other economic development that area is.

^ Yeah, I agree. The parking sucks, but being so far from downtown I don't find it all that offensive.

More importantly, the south side really needs more development like this.

Regarding 53rd and Cornell--when the hell is that thing finally going to be built? It's been on the drawing board for so damn long..

^Yeah, I'll accept it IF the rest of Southworks looks like this (and not chopped off like the Metropolis):
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/9407/housing2.jpg
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/118/transit2.jpg
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/3199/transits.jpg
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/4994/housing.jpg
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/7961/2008lakeside4.jpg
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/4048/2008lakeside7.jpg
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/5214/avenue.jpg
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/8458/landscaping.jpg
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/1360/parkwall.jpg
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/8120/orewallpark.jpg
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/2954/sliph.jpg
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/5103/sliptowers.jpg
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/4183/sliptowers2.jpg

^ Yeah, that's a nice fantasy.

:lol:

NEVER GONNA HAPPEN!

Wow! Is that the actual full SouthWorks plan? Because MAN, they sure are optimistic about the project.

^ Yeah, that's a nice fantasy.

:lol:

NEVER GONNA HAPPEN!

Don't stomp on my dreams! :lol:

Yeah, it's going to take a couple decades to complete and by then who knows what the design will look like, but it would be awesome if this project plus Metropolis plus Solstice and Village Center and all of the cool stuff at UofC happened.

Who the heck is the target demographic for such a project? Not to impugn the area, but it's not exactly a place with wealth concentration like Lincoln Park. Capital investment in the area has been lacking for such a long time, that I'm very skeptical for such a big project like this to actually make a difference (or even succeed). Bronzeville arguably has better branding, but Metropolis, a much smaller project, has struggled.

Wow, nice vision! I would definitely live there. I think the target demographic is basically anyone willing to buy a place, and live near a highly dense, self-sustainable area with good transit access and recreational options. But yeah, couple decades in the making at least for that. But who knows, if you built it, they may come.

Um, the parks are programmed for dogs, bocce, and sunbathing? If you're going to go that far, why not lacrosse and racquetball?

Um, the parks are programmed for dogs, bocce, and sunbathing? If you're going to go that far, why not lacrosse and racquetball?

while you're at it, why not get some yale-ies down there for some crew.

http://www.hpherald.com/pg6.html
http://www.hpherald.com/p6.jpg

TUP, thank you for posting this article about the 47th and Cottage Grove site. Thank goodness that the Rands' project is dead. That was a BAD project because it involved the demolition of the historic and attractive Booker Building.

Alderman Preckwinkle would not listen to Preservation Chicago, the group that listed the Booker Building as one of the "Chicago Seven" last year. She felt that demolition was the answer.

Restoration is the answer. If necessary, just keep the Booker Building sealed to prevent water damage and wait a few years until the market recovers. This has the potential to be a dense, vibrant, AND historic intersection.

The project is not dead. It's just changing to rental.

Regarding the Southworks Build it and they will come. I will definitely come. Im in the south right now (Virginia) but I plan to move back to Chicago within the next three years and Southworks just moved up on the places I would like to live in the city.

I'm skeptical, but I definitely do hope that southworks succeeds. Make no small plans, and all that.

http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=34744

Foreclosure

National City Bank has sued to collect more than $3 million on a development site in the South Shore neighborhood controlled by Jonathan Zitzman. The Chicago developer, president of JFJ Development Co., had planned a 19-story condominium building on the parcel at 6740 S. South Shore Drive, which overlooks the lakefront. Mr. Zitzman says he is just the developer of the project, which is actually owned by a group of South Side investors that he declines to identify. Last month, another venture co-owned owned by Mr. Zitzman filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after a different lender sought to auction off a development in the Lakeview neighborhood after an alleged loan default.

The Metropolis
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/1333/metropolis8.jpg
http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/7687/metropolis9.jpg
http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/9977/metropolis10.jpg

^ Ugh, you posted it here, too?

I was hoping I didn't have to look at that again

http://www.hpherald.com/visimp.html

Harper Court site to include Hollywood Video
Officials: Process of finding developer moving forward
By Kate Hawley, Associate Editor

The Harper Court development is getting bigger.

The plans now include the Hollywood Video property at 1530 E. 53rd St., University of Chicago representatives said Monday, July 13, at a meeting of the 53rd Street Tax-Increment Financing, or TIF, Council.

^ Ugh, you posted it here, too?

I was hoping I didn't have to look at that again

Bronzeville can't exactly be picky :/

http://www.hpherald.com/

U. of C. abruptly begins demo of Harper Ct.

The University of Chicago unceremoniously began demolition of Harper Court last Friday, when the jaws of a piece of heavy construction equipment tore into the back of the space formerly occupied by Dixie Kitchen.
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/3943/60567157.jpg
tompin/ twitpic (http://twitpic.com/e8oo0)

---
http://www.hpherald.com/

Dead or alive: a roundup of developments in Hyde Park and Kenwood
The Shops and Lofts at 47

...City planners and Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th) didn't want to let the deal die, so early this year they introduced legislation that would allow the city to buy the land - 15 parcels in all. Their stated goal: to hand it over to Mahogany when the economy improves, so that some version of the original Shops and Lofts plan (probably minus the hard-to-finance condos) can still go forward.

---
http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=35179

City bonds, TIF money possible for Bronzeville project
By Eddie Baeb, Aug. 19, 2009

The Daley administration is upping its efforts to help Capri Capital Partners LLC finance its proposed Metropolis retail development in Bronzeville.

Mayor Richard Daley wants the city to issue up to $28 million in “Enterprise Zone” bonds for the already-downsized $50-million project, which is to be anchored by a Roundy’s grocery store.

Dixie Kitchen was great, sorry to see it go :/

I really want the Roundy's to happen. The south side really needs more grocery stores.

http://www.hpherald.com/visimp.html

47th St. Co-Op space to house grocer
By KATE HAWLEY

Michael’s Fresh Markets, a small family-owned grocery chain, is planning to open a store at 1300 E. 47th St., the space formerly occupied by the Hyde Park Co-Op Market.

http://fiftythird.uchicago.edu/ + Hyde Park Urbanist (http://alwaysintransit.typepad.com/hyde_park_urbanist/2009/09/university-gives-harper-court-update.html)


Three finalists:

McCaffery/Interests/Taxman Corp Partnership
Mesa/Walsh Partnership
Vermilion Development/JFJ Development Partnership


The NW corner of 53rd and Lake Park Ave (Hollywood Video) will be replaced with a building comparable in size to the Hyde Park Bank Building across the street
Buildings to the north along Lake Park could reach a max height of 25 floors
90000 to 150000 sf of retail (fitness centers, movie theaters, restaurants and live entertainment venues)
150000 sf of office for the University
Boutique hotel with 150+ rooms
200 unit condo/ apartment building
Undetermined amount of parking
New gathering space

http://www.suntimes.com/news/neighborhoods/1839341,CST-FIN-Pullman22.article

Will Pullman Park become Chicago's next neighborhood?
PULLMAN PARK |
Bank proposes full range of development on site of old steel plant -- if Council goes along

October 22, 2009

BY MARK J. KONKOL Staff Reporter/mkonkol@suntimes.com

The ruins of a rusted steel plant in the middle of a food desert could bring a new neighborhood and economic revival to Chicago's struggling South Side. At least, that's the plan.

Park National Bank hopes to build Pullman Park -- complete with big-box retail stores, a full-service grocery, hotel tower, community recreation center, park, senior apartments and more than 1,200 homes -- on the former Ryerson Steel property between 103rd and 111th along the Bishop Ford Expy. near the historic Pullman district.

The bank's not-for-profit community development arm, Park Bank Initiatives, recently submitted a request to the City Council for zoning changes needed to start the ambitious plans for the 138-acre site, purchased last year for nearly $25 million.

The project would be built in phases at a pace determined by economic conditions, bank officials said. The immediate focus will be luring big-name retailers to a stretch of land fronting the Bishop Ford in the economically depressed and underserved part of town.

Smaller retail stores built with historic Pullman-esque facades -- creating an entranceway to the nearby historic district -- would follow on 111th Street. And, eventually, plans call for building town houses, row houses and single-family homes on wide lots with a 10-acre park and giant sports complex inside a former stainless steel processing building.

But first, the bank must cut a tax increment financing deal with Mayor Daley's administration and get the project approved by the City Council. The city planning commission could consider the plan next month and forward it to the City Council for approval in December.

Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) said he'll lead the push to get the project approved. It's the kind of project Chicago needs to embrace -- especially following the city's Olympic letdown, he said.

"This will bring revenue. ... The city has a $500 million deficit, and bringing these kind of retailers here can help bring the deficit down," he said. "This site is not only important to the ward. It has regional impact. We're talking about the largest development outside O'Hare expansion in the city. We're talking 3,000 to 4,000 jobs when it's all said and done. That's huge."

Beale said he hopes to get the development plan moved through the City Council by the end of the year and that construction could begin next summer. Park Bank Initiatives President David Doig stressed that the development proposal is a long-term plan that will take several years to move forward. "Don't expect to see us moving dirt tomorrow," he said.

Still, the bank already has hired Mid-America Real Estate Group -- retail specialists that brought a Target and Jewel to a new shopping center at 119th and Interstate 57 -- to stir up interest in the site.

"Our charge to them is to put out feelers from typical users. Target. Wal-Mart. We've talked to Meijer, a grocer out of Michigan," said Doig, a former Chicago Park District superintendent. "We're looking for general-merchandise and home-improvement big-box stores. Smaller clothing or soft goods. And a food and grocery component. We're not going to all this effort and not getting a grocery store. That's our No. 1 priority."

The lack of a big grocery store has been a major concern of locals who have to travel miles -- often to nearby suburbs -- to buy groceries and basic household items. That became clear to bank staff during more than 60 meetings with local groups and businesses in the last year.

Pullman Civic Organization President Drew Sexton said the bank's presentations gave residents a chance to express their concerns and make suggestions about the types of businesses they'd like to see.

"We're thrilled there may be shopping close to home," he said. "That will make it walkable for a lot of our senior residents to get over there."

The site plan provides an "organic" way for the new neighborhood to grow, said architectural and planning consultant Lee Bey, a former Mayor Daley aide who lives in Pullman.

"This is something unique in Chicago. It's fueled by the retail to the east, and the idea is to work to grow organically and economically," Bey said. "Retail is separate from the residential. People in homes won't have to feel like they're living in a [shopping area]. And if you're going to the big boxes, you don't have to feel like you're traipsing through a neighborhood to get there."

More than that, Pullman Park gives hope to people living in an often-forgotten part of town.

"The Pullman and Roseland area has been blighted for some time," said the Rev. Merlon Jackson, pastor of Christ Community Church on 103rd Street. "It's a great incentive for longtime residents to finally see something constructive in their area. And it's needed because it brings jobs. People looking to stay here who love the area won't have to venture far out of the community for employment."

http://media1.suntimes.com/multimedia/102209pullmanmap_cst_feed_20091022_00_16_58_4759-400-255.imageContent



..

Ugh, I would prefer better pedestrian integration of the big box, but pullman is a neighborhood/area that has been long neglected enough that I'll take it.

Any development on the far southside is good period.

It depends on how far out. That far out (nearly 13 miles from the Loop) in area that needs a spark I would agree with.

Anything north of South Shore though and east of the Dan Ryan I would prefer implement more stringent standards as one can without discouraging needed development.

http://www.suntimes.com/business/1856919,CST-NWS-soxpark31.article

Sox Park spruce-up in the works
COMISKEYVILLE? Stores, restaurants could replace lots across 35th Street

October 31, 2009

BY DAVID ROEDER AND FRAN SPIELMAN Staff Reporters

The state agency that owns U.S. Cellular Field said Friday it's in the early stages of planning restaurants, stores and other attractions across from the ballpark on 35th Street.

The development could replace the parking lots on the site where the old Comiskey Park used to be. The Illinois Sports Facilities Authority said the project could expand on recent renovations to the ballpark's Gate 5 entrance, with its atrium that leads to a walkway over 35th Street.

"It's all in the early stages of discussion," said Mike Alvarez, spokesman for the agency. "Economic conditions are dictating what will happen and when."

The ISFA owns the property, but anything it does with it would need agreement from the ballpark's tenant, the Chicago White Sox. Other Major League Baseball teams have profited by putting up stores and restaurants around their stadiums. The Chicago Cubs, now under new owners, also are examining that step for Wrigley Field.

"We are always looking for ways to improve the fan experience," said Lou Hernandez, spokesman for the White Sox. But he emphasized "there are no imminent plans or a timetable" for a Gate 5 development.

Hernandez also said the ISFA and the Sox would have to negotiate profit-sharing terms from any development.

Perri Irmer, chief executive of the ISFA, told WBBM-AM (780) that the agency wants to provide "a vibrant area" that fans and the community can visit all year................

..

^ Now that I'd like to see

http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/portalContentItemAction.do?BV_SessionID=@@@@1321353161.1258242919@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccdadeilemglfdcefecelldffhdfif.0&contentOID=537062817&contenTypeName=COC_EDITORIAL&topChannelName=Dept&blockName=Planning+And+Development%2FI+Want+To&context=dept&channelId=0&programId=0&entityName=Planning+And+Development&deptMainCategoryOID=

Restaurants on the menu for Bronzeville site

The City of Chicago is one step closer to satisfying Bronzeville’s appetite for fresh produce, new restaurants and more than 100 new jobs. Thanks to steps taken today by the City’s Community Development Commission (CDC), Bronzeville could soon become home to the “Bronzeville Cooking.” This development will serve as a culinary incubator for four restaurants and one fresh produce provider. The two-phase development on the north side of 51st Street between Prairie and Calumet Avenues will occupy a 100-year old retail building, adjacent to the CTA Green Line 51st Street stop, and will also include office space to support the culinary venues and 16,000 square feet of parking.

“We are excited about this project, as it addresses two key issues in Bronzeville: the need for quality food and jobs,” said Acting Department of Community Development Commissioner Chris Raguso. “Bronzeville Cooking is a unique concept that fosters these new eateries and celebrates the culinary history of people of African descent, all conveniently located near a CTA Elevated Train stop.”

Urban Juncture, a Bronzeville-based corporation owned by Bernard Loyd, is the developer. Currently, the development’s plans include the following restaurants: Cecelia’s Southern Breakfast; Majani310 (a vegan restaurant); Bronzeville Fresh Produce; The Jerk Shack (specializing in Jamaican jerk chicken); and Bronzeville Smokehouse and Grill.

The plans include the sale of one City-owned parcel on Calumet Avenue for $10,000, in order to extend the parking area and TIF assistance in the amount of $3 million from the 47th/King Drive TIF. There will be a lump sum payment of $1 million and a note in an equal amount upon completion of Phase I. Upon completion of Phase II, a lump sum payment of $500,000 will be made with another note issued of equal amount at that time. The development will create more than 130 permanent full time jobs.

Restaurants on the menu for Bronzeville siteThe two-phase development on the north side of 51st Street between Prairie and Calumet Avenues will occupy a 100-year old retail building, adjacent to the CTA Green Line 51st Street stop, and will also include office space to support the culinary venues and 16,000 square feet of parking.

Are the Green Line, King Drive bus, and King Drive bike lanes not enough transportation options to prevent a parking lot expansion?

Hired Truck giant ready to roll on Bridgeport homes (http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/1894899,CST-NWS-tadin20.article)

November 20, 2009
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com
Former Hired Truck kingpin Michael Tadin is spreading his development wings in his native Bridgeport neighborhood, even as the housing boom there and elsewhere is going bust.

"There's nothing booming anywhere. I guess we know something nobody else knows," Tadin said Thursday.

River Bend Real Estate Investment LLC, a company Tadin co-owns with his son, has requested a zoning change to build 28 single-family homes with detached, two-car garages in the 2800 block of South Hillock. The riverfront industrial site once housed Holsum Bread.

It's not their first foray into residential development in Bridgeport, where Tadin and his friend Mayor Daley were born and raised.

In 2005, Tadin and his son built and sold town houses in the 500 block of West 33rd Street. The following year, they put up 39 more in the 3700 block of South Sangamon, a site that once housed the Wexler Meat factory. Only half of those town homes have sold.

Development in Bridgeport, birthplace of Chicago mayors past and present, was booming for years because of demand for housing close to downtown jobs. Old industrial buildings were converted to lofts. Developers scoured side streets for lots suitable for new homes.

That has slowed to a crawl during the prolonged recession that has dried up financing, shrunk the pool of home buyers and prompted a wave of foreclosures.

But Tadin Sr. remains bullish on Bridgeport.

"It's gonna take a long time to accomplish the next phase, but we've already made the investment. We've owned the land for two years, and we're willing to go forward," he said.

"It's not like we're gonna start great guns. We'll start slow, build so many at a time, and take a chance. If it doesn't turn around, every one of us is in trouble," he said.

Tadin is the perennial city trucking magnate whose $1.25 million loan to a security company co-owned by Ald. Patrick Huels (11th) forced the 1997 resignation of Daley's former City Council floor leader. Tadin's trucking company had received a $1.1 million city subsidy with Huels' help.

Tadin was the undisputed king of Chicago's Hired Truck program, emerging from the pack, even after City Hall accused the company of overbilling and agreed to spread the wealth to other firms.

The program was disbanded in 2005 after the Chicago Sun-Times disclosed how politically connected companies -- some with ties to organized crime, others masquerading as minority- and women-owned businesses -- were paid to do little or no work. The Hired Truck scandal resulted in dozens of indictments and convictions and branched out into city hiring.

Two months ago, a company owned by Michael Tadin Jr. was accused of stealing water from a city fire hydrant -- without a permit and without a device to prevent construction debris from contaminating Chicago's water system.

The younger Tadin called it all a "misunderstanding." He said he was a "sub to a subcontractor" on the street resurfacing project in the 2100 block of North Clybourn and he "thought it was the general contractor's responsibility to get these permits."

http://www.hpherald.com/visimp.html

No small plans
Developer seeking dramatic remake for Washington Park
By Kate Hawley

A new proposal has surfaced for the land just west of Washington Park, an area that has been the subject of much speculation and planning in recent months.

Developer New South Partners LLC wants to transform land bounded by 54th Street, 55th Place, Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Prairie Avenue — which has long struggled from disinvestment and blight — into a dense cluster of office towers, big-box retail stores, residences and parking.

^^The Gateway at Washington Park

http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/5239/shapeimage6.pnghttp://img22.imageshack.us/img22/893/shapeimage6k.jpghttp://img22.imageshack.us/img22/6136/shapeimage6.jpghttp://img22.imageshack.us/img22/7615/editsq.png

^ A great project (too good for this neighborhood, in fact) that won't happen due to either a) the economy, or b) NIMBY'S!

After all, how dare they build all that density on the south side of Chicago! We're perfectly happy down here with all of our vacant lots, crime, murder, despair, oh and the parks! Lots of parks! Don't forget the litter and empty bottles, and the 16 year olds with guns!

Seriously, if the NIMBY's shoot this down I will laugh with pity.

^ A great project (too good for this neighborhood, in fact) that won't happen due to either a) the economy, or b) NIMBY'S!

After all, how dare they build all that density on the south side of Chicago! We're perfectly happy down here with all of our vacant lots, crime, murder, despair, oh and the parks! Lots of parks! Don't forget the litter and empty bottles, and the 16 year olds with guns!

Seriously, if the NIMBY's shoot this down I will laugh with pity.

Really? I can't imagine anyone on that side of Washington Park wanting to shoot down the first piece of economic investment in their neighborhood in ages. The *only* thing I can potentially forsee is well-meaning but ultimately damaging Hyde Parkers/Kenwooders thinking that this will "gentrify" (with the negative connotation) the area.

EDIT: in all honesty, it does sound *way* too good to be true. Immediately I saw this, I wanted it to happen, but almost as immediately huge doubt set in. Well, UChicago has a lot of parcels west of Washington Park, so maybe they'll help make sure the project succeeds.

There's an air of unalloyed unreality about this project.

The word that comes to mind is "vaporware."

The word that comes to mind is "vaporware."

sadly, i'm in agreement :(

Bronzeville to get new six-story mixed-use building (http://www.gazettechicago.com/index/2009/12/bronzeville-to-get-new-six-story-mixed-use-building/)
December 4, 2009
Phase 2C of the Oakwood Shores development on south Cottage Grove Drive should break ground sometime early next year. If all goes as planned, the vacant lot at the 3700 block will become a six-story mixed-use building with two floors of commercial space.

“It will be mixed-income family housing, part of the Chicago Housing Authority’s plan for transforming Oakwood Shores,” said Lee Pratter, senior project manager for Community Builders, the project’s residential developer.

“It should be a typical urban community,” said Pratter, with units for singles, family units, and senior dwellings “We’re in the process of building a neighborhood, a new community,” said Joe Williams, chairman of Granite Development.

“We’re trying to do something transformative. This will be a mixed-income community. We have great schools, arts and recreation centers, great parks, churches, dental and medical centers, and retail. We’re also going to have a senior building.”

The commercial portion of Phase 2C will consist of 28,000 square feet on the development’s first two floors; the four stories above that will hold 48 mixed-income apartments consisting of public housing units, affordable units, and market rate units.

For the retail space, “We are looking at a number of different potential users,” Williams said. “Our brokerage firm is scouring the Midwest looking for companies with an interest in being in an urban area. We are considering a number of companies that provide medical services and want to give the entire market an opportunity to be a part of this great neighborhood. With the economy, we are looking at everything very closely. We hope to know something after the first of the year.”

The developers hope to break ground the second quarter of 2010, with occupancy “sometime in 2011,” Williams said. Fourth Ward Alderman Toni Preckwinkle is pleased the development will provide more affordable housing for families and that developers are looking for medical provider tenants.

“When we began the revitalization with Oakwood Shores, we took down a medical facility,” she recalled. “This will restore access to medical care to an area that previously had it.”

“There’s much more to making a neighborhood than just the brick and mortar of building the building,” said Williams.

For more information, call Monica Hernandez, broker for Granite Asset Management, at (312) 873-0226.

I had a lengthy conversation yesterday with someone I've known for years who's involved in this project and whose judgment I respect.

The Gateway principals apparently have site control of a substantial part of the project. The site's advantages are real: a major east-west traffic corridor, mass transit and expressway access, the park, shifting demographics, etc.

I'm revising my take on this from "vaporware" to "long shot" or "wild goose chase."

http://www.hpherald.com/

Franks mansion to get new life as condos
By Kate Hawley

Kenwood residents Earl and Barbara Bowles are planning to renovate the vacant, dilapidated mansion best known as the former home of Bobby Franks.
The 14-year-old was murdered in the notorious 1924 case that made celebrities out of his teenaged killers, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. Franks’ former house, at 5052 S. Ellis Ave., will be divided into “two huge condominium units” under a plan currently underway, according to Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th).

^ A great project (too good for this neighborhood, in fact) that won't happen due to either a) the economy, or b) NIMBY'S!

Not many people actually living there to complain.

However, who the heck would take 500,000+ square feet of office out there? Do they have an in on a plan to build a new Provident Hospital, to be called (of course) the Todd Stroger Hospital of Cook County? It's also really hard to understand why someone would drop $40M on parking garages (assuming $30K a space) with so much vacant land around.

The 51st Street restaurant row sounds like fun.

According to Hyde Park Progress, (http://hydeparkprogress.blogspot.com/2010/01/university-considers-expanding.html) after selecting VDTA to design an expansion for the Lab Schools in its current location, U of C is considering building a new school for grades N-2 on the old Doctors Hospital site, which would still be demolished.

Conceptual rendering
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/1984/lab2becc2bconcept2brend.jpg

ARGH! Call me a curmudgeon, but I feel that UChicago's architectural legacy is being tainted by all these out-of-place modern/postmodern new buildings. Yeah, sure, neogothic is contrived, but it's not like UChicago was founded back in the middle ages anyway.

ARGH! Call me a curmudgeon, but I feel that UChicago's architectural legacy is being tainted by all these out-of-place modern/postmodern new buildings. Yeah, sure, neogothic is contrived, but it's not like UChicago was founded back in the middle ages anyway.

^ Are you being sarcastic?

Seems like the only good architecture being built south of Congress is down in Hyde Park, in U of C's campus

^ Are you being sarcastic?

Seems like the only good architecture being built south of Congress is down in Hyde Park, in U of C's campus

I'm not being sarcastic. While I'm not up to speed on the latest UChicago projects, the ones that were going on during my interim in Chicago, while looking good on renderings, were jarring and disorienting within the actual context of the quad and the neighborhood.

The closest equivalent i can come up with is a bunch of MIT's dabbling with starchitects. Individually, a lot of them look fine on their own, but within the actual context are disgusting, horrid, arrogant, and a terrible terrible mistake.

It took one look at UChicago's Max Palevsky dormitory rooms to become an immediate convert to contextualism. I haven't seen the construction of the new dorms south of the Midway in person to comment, but atleast the renderings made it look decently contextual (as well as Kamin's take). But the Mansuetto extension in particular looks like a travesty of "trying-too-hard architecture" plopped into a context where it most certainly doesn't belong. Though maybe when it's finished it'll complement the brutalist Regenstein library nicely, who knows.

The new dorms fit in pretty well without overwhelming B-J. The "book cube" (Mansueto) is pretty much going to disappear -- a giant glassy hole in the ground, basically, which seems kinda odd to me but whatever. Now, the huge new glassy hospital/sciences towers to the west are something else entirely.

The "new" Lab (pre)School will be over on Stony; there's no neo-Gothic context to respond to over there.

Vermilion Development was chosen to redevelop Harper Court, according to Crain's:
http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=36747

However, all of the proposals had pretty much the same program, apparently:
http://alwaysintransit.typepad.com/hyde_park_urbanist/2009/09/university-gives-harper-court-update.html

The closest equivalent i can come up with is a bunch of MIT's dabbling with starchitects. Individually, a lot of them look fine on their own, but within the actual context are disgusting, horrid, arrogant, and a terrible terrible mistake

Nothing new then. Mies, Edward Durell Stone, Saarinen, FLW....

However, all of the proposals had pretty much the same program, apparently:
http://alwaysintransit.typepad.com/hyde_park_urbanist/2009/09/university-gives-harper-court-update.html

^ Thanks for posting this, very interesting indeed. Here are some interesting highlights from the link:

Common elements in the (3) remaining proposals are:

·Opposite the HP bank (53rd St. corner/Hollywood Video space), there will be a building similar in size and scale to the bank.
·As the development moves north, buildings along Lake Park could reach the maximum size of 25 stories.
·The overall development will consist of a mix of retail (stores, entertainment, restaurants) that would cover 90,000 to 150,000 square feet. Possible tenants being considered include fitness clubs, movie theater, restaurants, live entertainment venues.
·There will be office space of 150,000 square feet, which will be rented by the University of Chicago...
·Plans include a boutique hotel of 150+ rooms (this is in addition to the estimation of retail footage above).
·A later phase calls for 200 units of condos.
·Parking will be on-site, but screened or hidden behind buildings. There will be more parking than in the current lot, although there is debate about how much to include.
·The new design calls for a gathering space (open space and/or green streetscaping).
·Overall buildings range in height from a minimum of 3 to a maximum of 25 floors.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-southworks-city-zonejan15,0,7798110.story?page=1


Long-stalled project at South Works site makes incremental progress

City panel approves TIF district for South Works site as neighbors wait, remember

Neil Bosanko looked out to a massive, empty plot in his blighted South Chicago neighborhood and tried to envision what developers have planned: a multibillion-dollar residential, retail and marina development.

"This is symbolically the gate to the future," said Bosanko, executive director of the South Chicago Chamber of Commerce, as he stood recently outside the fenced property. "And right now it's chained so I don't know what that means."

That's understandable, because ambitious plans to develop the 500-acre lakefront property -- former site of the U.S. Steel South Works plant -- have stalled since first announced in 2004. But on Tuesday, the city's Community Development Commission unanimously approved the creation of a tax increment finance district for the project's first phase: a mixed-use development on about 87 acres.

The TIF proposal is a significant step for the project. But Southeast Side residents who have been waiting years for anything that would spark economic development in the area are guarded about their optimism. For more than a decade, they have heard rumors about what would go on the site -- a casino, an airport, a prison.

A little sliver of what might be on the horizon for Hyde Park:

University of Chicago hires community engagement director (http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/mag/article.pl?articleId=32917)

Excerpt:

Job one: Creating a process for the university's Hyde Park neighbors to weigh in on campus expansion plans, up to 15 large projects totaling several billions of dollars.
Obstacle: "There's always some resistance to higher levels of density," he says. "I want to make sure there's open communications."
The plan: Meet regularly with aldermen, planning officials and the community. "Sometimes it's just picking up the phone and talking to people," he says.

Bah, hidden behind premium content registration. :(

A little sliver of what might be on the horizon for Hyde Park:

University of Chicago hires community engagement director (http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/mag/article.pl?articleId=32917)

Excerpt:

Job one: Creating a process for the university's Hyde Park neighbors to weigh in on campus expansion plans, up to 15 large projects totaling several billions of dollars.
Obstacle: "There's always some resistance to higher levels of density," he says. "I want to make sure there's open communications."
The plan: Meet regularly with aldermen, planning officials and the community. "Sometimes it's just picking up the phone and talking to people," he says.

^ What you see is essentially all the info that is available from this article.

You know me--if there were something juicier to disclose it would have been out there.. ;)

http://www.hpherald.com/lfovisimp.html

Dowell gives qualified support to Gateway
by Kate Hawley

Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) said she has written a letter of preliminary support for the Gateway at Washington Park, a major mixed-use development proposed for the block immediately west of Washington Park.

...The site has since shrunk, Dowell and Bowden said: Plans no longer call for building on a gas station on the northwest corner of King Drive and Garfield Boulevard, or property recently acquired by the University of Chicago.

Prediction: Near South Side set to boom (http://searchchicago.suntimes.com/homes/news/debat/1999346,debat18.article)

January 19, 2010
BY DON DEBAT - For Sun-Times Media
With Chicago house hunters wondering what the new decade will bring, it’s time to crystal-ball gaze into the future of residential development downtown.

What’s the next high-demand neighborhood set to emerge? Where will the next city real estate boom occur? Look no further than along Lake Michigan, the Windy City’s big blue front yard, where new harbors, boat slips, parks and beaches are planned. It is likely that much of the future lakefront housing will be developed between now and 2020 in the South Loop and Near South Side, surrounding McCormick Place, planners say.

This is why in a budget-crunch year, the city is spending millions of dollars to develop fancy recreational amenities along the Near South Side lakefront, including the 31st Street Harbor and the new Burnham Park Beach complete with beach house at 40th Street and the lakefront.

These swank amenities are part of the new Near South Side neighborhood the city expects private developers to build on the site of the failed Olympic Village, the 37-acre Michael Reese Hospital campus. The city will seek qualified developers for the land in the first quarter of 2010, and will be asking for developer proposals later.

If you add the $80 million the city spent to acquire the Michael Reese site, Chicago already has invested $100 million into the neighborhood during the deepest real estate recession since the Great Depression.

The city plans to install infrastructure improvements between 26th and 31st streets along Cottage Grove Avenue. A tax increment financing (TIF) district already is in place, and long-range South Side plans call for construction of a light-rail commuter system from McCormick Place to 63rd Street along Cottage Grove Avenue.

When the recession ends, and new high-rise condos, homes and apartments are developed over the next decade, the new Near South Side real estate eventually will generate millions of dollars of real estate tax revenue for the city.

Despite these visionary plans, preservationists continue to fight to save the hospital because many of the Michael Reese buildings were designed in the 1960s by Bauhaus founder and famed architect Walter Gropius. At least four of the hospital buildings already have been razed.

Off the lake, just west of the Michael Reese campus, the city recently flexed its muscle again, knocking down six apartment buildings that once were part of the Harold Ickes Homes, a public housing project near Cermak Road and State Street.

Just south of the Ickes Homes site, the 26th Street Loft District is emerging among vacant lots and a small collection of industrial buildings that could eventually be transformed into loft condominiums. The district is anchored by the Opera Lofts, a 93-unit adaptive-reuse condominium and rental development at 2545 S. Dearborn.

Near Navy Pier and the Chicago River’s outlet to Lake Michigan, the city also is expected to launch construction in March on the $40-million Gateway Harbor, a 240-slip marina anchored by a 2,610—foot-long pier featuring 15,500 square feet of restaurant and retail space.

Completion of this ambitious project could eventually provide enhanced lakefront vistas for the Spire, the uniquely designed 2,000-foot-tall ultra-luxury condo tower that might be built at 400 N. Lake Shore Dr. during the next boom.

How is the city going to pay for all this lakefront development?

Don’t be surprised if Mayor Richard M. Daley hedges his bet for a development boom with millions of dollars in revenue from 15,000 video gambling machines in 2010, and a land-based casino somewhere near our blue front yard in the future.

According to the Herald, the Shoreland Hotel renovation is moving forward now that Ald. Hairston supports it. Antheus is also going to restore the signage on the east side of the building as part of the project.

Rendering from Studio Gang:
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/4592/shoreland.jpg

Meanwhile, next week we'll find out more about Harper Court.

http://fiftythird.uchicago.edu/?q=node/21

Meet the Harper Court Developer on Feb. 8

The City and the University have selected a developer for Harper Court: Vermilion Development, which put together the best mix of ideas, team and resources to see this ambitious project through to success. Read the official announcement here.

Now you have the chance to hear from Vermilion representatives first-hand. The 53rd St. TIF Council is holding a special meeting at 7 pm Feb. 8, in the gym of Canter Middle School, 4959 S. Blackstone Ave. The only agenda item for the meeting is Vermilion’s presentation of the proposal the developers made to the City and the University.

According to the Herald, the Shoreland Hotel renovation is moving forward now that Ald. Hairston supports it. Antheus is also going to restore the signage on the east side of the building as part of the project.

^ Good news.

We just averted the loss of an architectural gem

According to the Herald, the Shoreland Hotel renovation is moving forward now that Ald. Hairston supports it. Antheus is also going to restore the signage on the east side of the building as part of the project.

^ About effin time that more than just a handful of urban enthusiasts on an internet forum recognize this as a problem (see top left corner):

http://www.hpherald.com/pg4.html
http://www.hpherald.com/p4.jpg

'Shops & Lofts' moves forward -- with rentals (http://www.newcommunities.org/news/articleDetail.asp?objectID=1713)

ED FINKEL FEBRUARY 3, 2010
PRINT

CONTACT US
Part of the art of the deal is knowing when to walk away – and when to just shift gears.

A couple years ago, NCP lead agency Quad Communities Development Corp. was working with urban-oriented commercial developer Mahogany Ventures on a mixed-income, mixed-use project called the “Shops and Lofts at 47.” The concept combined ground-floor retail and upper-story condos along Cottage Grove Avenue and around the corner on 47th Street.

Full article at link. Here's a rendering:

http://www.newcommunities.org/cmaimages/shopslofts-home.jpg/shopslofts-home-full;size$350,196.ImageHandler

Mahogany is currently negotiating with a national grocery chain that would fill 18,000 square feet of the retail space, and the company is hoping to sign leases with a variety of smaller storefronts like a coffee shop and a dry cleaner, to fill about 10,000 square feet more during the first phase.

Great news. South Bronzeville/Kenwood, despite relative affluence, is a virtual desert for retail or even grocery.

http://media1.suntimes.com/multimedia/g021910shoreland2_cst_feed_20100218_22_09_41_9377-159-400.imageContent

Hyde Park's famed Shoreland Hotel may go rental
BY DAVID ROEDER AND FRAN SPIELMAN

The old Shoreland Hotel, once a center of social life in Hyde Park, would be restored as a 350-unit apartment building under plans proposed to the City Council.
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/1288/g021910shoreland2cstfee.jpg

http://www.hpherald.com/

Federal funding aimed at fixing up Grand Boulevard properties
By Kate Hawley

A swath of land in Grand Boulevard will benefit from $98 million award to the city of Chicago in January to shore up neighborhoods that have suffered during the economic downturn and foreclosure crisis.

… The Shops & Lofts development won't get any direct NSP funding...The money would be used instead to revitalize properties surrounding the site, according to Sullivan.
---

Here's the list (http://www.chicagonsp.org/display.aspx?pointer=9412) of properties acquired so far. I haven't had a chance to look at them all yet, but two that stand out are 5520 S. Prairie and a pretty cool courtyard building at 6015 S. Indiana.

VDTA + FGM Architects

New arts wing, which will require the demolition of the middle section of Belfield Hall (http://storage.lib.uchicago.edu/apf/apf2/images/derivatives/apf2-00677r.jpg)
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/1274/21940290208345059642365.jpg
Elizabeth Fama/ Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3415934&op=1&o=global&view=global&subj=294535871860&id=642365059)

Early Childhood Center
Plan A on the existing campus
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/5566/59thstreeteccstudy.jpg
Hyde Park Progress (http://hydeparkprogress.blogspot.com/2010/02/university-and-lab-school-ecc-plan-too.html)

or Plan B on the Doctors Hospital site
http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/3484/021510nwslabhalf.jpg
http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/1746/stonyislandeccstudy.jpg
Hyde Park Progress (http://hydeparkprogress.blogspot.com/2010/02/university-and-lab-school-ecc-plan-too.html)

The school seems to be leaning towards Plan B, which will effectively split the campus and still require demolition of the Doctors Hospital building. All this mainly for additional teacher parking and so that they don't have to shrink their regulation size soccer field or demolish the tennis courts, or so it seems.

http://www.hpherald.com

TIF hears changes to Village Center project
By Sam Cholke

The Silliman Group presented a slightly modified version of the development for the Village shopping center at the March 8 meeting of the 53rd Street Tax Increment Financing District advisory council.
http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/8528/photo1ta.jpg
---
Good news: parking is now underground and down to about 400 spaces, compared to the previous 500+, will proceed as one phase instead of two
Bad news: won't start demolition for at least two years

Previous design:
http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/9827/tower2bfrom2bkenwood2ba.jpg
http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/9193/villagecenter.jpg

So does that mean most of the podium will be gone now?

http://www.wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=40921

Historic 47th Street Building Won't Likely Be Demolished
Produced by Natalie Moore on Thursday, March 25, 2010

The hulking Rosenwald Apartments are an eyesore. Neighbors would like to see it be a community anchor on 47th Street. The Rosenwald was once a storied part of a thriving black metropolis on the South Side.

Alderman Pat Dowell hired the Urban Land Institute to do a study. The nonprofit ruled out demolition. The institute came up with two recommendations: One would cost $100 million. It includes a mix of housing and retail. Plan B is a scaled down, cheaper version.

http://www.suntimes.com/business/roeder/2132280,CST-NWS-roeder31.article

New Southeast Side community on the lake?
Rezoning of old U.S. Steel South Works plant site could mean birth of massive community

March 31, 2010

BY DAVID ROEDER droeder@suntimes.com
Get used to a new Chicago lakefront community, vast in its ambition. It is decades from realization, but everything has to start somewhere, and in legal terms, this one's birth could be April 15.

That's when the Chicago Plan Commission tentatively is scheduled to consider zoning for about 400 acres next to Lake Michigan from 79th to 87th streets. It's the old site of the U.S. Steel South Works plant, which employed 20,000 in its heyday but closed in 1992............

After City Council action, the zoning could be final by June. Mabwa said her company could then proceed with marketing. Construction on the first phase could be a couple of years away, depending on the pace of investment.

The property adjoins the South Chicago neighborhood, which has many difficulties. But it's close to four Metra stations, is just 10 miles from downtown, and South Shore Drive will be rerouted into its midst. And it boasts that talisman of Chicago property owners: the open lakefront.

Not part of the plan is a 118-acre piece south of 87th Street where Solo Cup Co. once was slated to build a plant. It canceled the project and put the land up for sale.

So far, nobody's talking high-rises on the McCaffery portion much beyond 20 stories. But that could change with density and demand. If McCaffery succeeds, the site's evolution will be a worry for Chicago circa 2050.

..

*crosses fingers for south works*

btw, what's the point of zoning if it seems like the city council is always willing to change the zoning to fit new development?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/realestate/chi-0604300331apr30,0,7787343.story?coll=chi-classifiedrealestate-hed

CITY REPORT
Residential slated for Drexel Blvd.
Plans for condos, single-family units

By Jeanette Almada
Special to the Tribune
Published April 30, 2006

A developer will buy vacant city-owned land along Drexel Boulevard in the North Kenwood/Oakland neighborhood for two projects that will advance the resurgence of the grand boulevard.

"There is a deep market for residential units in [North Kenwood] and especially on Drexel," said Mark Sutherland, a partner in Chicago-based Sutherland/Pearsall Development Corp.

The Community Development Commission this month approved the sale of the 6,569-square-foot parcel at 4000 S. Drexel Blvd., the southwest corner of 40th Street and Drexel Boulevard, to Sutherland/Pearsall. City Council approval is needed.

The developer will pay the appraised market-rate price, $267,000, and will build a four-story condominium building with 13 units and an elevator.

The $3.7 million project's two- and three-bedroom condominiums will range from 1,100 to 1,400 square feet and $190,000 to $335,000, Sutherland said. "We are still in process of finalizing prices but the price will include one indoor parking space per unit," he said.

About half of the units that Sutherland/Pearsall has built to date on Drexel have sold for less than $200,000. In recent years, the developer has built more than 100 units in six projects on long-vacant lots on the 3900, 4100, 4400 and 4500 blocks of South Drexel Boulevard.

Sutherland/Pearsall is under contract to buy land on Drexel one block north of the development site.

"We will build five single-family houses with 4,500 to 5,000 square feet of space," Sutherland said, adding that those houses will be priced at more than $1 million.

The developer expects to close on the single-family homes site by early summer, he said.

Chicago-based architect Brian Milbury is designing the four-story condo building and the single-family houses, Sutherland said.

"We expect to start construction on both projects by the end of the year," he said.

Do you have any sample of design of the houses?

^ Dude, did you look at the date of that article? :ohno:

Anyone heard of this before? I'm having a hard time figuring out where this is supposed to go. They're purposefully vague, only saying that it is located along Lake Michigan on the south side and providing a pretty useless map. That said, my guess is somewhere on the USX site, probably north of McCaffery's proposal.


http://www.archdaily.com/54523/nunnmps-cheungvogl/#more-54523
Project Name: Nunnmps
Location: Chicago, Illinois, US
District: South Chicago
Use: Office
Site Area: 50,000 sqm
Bldg. Area: 16,000 sqm
Gross Floor Area: 16,000 sqm basement/below ground; 48,000 sqm office/above ground (64,000 sqm total)
Bldg. Coverage Ratio: 32% (0.3)
Gross Floor Ratio: 128% (1.3)
Bldg. Scale: 3 Stories above Ground, 1 Storey below Ground
Structure: Basement and ground floor: concrete; upper office: steel frame
Max. Height: 60 m
Landscape Area: 46,000 sqm
Parking Lot: 400 + 40 cars
Design year: 2009, ongoing

For their latest project, an IT security and service office, Cheungvogl worked to create a deep connection with the site. The office, Nunnmps, borders Lake Michigan in an area of Chicago that is close enough to the city center yet rests on the outskirts in an undeveloped site with vast views of the skyline. “The design development grew as naturally as the terrain overtook the site in the absence of human inhabitation over the years. Through uninterrupted silence, the site is covered with layers of shimmering grass and matured trees. We want to retain and capture the natural quality of silence,” explained the architects.

The studio spaces are lifted high above the ground, providing a sense of privacy that the highly confidential spaces require. The spaces are wrapped with translucent ETFE that absorbs glare and harsh direct sunlight, creating a thermal buffer zone between the external and internal spaces. The room temperature is regulated by chilled ceilings and chilled beams.
http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/1198/1269896505cheungvoglnun.jpg
http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/4716/1269896498cheungvoglnunf.jpg
http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/8766/1269896493cheungvoglnun.jpg

this sounds like just a design project, not a real project. the notes are really confusing "on the outskirts of chicago" but "still close to downtown" and apparently there's a spot on the lake that is untouched save for prarie grass and some trees.

Can't presume what Census 2010 will show, but more developments like this can reverse the tide of lower income neighborhoods "emptying out". I believe this replaces vacant land:

March 25, 2010
City breaks ground for Branch of Hope apartments in Englewood (http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dcd/provdrs/afford_hous/news/2010/mar/city_breaks_groundforbranchofhopeapartmentsinenglewood.html)
100-unit development to provide affordable housing with support services on the South Side
Molly Sullivan (312) 744-2976

mollysullivan@cityofchicago.org

Department of Community Development First Deputy Commissioner Ellen Sahli joined members of the development team and other housing advocates to celebrate the ground breaking for Branch of Hope Apartments, a new affordable, supportive housing development in the City’s Englewood community.

“We remain committed to working with our partners to build affordable housing with on-site supportive services so that residents in need will have the opportunity to resume healthy and productive lives,” Sahli said. “This development will provide support for people who need it most.”

The proposed 100-unit development, to be located at 5628-5630 S. Halsted St., will be made affordable to low-income adults. Half of the units will be reserved for formerly homeless individuals with disabilities and supportive services will be provided to these residents, including case management, job training and health care services.

Branch of Hope Apartments will feature one-bedroom apartments at initial monthly rents from $720. Apartments will be approximately 520 square feet in size and will be made affordable to those whose income does not exceed $26,400 for a single person household.

Interfaith Housing Development Corporation plans to build two, three-story buildings, which are mirror images of each other and contain 50 units each.

The buildings will be built on 18 City-owned and two privately held vacant parcels along the west side of Halsted between 56th and 57th streets. Amenities will include activity rooms, a laundry room and on-site parking. A paved patio and landscaped area will connect the two buildings.

The $22.4 million development will be an example of how green practices can be incorporated into affordable housing design and construction to minimize environmental impact and reduce energy consumption.

Incorporated into the building’s design is a geothermal heating and cooling system that will help lower utility costs. As a result, the added savings will free up funds for other uses, including supportive services for tenants.

In addition to providing the land, the City also will invest up to $8.5 million in loans, $13 million in bonds and $913,048 in tax credits will be generated from the bonds, providing $6.4 million in equity. Other major investments will come from the Illinois Housing Development Authority and grants.
http://www.ihdc.org/images/OBapts-2.jpg

http://www.hpherald.com

Repair work begins on Harper Theater
The University of Chicago has begun much-anticipated repair to the Harper Theater building on the northwest corner of the intersection of 53rd Street and Harper Avenue. The goal of the work is to make façade repairs that will allow the university to safely remove the scaffolding that has been wrapped around the property according to University of Chicago Vice President of News and Public Affairs Steve Kloehn.

Washington Park site to be redeveloped
by Sam Cholke
The first step in developing the former site of the Washington Park Homes public housing development will begin this month.
James Wilson, a coordinating planner for the city’s Community Development Department, said the city will begin talking to developers April 12 about developing the majority of the block between East 44th Street and East 45th Street, South Cottage Grove Avenue and South Evans Avenue.
The site is slated for mixed-used development, Wilson told the North Kenwood Oakland Conservation Community Council, or NK-O CCC, at an April 1 meeting.

Grove Parc Plaza redevelopment
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/7237/44918161.jpg
The first phase includes 67 units.
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/5296/wcs2lgppe07.jpg
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/535/wcs1lgppe08.jpg

Overall master plan
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/2706/wp4massingdiagramfinal.jpg
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/2331/wp1cornerbldgrendering.jpg
http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/8859/wp2highriserendering.jpg

I'm not really feeling the first phase but the whole plan is a big improvement over the existing buildings.

^^ man, i guess woodlawn is really getting into gentrification mode. is that new street-level retail i see?

As long as they build to the property line then I'll like. I would prefer to see some really nice 3 story Rowhomes instead of the crap they have in that render. and atleast one or two highrises:)

http://www.hpherald.com

Shops and Lofts moving forward
by Sam Cholke

After almost a year on the sidelines during the economic downturn, a scaled-back Shops and Lofts at 47 development is ready to move forward.
“Essentially we’re close to the project finally coming together,” said Frank Petruziello, a principal in Skilken, one of the developers for the site.
Petruziello said more than half of the retail units have tenants in the mixed-used development at South Cottage Grove and East 47th Street.

Metropolis revived
by Sam Cholke

...A major pharmacy chain has since signed on to the project. The development will be anchored by a Roundy’s grocery store.
Developers are in final negotiations with a family-style restaurant, a bank and a social service organization, according to Steve Lane, a partner at Capri Capital.

Metropolis revived
by Sam Cholke

...A major pharmacy chain has since signed on to the project. The development will be anchored by a Roundy’s grocery store.
Developers are in final negotiations with a family-style restaurant, a bank and a social service organization, according to Steve Lane, a partner at Capri Capital.

^ BOOOO!!!

And stop calling it "Metropolis". That piece of shit suburban strip-hell-hole resembles nothing of the sort

^ BOOOO!!!

And stop calling it "Metropolis". That piece of shit suburban strip-hell-hole resembles nothing of the sort

What's the BOOOOO for? Metropolis is there, like it or not, and I'd rather a filled-in strip mall than a vacant strip mall. And it's not *really* a strip-mall, it's just not as urban/property-line-aligning as it could be. Areas in the south side are not exactly spoiled for choice in retail developments right now.

What's the BOOOOO for? Metropolis is there, like it or not, and I'd rather a filled-in strip mall than a vacant strip mall. And it's not *really* a strip-mall, it's just not as urban/property-line-aligning as it could be. Areas in the south side are not exactly spoiled for choice in retail developments right now.

^ Uhhh.....what project are you talking about?

The project I'm talking about hasn't even broken ground yet.

And I disagree with you: I'd rather see a strip mall be vacant than filled. At least if it's vacant, it's an easier site to redevelop..

^ BOOOO!!!

And stop calling it "Metropolis". That piece of shit suburban strip-hell-hole resembles nothing of the sort

I wouldn't want to live in Metropolis, but--unless I misunderstand which development this is--it's at Pershing and State where there are blocks upon blocks of unused land, right? I'd love to go back in time and boo the "urban renewal" plans that bulldozed neighborhoods and built nightmarish towers there, but at this point we have to take what we can get in this area, right? If there's a supermarket and other amenities there, it might solidify the neighborhood, make the Bronzeville more attractive in general, and we can then get some high quality developments near the parts that have retained their original character. Then, once the neighborhood is strong, we can work on getting quality infill spreading out from the quality core.

I hate to see low quality stuff in any area where we should expect high quality. In this location--again, unless I'm confused about that intersection--I'm happy to see any investment.

No, you're correct.

Bronzeville has beautiful old building stock, good transit access, and a major university. I'd be seriously surprised if it doesn't become the next Lakeview or something in the next 20 years.

^ Uhhh.....what project are you talking about?

The project I'm talking about hasn't even broken ground yet.

And I disagree with you: I'd rather see a strip mall be vacant than filled. At least if it's vacant, it's an easier site to redevelop..

I meant "it's there" in a "it's a done deal" not a physical presence way.

That being said, talking about desiring to see a vacant strip mall is a really callous attitude to have toward parts of Chicago long neglected due to issues of race. Walk through the black belt a bit and experience how desperately people even want just a coffee shop (see South Shore coverage about starbucks breaking ground some years back). While I'm certainly not happy with how Metropolis is turning/turned out, I would never wish it failure. Rather, I would wish it such astronomical success that better, more talented developers start swooping into the area with better projects. The South Loop had to start with Dearborn Park, remember.

Yes, and Lincoln Park and Lakeview started with big-box retail corridors along Clybourn and Elston decades before Best Buy was opening on Clark Street and Home Depot on Halsted.

State Street is well-positioned to form a retail corridor for Bronzeville and Bridgeport because it has miles of cleared land and immediate highway access. Placing these businesses out here will hopefully allow for denser, more urban development along the lake, following the North Side pattern.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/ct-mre-0530-senior-housing-chicago-20100530,0,7422540,full.story

Chicago nears goal to add 4,000 apartments for seniors
By Jane Adler

Oakwood Shores Senior Apartments, 3750 S. Cottage Grove Ave.: The financing for this project is set to close this summer, and construction will start shortly thereafter. The $18.5 million building, which is expected to open in the fall of 2011, has 76 apartments. Rent is 30 percent of the resident's monthly income. The building includes some units for those with higher incomes. The project is part of Oakwood Shores, the redevelopment of the area formerly occupied by the Ida B. Wells public housing project.
http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/2545/53967681.jpg

^ I don't recall if this is the same building that is supposed to have 2 levels of commercial space, but it doesn't appear to be so in the rendering below. However, there does appear to be some commercial space on the ground level.

It's really nice to see this area fill in with development such as this.

I would have prefered them to just renovate the old housing projects and turn them into apartments, senior housing, etc. instead of razing them completely and putting lame stuff like this in its place.:ohno::ohno::ohno:.... atleast its not another lame 3 story condo....

^ I don't recall if this is the same building that is supposed to have 2 levels of commercial space, but it doesn't appear to be so in the rendering below. However, there does appear to be some commercial space on the ground level.

It's really nice to see this area fill in with development such as this.

No. That development is located at 47th & Cottage Grove.

No. That development is located at 47th & Cottage Grove.

??? that doesn't seem to mesh with the street numbering.

^ I think he's talking about Shops & Lofts. 47th and Cottage Grove is where that's located

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2010/06/major-development-at-old-south-works-site-gets-thumbs-up-from-aldermen.html

Major development at old South Works site gets thumbs up from aldermen

June 03, 2010

Posted by John Byrne at 2:30 p.m.

A massive lakefront housing and shopping development pegged for a former South Side steel mill took another step toward becoming reality today when the City Council Zoning Committee signed off on it.

The panel gave a thumbs up to a proposal by a development group including Chicago-based McCaffery Interests to build condominiums, apartments and a million square feet of retail space on the northern 77 acres of the 400-acre former U.S. Steel South Works site near 79th Street east of U.S. 41.

The site has been empty since the plant closed in 1992.

The committee also endorsed an overall plan laying out zoning specifications for the rest of the site, which stretches south to around 87th Street. But since the developers expect it will take decades to complete the project, Ald. John Pope said they will come back to the Zoning Committee down the road to seek approval of specific plans for those parts.

Pope, 10th, whose ward straddles the location, said he sees it as a "regional draw" that will give retailers a reason to open up in a neighborhood that now has a dearth of places for residents to shop.

"A lot of residents in the area have to go to the suburbs, Northwest Indiana or downtown to do basic shopping, which is currently not available," Pope said.

The city plans to dedicate nearly $100 million in revenue generated through rising property taxes on the site to help cover the cost of laying roads and putting in other infrastructure, Pope said.

The full City Council will consider the plan next week.
..

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/2389162,CST-NWS-cermak14.article

Vacant factory could see life as 200-room hotel

June 14, 2010

BY DAVID ROEDER AND FRAN SPIELMAN Staff Reporters
Developers have proposed turning a vacant industrial giant on the Near South Side into a hotel serving Chinatown, Pilsen and McCormick Place.

An investment group has requested a zoning change for 465 W. Cermak, a 101-year-old factory that has been vacant for years. It sits in a small landmark district that honors the city's industrial past.

The zoning application calls for converting the five-story building into a 200-room hotel, with about 120,000 square feet for stores and restaurants.

Rolando Acosta, an attorney for the project, said the 450,000-square-foot building could draw both convention goers and business from the surrounding neighborhoods.

The owners are a partnership run by Christine Chuning, whom Acosta described as a Chinatown investor. Ray Chin, a developer and construction manager of public works projects around Chicago, is managing the project.

Acosta said other investors could enter the deal over time. Chin, he said, has talked to potential hotel operators and has contacts with investors in China.

"There's a cluster of four buildings in this landmark district," Acosta said. "Doing something with this building could get something started with the other three."

He noted that the city has looked at the buildings as being part of a future Pilsen arts district.

Ald. Danny Solis, whose 25th Ward includes the project, said he supports the plans and believes the investors can arrange the financing.

"The clientele would be Chinese business people," he said. "Chinatown is a key community for this."

He said Chinatown has been growing despite the recession and a few foreclosures.

New hotels in the vicinity have been a tough sell. Separate plans for a 1,000-room operation next to the convention complex and for a hotel decorated in the theme of ancient Chinese dynasties have been blocked by the economy and lack of financing.

The market, however, could get new attention in the years ahead. In the McCormick Place reform legislation enacted this month, one provision increases the convention center's bonding authority by up to $2.5 million to plan a new hotel on its property.

McCormick Place has one hotel, a Hyatt. Trade show managers have said McCormick Place would get more business if conventioneers could avoid bus or taxi trips to downtown lodging.

The 465 W. Cermak building is listed in city records as the W.M. Hoyt Co. Building, but it was often called the Premium Plastics Building for a company that had it for many years.

It is part of the Cermak Road Bridge District, enacted by the City Council in 2006. City landmark documents said it recognizes the last "double leaf Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge" in Chicago.

The buildings "represent an almost vanished aspect of Chicago's historical industrial streetscapes" and show the linkage between river and rail networks, said a city report on the district.

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/2055/465cermackx.jpg

http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/5839/465cermack.jpg

That would be awesome if this goes through. Would love to see the other three buildings in the district be put to similar reuse as well.
..

http://www.suntimes.com/business/2406236,CST-NWS-salvation18.article

Salvation Army community center for West Pullman

June 18, 2010

BY DAVID ROEDER Staff Reporter
The Chicago Plan Commission approved a Salvation Army community center and athletic facilities for West Pullman on Thursday.

The $64 million development is funded by a $109 million donation to the Salvation Army by Joan Kroc, late widow of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc. The additional money will be applied to an endowment for operating funds and scholarships, said Maj. David Harvey of the charitable group.
Harvey said the group still needs to raise $6 million for the endowment and that it already has raised about $18 million from other sources..............

,,

Bronzeville Cookin' - 51st and Prairie
http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/4994/bronzvillecookin.jpg
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Shoreland Hotel recommended for landmark status (http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/zlup/provdrs/hist/news/2010/jul/landmark_commissionrecommendsshorelandhotelfor.html)

Host to luminaries like Amelia Earhart, Elvis Presley and visiting professional baseball teams, Hyde Park's historic Shoreland Hotel was recommended today as an official Chicago landmark.

Bronzeville Cookin' - 51st and Prairie
http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/4994/bronzvillecookin.jpg
---
Shoreland Hotel recommended for landmark status (http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/zlup/provdrs/hist/news/2010/jul/landmark_commissionrecommendsshorelandhotelfor.html)

Host to luminaries like Amelia Earhart, Elvis Presley and visiting professional baseball teams, Hyde Park's historic Shoreland Hotel was recommended today as an official Chicago landmark.

whats that new building? looks nice
is that a name?
bronzeville cookin?

whats that new building? looks nice
is that a name?
bronzeville cookin?

It's an existing building (nearly 100 years old). This will be a rehab project.

Just judging off the picture, that doesn't look like much of anything to try to preserve in my opinion

Just judging off the picture, that doesn't look like much of anything to try to preserve in my opinion

Does the neighborhood really need more demolition? This preserves an existing dense, urban building right next to an L station... the alternative, given that this is Washington Park, is probably something that looks like an Applebee's surrounded by a parking lot. Having a restaurant near the station will help to deter street crime along 51st, too.

549 W. 63rd Street

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7555490

btw that restaurant at prairie and 51st,
cool location,
in that i hope this helps the area
you can see potential when you google map it
and the building in the google map
streetview is all boarded up
so yeah, its nice to preserve that
nice feel to the street kindof building

wow is this the beginning of something in
washington park?

wow is this the beginning of something in
washington park?

Look up real estate trends for Washington Park over the last 5 years. This area was one of the most hyped in Chicago late 2006, early 2007... until everything blew up.


Hopefully? Yes.... Probably? No

http://news.uchicago.edu/news.php?asset_id=2051

Seminary Co-op Bookstore plans move next door, to McGiffert House
July 19, 2010

The Seminary Co-operative Bookstore will move to a new, larger location less than a block from its current home near the end of 2011, the year the Seminary Co-op will celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Seminary Co-op and University of Chicago officials announced the move as planning gets under way for the adaptive reuse of the building at 5757 S. University Ave., including the basement space the Co-op now occupies.
---
http://www.hpherald.com

Antheus Capital buys Sutherland
By Sam Cholke

The Sutherland building has lost the battle against decay, and the few residents sticking out the fight were informed Aug. 2 that their leases would not be renewed as the building is cleared prior to renovation by new owner, Antheus Capital.

http://www.archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=4761

A Bargain for Pullman?
Walmart clears Chicago council for Far South Side project, paving way for 180-acre development

With the support of the mayor, the aldermen, and even unions that have long opposed it, Walmart is coming to the South Side of Chicago. What will be joining the 150,000-square-foot Super Center on the sprawling 180-acre site remains less certain. Whatever gets built, it will bring economic activity to a depressed corner of the city, part of the reason Walmart succeeded against such stiff opposition.

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/2555/pullmanwalmartsiteplan.jpg
http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/4253/pullmanwalmartstores.jpg
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/7978/pullmanwalmart111.jpg
http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/5282/pullmanwalmartpark.jpg

http://www.archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=4761

A Bargain for Pullman?
Walmart clears Chicago council for Far South Side project, paving way for 180-acre development

With the support of the mayor, the aldermen, and even unions that have long opposed it, Walmart is coming to the South Side of Chicago. What will be joining the 150,000-square-foot Super Center on the sprawling 180-acre site remains less certain. Whatever gets built, it will bring economic activity to a depressed corner of the city, part of the reason Walmart succeeded against such stiff opposition.


While ANY investment in Pullman is a welcome sight, the planning is a huge disappointment.

The bank on SE corner (the tower) took design proposals from a group of Masters students at IIT and easily had a dozen designs that were 10x better... even while still including big box shopping.

I really hate how suburban those pictures look. I know they can do better than that...

^yeah, the sea of parking is off-putting for sure. But development is so sparse in that area anyway. I hate to say it, but Id have to take it over nothing.

Its basically the suburbs down there anyways

Its basically the suburbs down there anyways

:lol: Lol Pullman? Roseland? Suburban? Lol

:lol: Lol Pullman? Roseland? Suburban? Lol

Yes, its very similar to a lot of inner-ring suburbs around many cities, and its the same distance to downtown as many inner-ring suburbs too. Only difference is Chicago probably annexed that land.

:lol: Lol Pullman? Roseland? Suburban? Lol

Look at the qualifier for being urban as the level of density and land use. this area is more suburban in those terms than lets say, Lakeview. I love Pullman for its historic charm. The tree lined streets, the Pullman rowhouses, thats all beautiful. But years of crime and neglect have left other area's of the nieghborhood with empty lots and abandoned buidings.

This development is going to bring in a suburban style design that hopefully will not comprimise the little bit of urbaness the area has. The trade off is first and formost jobs. Then there is the added benefit of the area recieving a grocery store. Depending on what type of businesses are included in the plan, this might turn out to be a decent development.

not sure why that was directed at me but ok... :weird:

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/theskyline/2010/09/city-council-approved-south-works-plan.html

City Council approves South Works plan; Daley floats tech park at Michael Reese
September 08, 2010

Even as speculation swirls over who will lead Chicago in the post-Richard M. Daley era, the mayor's agenda for re-shaping the city rolls on.

Backing a request from Daley, the Chicago City Council today agreed to kick in up to $98 million in infrastructure costs for the long-dormant expanse of lakefront property that once housed the U.S. Steel South Works plant, according to Molly Sullivan, a spokeswoman for the city's Department of Community Development.

Meanwhile, Daley announced that the city is considering a tech park at the former Michael Reese Hospital campus, the Tribune's Clout Street blog reports.

The city demolished all but two buildings on the campus, which was co-planned and partly designed by Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus school in Germany, to make way for an Olympic Village if Chicago won the bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

Rio de Janeiro won the bid instead, leaving the future of the 37-acre South Side site in doubt.

Chicago developer Dan McCaffrey, together with U.S. Steel Corp., plans to transform the nearly-barren, almost 580-acre South Works site into a $4 billion minicity of high-rises aparments, town homes, parks, shops, offices and medical facilities that would be home to 150,000 people.

The proposal will involve issuing bonds that ultimately would be paid back with property taxes generated by the development. The money would pay for infrastructure, such as new streets, for the first phrase of the project, which is expected to get underway in 2013 after a relocation and widening of South Shore Drive is completed south of 79th Street.

The South Works master plan was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill of Chicago along with Sasaki Associates of Massachusetts. The former steel plant has been shuttered since 1992.
...........

http://www.hpherald.com/

Lake Park to move forward
by Sam Cholke

The second phase of development at Lake Park Crescent is going forward, representatives from developer the Davis Group said at a Sept. 2 meeting of the North Kenwood Oakland Conservation Community Council.

The next phase will add 132 units of housing to the development, 81 units in a mid-rise building and 51 units in a series of 3- and 6-unit row houses. All the units will be rental...The council has already signed-off on the midrise building, which is currently in the process of securing building permits and should break ground in January. The council approved the design for the row housing and the developers expected to secure building permits by December.

Blair Camin's thoughts on the South Works plan. A decent overview and a couple good renderings (click on the pics for larger sizes.)

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/theskyline/2010/09/the-new-plan-for-old-lakefront-steel-works-its-bold-strokes-are-worthy-of-burnham-but-god-or-the-dev.html

Blair Camin's thoughts on the South Works plan. A decent overview and a couple good renderings (click on the pics for larger sizes.)

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/theskyline/2010/09/the-new-plan-for-old-lakefront-steel-works-its-bold-strokes-are-worthy-of-burnham-but-god-or-the-dev.html

That rendering shown in the tribune and analyzed by Blair was not the same rendering passed by the plan commission.

^ After reading that article I'm starting to get a little afraid that the project would look really suburban...

Surprise, surprise, it doesn't look like that Gateway project will be happening as envisioned, if at all. Instead they're marketing the site as a suburban-style shopping center with a Food4Less supermarket anchoring the development.
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/3517/gateway.jpg

Further west is a similar development, although I assume the developer doesn't entirely own this huge swath of land at the moment.

Space for big box and small retailers, outlet mall, small convention center, community center, residential development, hotels, and a proposed CTA and Metra station.
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/8643/wp2p.jpg
http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/8374/wp1zt.jpg
At least with this one they didn't even bother getting our hopes up.

^ If approved, it will confirm my suspicion that the south side of Chicago remains a worthless shit hole not worth caring about--Hyde Park excepted.

The south branch of the Green Line really needs to be torn down if these are the kinds of developments we have to look forward to. There is absolutely no reason for heavy rail mass transit to exist if all you're going to build is gas stations & shopping centers surrounded by oceans of parking.

^ I wouldn't say the Southside is a worthless shit hole but I would say that Southside Developers are worthless sorry excuses for humans at this point...

^ I wouldn't say the Southside is a worthless shit hole but I would say that Southside Developers are worthless sorry excuses for humans at this point...

^ Nah,

Developers are developers.

It's the south side that's worthless.

The south side needs a new motto:

Chicago's South Side: strip mall after worthless strip mall..

Well I don't think its the Southside's fault that suburban-minded Developers are infiltrating the city and spitting out bullshit strip malls to make a quick dollar...

^ There is absolutely no reason for heavy rail mass transit to exist if all you're going to build is gas stations & shopping centers surrounded by oceans of parking.

You're absolutely right. This was one of the major problems I had with the current administration. Although I really believed the mayor did a great job, there was very little effort to demand good urban design, in many parts of the city. You can't leave it totally to the aldermen to make decisions like this. Most are desperate for economic development, especially on the south and west sides. Alderman Dowell has a planning background but, desperately needs economic development or she could be in trouble in the next election. Most of these developers know this and will take advantage of the situation. That's business. That's a great location. It should be a high density well designed project.

Now that i think about it what the hell are the Urban planners doing?? Can't they stop garbage like this from being made within city limits?? I mean what's so hard about telling them to atleast move the strip to the property line to be accessible to pedestrians?

Now that i think about it what the hell are the Urban planners doing?? Can't they stop garbage like this from being made within city limits??

Urban Planners have no power. I know because I'm one. The politicians in this city believe and think that businesses know whats best. Good design only make sense if it is fiscally sound. Alderman Preckwinkle was the only alderman on the southside who demanded good urban form.

So basically if we want better urban development then we need politicians that care about their city's image?? (and of course Real urban developers) I don't have the slightest clue on how this stuff works, just here to learn...

Makes me wonder if extending the red line is a good idea after all.

If development south of Cermak can only be in suburban strip center hellhole format, then why bother introducing more heavy rail into this part of town?

Makes me wonder if extending the red line is a good idea after all.

If development south of Cermak can only be in suburban strip center hellhole format, then why bother introducing more heavy rail into this part of town?

I dunno the Pullman district is pretty dense and will only get denser with the extension. The point of mass transit is to connect disparate regions of high density and this would qualify.

I'd actually like them to remove red line stops that have the same stop like 50 yards to the east on the green line.

I dunno the Pullman district is pretty dense and will only get denser with the extension. The point of mass transit is to connect disparate regions of high density and this would qualify.

Possibly but, I doubt it. There is a "low density is better" culture existing on the south side. Part of it has to do with the era in with many of the neighborhoods were developed or, how they view other failed communities which happened to be dense. Hell, most americans view anything less that a 2,500 sq. ft home with a quater acre of land as failure. Many people believe that crime exists in many south and west side communities because there are too many apartments and people living in close proximity to one another. Never mind the breakdown in family structure due to education, lack of jobs and other socialtal issues. My experience has been that outside of Hyde Park and maybe North Kenwood most residents of the south side prefer lower density communities.

So basically if we want better urban development then we need politicians that care about their city's image??

That's right. Most politicians, especially aldermen don't have a clue about good urban form. They are not urban planners or architects there politicians and many have to answer to their constituents. It takes balls to confront your constituents and say "your idea of urban form is flawed".

^ Okay so I live in the 18th Ward and on 3 corners of this intersection on Western is dominated by a Walgreens, CVS, & a strip mall. The 4th corner has fences around it with some signs on it I guess getting ready to extend the strip right behind it. I'm pretty cool with the alderman so I can ask them to ask the developers to change the design to make the project more urban?? And if the developers don't want to change it then they'll drop the whole project and leave a giant vacant lot and technically it'll be my fault right?? But the Alderman can find a developer that's up to the challenge?? So basically If I were to major in urban development and then became an Alderman of my Ward then I have a strong chance to restore my part of the city as a strong urban neighborhood as long as I can get the money to fund the projects?? So who has power over me and says that they don't want certain types of development in the city?? (Lol I know, a ton of questions, I'm just trying to learn...)

And ignored once again :(:(:(

---

^ I'd help you if I knew the answer that you seek

CTA Red Line sets sights on South Side extension (http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/automotive/traffic/ct-met-getting-around-0927-20100926,0,5288541.column)

Some excerpts:

Mixed-use retail and affordable-housing complexes, grocery stores and pharmacies, banks, bookstores, ice cream shops, parks, local activity centers and many other ideas were offered during a "visioning session" for the Red Line extension held this month at St. John Missionary Baptist Church, which is several blocks from the proposed 116th Street station. During the meeting, participants worked with architects and other experts.

"The community is looking for a good store, a bakery, a shoe shop, a place to buy fruits and vegetables and a neighborhood bank — all things that people in other parts of the city take for granted," said Phyllis E. Palmer, who lives near 130th Street and attended the session at St. John.

../..

The CTA has moved up the proposed Red Line extension to 130th Street to its No. 1 priority among major capital improvement projects.

../..

The Red Line extension represents precisely the kind of project Congress prefers to fund. It fits the bill as a true "new start" project, not simply a rebuilding of an existing line. It provides much-needed transportation options to low-income, minority communities that historically have been bypassed when it comes to investment in infrastructure.

Plus, the economic possibilities of transit-oriented development offer the chance to turn around blighted neighborhoods, while attracting middle-income workers from the suburbs to spend money at businesses likely to sprout up near planned park-and-ride facilities along the extended Red Line, officials said.

The project is considered a strong contender for major funding in the next multiyear federal transportation spending bill that Congress will begin working on after the November elections.

Visit link for full article

^ Good news here. However, after seeing what is planned near the 55th street stop (Food4Less, gas station) I am becoming less and less hopeful of any "transit oriented development" despite what these architectural planners are presenting at these "visioning sessions", as described in the article.

^ Okay so I live in the 18th Ward and on 3 corners of this intersection on Western is dominated by a Walgreens, CVS, & a strip mall. The 4th corner has fences around it with some signs on it I guess getting ready to extend the strip right behind it. I'm pretty cool with the alderman so I can ask them to ask the developers to change the design to make the project more urban?? And if the developers don't want to change it then they'll drop the whole project and leave a giant vacant lot and technically it'll be my fault right?? But the Alderman can find a developer that's up to the challenge?? So basically If I were to major in urban development and then became an Alderman of my Ward then I have a strong chance to restore my part of the city as a strong urban neighborhood as long as I can get the money to fund the projects?? So who has power over me and says that they don't want certain types of development in the city?? (Lol I know, a ton of questions, I'm just trying to learn...)

I'm sorry, I was not trying to ignore you. I didn't read your response until today.

The answer to your question is the residents but, too many residents in the low density single family home areas of the city are not as passionate about good urban form. For example I live in Beverly located on the southwest side. For all of those who are not familiar with the neighborhood, it is a community of larger single family homes with larger than average lot sizes. About two years ago a project that would have brought a higher density, mixed use development to busy 95th Street near the Rock Island Metra line, was slowed down because of concerns of being too dense. The developer proposed a five story building with ground floor retail (approximately 30 to 35 residential units) The project was eventually abandoned due to the economy.

I personally know folks that said "if I wanted Lincoln Park I would have move there". Many said they didn't want all the outsider coming into Beverly to dine or shop. This project would not have increase traffic or outsider coming into the community but the perception was enough to frighten many residents.

^^^ Okay thanks for the response (and I live in Ashburn and go through Beverly everyday so I know what you're talking about :) )

While ANY investment in Pullman is a welcome sight, the planning is a huge disappointment.

The bank on SE corner (the tower) took design proposals from a group of Masters students at IIT and easily had a dozen designs that were 10x better... even while still including big box shopping.

Found out why is sucks so bad... it was master planned by pappageorge haymes. I have no idea how these guys even get near real projects much less win them. According to a person very very close to the project there were many superior designs but pappageorge haymes just sold theirs better. Emphasis on the sold.

^ If approved, it will confirm my suspicion that the south side of Chicago remains a worthless shit hole not worth caring about--Hyde Park excepted.

The south branch of the Green Line really needs to be torn down if these are the kinds of developments we have to look forward to. There is absolutely no reason for heavy rail mass transit to exist if all you're going to build is gas stations & shopping centers surrounded by oceans of parking.

This proposal has really made me upset, its just another project in a long endless line that guts and fucks the south side of Chicago. Have we not figured it out yet that the south side is the way it is now because of continual superblock projects? There was a time, not too long ago that the south side was full of dense vibrant neighborhoods whose only crime was their race and their poverty. Then through the last 60 years we have ripped and torn every neighborhood apart leaving them in shambles with no where to turn. If this project happens it will just set the area back another 30 years for the sake of a quick tax grab.

Washington Park and Woodlawn need to be left as neighborhoods, not shopping centers. These areas, what little is left of them have great transit, great parks, easy access to the lake, easy access to the Dan Ryan, incredible proximity to UC and Hyde Park and have dirt cheap land prime for investment and rapid infill.

I just dont get it, and I really hope someone on the city planning commission feels the same way I do.

Well I don't think its the Southside's fault that suburban-minded Developers are infiltrating the city and spitting out bullshit strip malls to make a quick dollar...

For once I agree with you. Visionless developers and absent minded aldermen.

So basically If I were to major in urban development and then became an Alderman of my Ward then I have a strong chance to restore my part of the city as a strong urban neighborhood as long as I can get the money to fund the projects?? So who has power over me and says that they don't want certain types of development in the city??

Cant be both at the same time... thats a big no no. That being said, as solely a developer you can go after projects however you see fit so long as the finances work out for both your investors and your lenders. And as solely a alderman you can have powerful input on what type of projects and density get approval in your ward.

I personally know folks that said "if I wanted Lincoln Park I would have move there". Many said they didn't want all the outsider coming into Beverly to dine or shop. This project would not have increase traffic or outsider coming into the community but the perception was enough to frighten many residents.

The only way to sway these kinds of people is through their wallets. Show how new denser developments will benefit the town as a whole and prevent a tax hike and suddenly the same project looks a lot more appealing.

This proposal has really made me upset, its just another project in a long endless line that guts and fucks the south side of Chicago. Have we not figured it out yet that the south side is the way it is now because of continual superblock projects? There was a time, not too long ago that the south side was full of dense vibrant neighborhoods whose only crime was their race and their poverty. Then through the last 60 years we have ripped and torn every neighborhood apart leaving them in shambles with no where to turn. If this project happens it will just set the area back another 30 years for the sake of a quick tax grab.

Washington Park and Woodlawn need to be left as neighborhoods, not shopping centers. These areas, what little is left of them have great transit, great parks, easy access to the lake, easy access to the Dan Ryan, incredible proximity to UC and Hyde Park and have dirt cheap land prime for investment and rapid infill.

I just dont get it, and I really hope someone on the city planning commission feels the same way I do.

Exactly one of the reasons why I want to be a developer, just don't really know how to get there... Chicago needs/deserves to be jam packed with urbanity throughout the whole city limits...

http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dcd/provdrs/ec_dev/news/2010/oct/community_developmentcommissionapprovesplansfornewrentalhousinga.html

Bronzeville Associates Family Apartments Phase I

The CDC today approved a $26.8 million plan to demolish older townhome-style rental housing and replace it with new multi-story buildings in the City’s Grand Boulevard community.

The action recommends the designation of Bronzeville Associates, LP as the developer and $4.5 million in TIF assistance for Phase I of the new Bronzeville Family Apartments.

The developer will raze 60 townhomes, which are a part of the Paul G. Stewart Apartment complex and contain 90 units of rental housing, and replace them with new three-story walk-up buildings.

Phase I would include the construction of four three-story buildings and also the demolition and reconstruction of the existing community center into an expanded 6,700 square foot facility with recreation and office space.

The existing structures are being demolished due to concerns over extensive foundation settlement. The redevelopment of the property will help to preserve project-based Section 8 housing in the community.

Phase II will involve the reconstruction and replacement of the remaining 24 rental units.

:wallbash::wallbash::wallbash::bleep::bleep::bleep: I'm not understanding. Out of all the vacant lots in the area they wanna destroy those little townhomes instead of focusing on what's around it (or are they trying to make the new homes face the street so it would be me for friendly?? either way it still means more vacant lots...)

http://www.hpherald.com/

Roundhouse restoration restarted
by Daschell M. Phillips

Phase one of DuSable Museum’s three-phases Roundhouse renovation project is expected to be complete by the end of the year thanks to the release of $5 million in funding that was being held by the state, according to Carol Adams, chief executive officer of the museum.
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/3412/roundhouse.gif

:wallbash::wallbash::wallbash::bleep::bleep::bleep: I'm not understanding. Out of all the vacant lots in the area they wanna destroy those little townhomes instead of focusing on what's around it (or are they trying to make the new homes face the street so it would be me for friendly?? either way it still means more vacant lots...)

First of all those townhomes have to be demolished and rebuilt. They are literaly falling down (sinking) because the soil under the units was not done properly. Some residents have been temporarily relocated (those living in structures that have major foundation damage). Others will be relocated over the next few months. New units will be constructed and those residents will be allowed to come back.

^ Okay :)

Senior Village (http://www.trcwabash.org/Senior_Village.html)
53rd and Calumet

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/162/wholebuilding8ky6.jpg
Not necessarily the most exciting design but still a solid 7 story, 71 unit senior housing project

^ Yeah, the city is building a heck of a lot of affordable/senior developments in various scattered sites on the south side, usually occupying vacant land. Just 2 other similar type developments have been announced in the past week or so.

It's not anywhere near being the condo boom of the early 2000's, but it's at least good to see some infill of this sort in otherwise struggling areas of the city.

^ Yeah, the city is building a heck of a lot of affordable/senior developments in various scattered sites on the south side, usually occupying vacant land. Just 2 other similar type developments have been announced in the past week or so.

It's not anywhere near being the condo boom of the early 2000's, but it's at least good to see some infill of this sort in otherwise struggling areas of the city.

^ Here's an example of another one, just completed with ribbon cutting a few days ago, at 2815 W 79th. 85 units for seniors:

http://wrightwoodsenior.com/images/bigpix/home_main.jpg

Can you imagine the future Hyde Park with a new Harper Court, Studio Gang's Solstice and Village Center developments, and now this? In a rare feat we'll probably trade up on this one - possibly a Studio Gang redesign from an Antunovich.

Old design:
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/4432/53rdcornell.jpg

http://www.hpherald.com/

Antheus steps in
Antheus Capital to buy 53rd and Cornell lot
By Alicia Barney

Antheus Capital is under contract to purchase the empty lot at 53rd Street and Cornell Avenue, left vacant since plans for a residential high-rise fell apart.

...While Cassel would not say what the developer’s plans are for the lot, he said they are different than L3’s high-rise plans.

Antheus is in the process of hiring architects and planners to work on the project, Cassel said.

well i'll be happy with anything above 15 storys... (and just counting the floors on the older design it looks like it was around 22...)

Surprised that a $4 billion project for Southside wasn't posted yet.

Chicago to Redevelop U.S. Steel Site on Lakefront
By ROBERT SHAROFF
Published: December 28, 2010

CHICAGO — A plan to redevelop the site of the long-closed U.S. Steel plant on the south lakefront here is ambitious even in a city whose attitude has long been Daniel Burnham’s maxim, “Make no little plans.”

The about 470-acre South Works site juts into Lake Michigan and has dazzling views of downtown nine miles to the north. The master plan, by the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, calls for 13,575 market rate and affordable homes to serve 50,000 new residents, 17.5 million square feet of retail and commercial space, a high school and a marina with 1,500 slips, to be built in phases over the next 30 years. The estimated cost is $4 billion

The project took a major step forward in September when the city awarded it a $98 million tax increment financing grant that will be used to build infrastructure for the development’s first phase. This followed a decision by the city last spring to approve the master plan.

“The scale of the project is extraordinary,” said Chris Raguso, who recently left her position as acting commissioner of the city’s Department of Community Development to become Mayor Richard M. Daley’s chief of staff. “The fact that anybody in this economy still wants to take a shot at developing a site that is basically a landfill and is basing the development on retail and housing is also extraordinary.”

Over three-quarters of the site is landfill in the form of slag, a byproduct of steel production.

The developers of the project are the U.S. Steel Corporation, based in Pittsburgh, and McCaffery Interests of Chicago.

“South Works is very unique for us,” said George A. Manos, the president of U.S. Steel Real Estate. “No. 1 is the duration. It’s very long term. No. 2 is it’s a true partnership with the City of Chicago to help transform an area of the city.”

Daniel McCaffery, the president of McCaffery Interests, said the project “boggles the mind. It’s the largest undeveloped site in Chicago.”

The development incorporates significant aspects of New Urbanist and sustainable planning guidelines by extending the city’s existing street grid and emphasizing smaller blocks, narrower streets and access to mass transit.

“I think this will be the new downtown for the South Side of Chicago,” said Philip Enquist, a principal at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

The plan also includes about 125 acres of new lakefront parkland as well as several smaller parks that are consistent with the architect Daniel Burnham’s bold Plan of Chicago of 1909, which called for expanding the city’s lakefront park system as part of a comprehensive regional approach to urban planning.

“South Works is the biggest missing piece in terms of completing Burnham’s vision” for the lakefront, said MarySue Barrett, the president of the Metropolitan Planning Council, a nonprofit advocacy group in the Chicago region.

The site is vacant except for a small brick building at the entrance, which will become a marketing center, and several massive masonry walls along an old boat slip that bisects the property. One of the walls would be preserved as a reminder of the area’s industrial past.

“I love the walls,” Mr. Enquist said. “They look like they came from a different civilization.”

In many ways, they did.

South Works began in the early 1880s as a division of the North Chicago Rolling Mill and was absorbed into U.S. Steel in 1901. For most of the 20th century, South Works was the largest employer on the city’s South Side with upward of 30,000 workers.

Over the years, the plant produced the steel responsible for such structures as the Sears (now Willis) Tower, the John Hancock Center and the McCormick Place convention center.

In the 1970s, however, U.S. Steel began consolidating its Chicago-area steel-making activities at its plant in Gary, Ind., and in 1992 South Works closed. The closing left a huge void in the neighborhoods to the west and south, which were largely populated by the families of steelworkers.

“If you walk through the various neighborhoods, it is still possible to talk to residents who either worked there or whose fathers and grandfathers did,” said Sandi Jackson, the alderwoman for the Seventh Ward, which includes the northern part of the site. “They have fond memories of South Works and want to see something exciting happen on that site.”

The site required years of environmental remediation and was also subject to several competing visions for its future before the current plan began to take shape in the early 2000s.

Mr. McCaffery, who has developed mixed-use projects around the country, including the Market Common in Arlington, Va., said he planned to break ground on the first phase of the project in late 2012 after the completion of a new road along the western perimeter of the site. The road is an extension of U.S. 41, also known as Lake Shore Drive.

“The first step for this redevelopment was to realign U.S. 41 and make it more accessible for the site,” Ms. Raguso said. “We need to bring traffic down there.”

The first phase will include about 1,000 residential units, but the main focus will be 800,000 square feet of retail space. The cost, including the $98 million in new infrastructure, is about $397 million, a not inconsiderable sum in the current economy.

Mr. McCaffery, however, is sanguine about his prospects.

“I don’t have to find the money,” he said. “I have to find the guys who can find the money. We’re going to slice and dice the different phases. We need to engage a range of architects and developers.”

Mr. McCaffery said the decision to focus primarily on retail in the first phase was grounded in demographics. “We’re smelling, tasting and feeling pent-up demand for retail. I’m not going to kid anybody that we’re going to have a Tiffany’s down here, but it’s also not going to be pawn shops,” he said, referring to the poor economic conditions of much of the area. “We’ve already talked to a number of grocery stores, and not one has turned us down in terms of continued interest.”

Paul Vogel, a retail consultant here, said he thought the developers were on the right track. “There are few places in America today that are understored, but the South Side of Chicago is one of them,” Mr. Vogel said.

The decision also acknowledges that the city is overwhelmed with unsold condos and housing units left over from the housing bubble

“We currently have years and years of oversupply,” said James Kinney, the vice president for luxury sales at Baird & Warner real estate.

The long-term forecast may be brighter. A study by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning predicted that the Chicago area would add 2.4 million residents over the next 30 years.

“The right time to build is when demand meshes with the availability of financing and resources,” Mr. McCaffery said. “What we have done is to prepare ourselves for the next right time. And I believe it will be sooner than many people think.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/29/realestate/commercial/29chicago.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2&sq=enquist&st=cse&scp=1

Thought others would like to see this too. :)
5DAY4wFr8S8

Harper Theater (across from the new Harper Court project)
Looks like the University is once again going to try to lease these buildings for retail.
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/9572/harperthtr.jpg
I really wish they'd use the theater portion for live performances. It'd be great if they could convince Muntu to abandon their long-delayed plans to build a new theater a mile away (in the middle of a residential area) and instead come here. A win-win for all.

[QUOTE=TampaMike;69903587]Surprised that a $4 billion project for Southside wasn't posted yet.

Its been talked about here for quite some time
atleast in the past year or so.

I made a separate thread for it called Southworks
not long ago.

All stories from the Hyde Park Herald (http://www.hpherald.com/).

1) Harper Theater redevelopment (across from Harper Court)
University: Theater building to be spared
By Sam Cholke

The University of Chicago announced Jan. 10 it will renovate the exterior of the historic façade of the Harper Theater and has identified a tenant for a portion of the retail spaces fronting East 53rd Street.

...Campbell said a lease has been sent out to a tenant for the retail space, which would be identified next week. She said no tenant has been found for the theater space and the university is considering splitting up the interior for multiple tenants.

2) Antheus' plans for 53rd and Cornell site (from the same story):

...“I think it’s most appropriately residential,” Cassel said of Antheus’ intentions for the site, adding that retail would likely be included to tie any development to surrounding retailers on either side of the Metra viaduct.

...Cassel said Antheus has begun discussing ideas with neighbors, but rental housing was an appealing option.

http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dcd/provdrs/ec_dev/news/2011/jan/city_council_approvesordinacessupportingincentivesforeconomicdev.html

IGA with CTA for Cermak-Chinatown Red Line Station

The next ordinance authorizes an intergovernmental agreement with the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) to provide $13.1 million in funding for improvements to the Cermak-Chinatown Red Line station.

Under the agreement, $12.5 million in federal stimulus funds and $600,000 in TIF assistance from the 24th/Michigan TIF District will be used for the renovation.

The proposed scope of work will include a new escalator and elevator at the Cermak entrance, a new station house and platform renovation. A new entrance is also planned for the north end of the station at Archer Avenue. Additional work includes new landscaping, signage and accessible ramps.

Fire Work Community Art Studio

Also appropved was an ordinance authorizing a negotiated sale for the redevelopment of the former Engine Company 18 firehouse at 1123 W. Roosevelt Rd. on the City’s Near West Side.

The developer, 1123 West Roosevelt, LLC, will pay $325,000 to turn the City’s oldest fire station built in 1873 into the proposed Fire Work Community Art Studio.

They will use $683,000 to refurbish the two-story firehouse over the next few years. Plans include a 1,700 square foot first floor studio with kilns, glass ovens and a full commercial kitchen totaling 2,500 square feet that will focus on various forms of art training and healthy eating habits for children and teenagers; and two more studio spaces on the second floor dedicated to adult artists. Green features will include solar panels and a green roof with a walking path.

Ping Tom Park Expansion

Approved also was an ordinance that finances the construction of an athletic field house in Ping Tom Park on the City’s Near South Side.

Funds for the $10 million proposal will be allocated from the River South TIF district.

The field house will include a main gym, club rooms and community meeting areas for nearby Chinatown residents and other users. Specific design details are anticipated to be completed in 2011. Construction is expected to start the following year.

The park is located on a 12-acre site adjacent to the South Branch of the Chicago River at 300 W. 19th St. Initially featuring a children's playground, community gathering areas and Chinese landscape design elements, the park was later expanded north of 18th Street to include ball fields, play areas and a variety of river edge improvements that are currently under construction.

The next ordinance authorizes an intergovernmental agreement with the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) to provide $13.1 million in funding for improvements to the Cermak-Chinatown Red Line station.

Under the agreement, $12.5 million in federal stimulus funds and $600,000 in TIF assistance from the 24th/Michigan TIF District will be used for the renovation.

The proposed scope of work will include a new escalator and elevator at the Cermak entrance, a new station house and platform renovation. A new entrance is also planned for the north end of the station at Archer Avenue. Additional work includes new landscaping, signage and accessible ramps.
Really? Thats all $13.1 million dollars gets us? That station isn't even 50 years old.... absolutely ridiculous waste of tax payer money.

.... absolutely ridiculous waste of tax payer money.

The station house was pretty much destroyed in an auto accident. I don't see how rebuilding it is a waste.
---

The University buys another historic building for further expansion of its campus:

University to purchase Meadville Lombard building (http://news.uchicago.edu/news.php?asset_id=2221)
January 17, 2011

The University of Chicago has agreed to purchase the Meadville Lombard Theological School’s main academic and administrative building at 5701 S. Woodlawn Ave, subject to the approval of the University’s Board of Trustees.

Back to the Harper Theater redevelopment, the first retail tenant along 53rd was announced today. While Five Guys is a chain that's expanding like crazy, it only has three stores in the city, all on the north side. So I think it's somewhat significant that they've agreed to come down to Hyde Park.

Five Guys restaurant heads to 53rd Street (http://fiftythird.uchicago.edu/blog/2011/01/17/five-guys-restaurant-heads-53rd-street)

The University of Chicago is bringing Five Guys, a restaurant chain whose burgers have a devoted following nationwide, to Hyde Park.

Five Guys has signed on as the inaugural tenant at the soon-to-be renovated office and theater buildings at 53rd and Harper Avenue. The news comes fast on the heels of the University’s announcement that it is renovating these key buildings.

“We’re delighted to introduce this crowd favorite to our community,” said James Hennessy, Director of Commercial Real Estate Operations for the University. “The University is committed to working with the community to revitalize the 53rd Street corridor, and the arrival of Five Guys is good news for those efforts.”

With 725 locations around the country, Five Guys is just one of a number of big-name retailers the University is talking with about setting up shop in new spaces along 53rd Street, here and at the nearby Harper Court redevelopment, to blend with local businesses.

The new Five Guys in Hyde Park will occupy 2,200 square feet and could also make use of outdoor seating with a plan for attractive awnings. Officials said they expect the restaurant to open around the end of this year.

^^^^^^
About time Hyde Park started showing more signs of life.
That is a cool looking Theatre building BTW.
:cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers:

Shops and Lofts @ 47
http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/9827/image2om.jpg
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/9152/image4kz.jpg

http://www.suntimes.com/photos/galleries/3637552-418/reagan-university-president-park-chicago.html

Is Ronald Reagan’s Chicago boyhood home doomed?
By KIM JANSSEN Staff Reporter Feb 6, 2011 05:04PM

Locked up, abandoned and forgotten, the vacant six-flat standing at the northeast corner of 57th and Maryland has no plaques or statues and few clues to its history.

...But sources inside and outside the university versed in its real estate policy say it is in private talks to demolish the home, and that the university has long considered buying up and razing the entire block and the block to the east as essential to hospital expansion. The $700 million, 10-story Hospital Pavilion, due to open in 2013, already looms over Reagan’s home across 57th Street.
http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/6413/51077934.jpg

Say goodbye to all of this, although some of it is already gone:
http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/5523/uocdemo.jpg

Hyde Park is one of my favorite neighborhoods in the city: the dynamic between the hospital, university, and neighborhood serve to make a truly vibrant community and neighborhood. However, that being said, if one of these groups acts too much in its own self-interest with little regard/concern for the others, then the community comes at risk, I feel. I'm a big fan of infill development and construction, but that block and building look truly "Chicago-esque" -- the character of the block is without question, it would be a loss.

All I can do is :ohno:. Being that its being discussed in private almost makes the demolition inevitable would it? or can a preservation group step forward and save it?

this type of stuff is what makes me sick of this city...

Ive walked around those blocks in question,
I was afraid that something like this would happen
to them.

Really Really dumb.
Why dont you knock down some eyesores
and then build something for the hospital
there? Is there nothing west of the
hospital that could be knocked down
and then have a catwalk going across
cottage grove?

Such few safe nice neigborhoods on the south
side and here U of C is going to knock down
a whole couple of nice blocks, Really Really Really
DUMB!:bash::bash::bash::bash::bash::bash:

:badnews:

Oakwood Shores
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/7275/oakwoodshoresmedical.jpg
48 units, two floors of medical office space
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/841/oakwoodshoressenior.jpg
76 units for seniors

Two good posts (with photos) about two Hyde Park developments:

Inside the Del Prado: Restoring a Hyde Park Hotel to Former Glory (http://chicago.curbed.com/archives/2011/02/22/del-prado.php#del-prado-1)

Inside The Shoreland: From Hotel to Dorm to Apartments (http://chicago.curbed.com/archives/2011/02/23/the-shoreland.php#shoreland-1)

Is there nothing west of the hospital that could be knocked down and then have a catwalk going across cottage grove?

Washington Park is immediately west of Cottage Grove. The only area for UC to expand is into that isolated block.

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/6105/harper.jpg

In addition to Five Guys for part of the retail portion, the actual theater building is going to reopen as a 5 screen cinema:

http://news.uchicago.edu/news.php?asset_id=2266

New five–screen movie theater coming to 53rd Street
February 24, 2011

The University of Chicago plans to bring The New 400 Theaters, an independent movie operator that will offer a mix of art, children’s and wide–release films, in the soon–to–be renovated buildings at 53rd Street and Harper Avenue.

Officials said the 10,149–square–foot theater plan includes five screens with state–of–the–art digital projection. One screening room will have tables placed between the seats for future lunch and dinner options.

The New 400 Theaters plans to discount tickets for students, seniors and children. General–admission seating will be below market prices, said theater officials.

“We believe students, faculty, staff and our neighbors will be very excited about having a new movie theater within walking distance,” said Kimberly Goff–Crews, Vice President for Campus Life. “As we talk to members of our community about how to enhance campus life, this is one of the ideas that comes up frequently.”

The agreement with The New 400 Theaters is part of a broader effort to revitalize the 53rd Street corridor as a focus of commercial, retail and entertainment activity.

Last month, the University unveiled plans to begin a major renovation of the commercial and theater buildings at 53rd Street and Harper Avenue, which are currently vacant. Five Guys restaurant, scheduled to open by year’s end, will be the first tenant. Additional tenants will be announced in the upcoming months. The University is also partnering with the City and community leaders to lead an ambitious redevelopment of the adjacent Harper Court property as a mixed–use complex.

“The theater, along with other strategic revitalization efforts, will bring added value to the area. It is one more piece of our ongoing conversations with the City and the neighborhood to build Hyde Park as a key destination on the South Side of Chicago,” said Susan Campbell, Associate Vice President of Civic Engagement.

...The movie theater has a targeted opening date of fall 2012.

It's Hyde Park week on Curbed (http://chicago.curbed.com/archives/2011/02/25/antheus-still-planning-to-go-forward-with-village-center.php). Next up, the Studio Gang-designed Village Center redevelopment.

179 units, 110k sf retail, 400 parking spaces (now underground)
http://img602.imageshack.us/img602/2501/547539763674faeaa6d6o.jpg
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/396/547480057394d7d5711ao.jpg
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/3332/5474800497688793ac8fo.jpg
http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/6655/5475397714cc76c28b51o.jpg
http://img816.imageshack.us/img816/4895/5474800637a78813afb8o.jpg
http://img815.imageshack.us/img815/9277/54748006576748c94d3bo.jpg

Wow, some amazing proposals/developments going on in Hyde Park recently!!

I've always thought that corridor along 53rd & Harper had a ton of potential, and those photos make it look wonderful! I hope they follow through with the little things like the planter boxes, brick pavers, lamp posts -- it looks great!

And the West Hyde Park building looks awesome, too! Great combo of glass and what is that, granite or some kind of charred-steel(?), whatever it is, I like it!!

Wow, some amazing proposals/developments going on in Hyde Park recently!!

Yeah, Hyde Park is blowing up as of late.

Harper Court - Hartshorne Plunkard
Village Center - Studio Gang
Solstice on the Park - Studio Gang (still alive)
The Shoreland - Studio Gang
The Del Prado - Studio Gang
Logan Arts Center - Tod Williams + Billi Tsien
University of Chicago Medical Center - Rafael Vinoly
Mansueto Library - Helmut Jahn

Thats a whole lot of big projects going on at once, by some very very good architects... in a single neighborhood nonetheless.

http://www.hpherald.com/

Brinshore picks up another CHA site
by Sam Cholke

Brinshore Development, the firm developing the Legends South neighborhood, has been awarded the Chicago Housing Authority contract to revitalize another city block in Bronzeville. The CHA collaborated with the city to push interested developers beyond easy solutions for reviving the empty lot.

Several weeks ago, the CHA decided to add the 4400 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue to the Brinshore’s extensive portfolio in Bronzeville. The firm will build 16,000 square feet of retail space and 160 residential units on the block. A third of the units will be market-rate housing, about a quarter will be public housing and the remainder will be affordable housing.

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/841/oakwoodshoressenior.jpg
76 units for seniors

You can see this building under construction in this photo (left side). The more midrises in this area the better.

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/8154/lmc2dun8.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bartshore/5574955689/)
IMG_5136 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bartshore/5574955689/) by BartShore (http://www.flickr.com/people/bartshore/), on Flickr

With little notice or publicity, the Doctors Hospital is finally being demolished for the new Lab school.

Pictures here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/25165196@N08/5586028890/)

^can you remind what the new is going to look like?

http://plusmood.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/VDTA-Lab-Schools_plusMOOD-4-600x375.jpg

A pretty nice design from VDTA.

http://www.hpherald.com

Hyde Park Day School relocating
By Sam Cholke

Two local schools are pulling up roots to build a bigger facility in Woodlawn it was recently announced. The Hyde Park Day School and the Sonia Shackman Orthogenic School, which help students with emotional issues, are expanding to a larger facility on East 63rd Street and South Ingleside Avenue.

...The University of Chicago owns the current schools’ buildings on East 60th Street and South Dorchester Avenue and has not decided yet what it will do with them.
http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/9545/photo1ry.jpg

I don't like the uncertainty surrounding the current older buildings - they must stay.

http://www.hpherald.com/

Antheus rehabs marching forward
By Sam Cholke

With public attention directed towards the redevelopment of the Harper Court shopping center, it has been easy to miss recent major progress at key locations under development by Antheus Capital, the largest for-profit property owner in Hyde Park.
---

Recap:

Del Prado renovation - opens in fall with two ballrooms for potential restaurants
Shoreland - interior demolition starts in a few weeks
Sutherland - interior demolition currently under way
Solstice - stalled, no construction work this summer
Village Center - Fall 2012 start at earliest, "several tenants have leases they intend to honor"
53rd and Cornell - will turn into a parking lot until Antheus develops "ambitious plans"

Basically renovation projects are proceeding while new construction awaits financing.

http://www.suntimes.com/business/5183098-417/whole-foods-to-open-store-in-hyde-park.html

Whole Foods to open store in Hyde Park
By Sandra Guy

Whole Foods Market will open its first Chicago store south of Roosevelt Road on the ground floor of a 150-unit condo tower slated to replace the Village Center shopping mall at 51st and Lake Park Avenue. The store will open in summer 2014 and employ 125 full- and part-time workers.

The 30,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market will have up to 188 free underground parking spaces and will include décor reflecting the Hyde Park neighborhood, large fresh-food and bulk-good sections, a sit-down bar and pouring station serving beer and wine, and a cooking classroom with tips on eating fresh and healthy foods, said Michael Bashaw, president of Whole Foods’ Midwest region.

...The Original Pancake House, another long-term tenant at the Village Center, is expected to become a part of the new development, the property owner said. The pancake restaurant now occupies about 3,000 square feet and attracts long lines of customers on Sunday mornings.

The development will include 10,000 square feet of space for small, locally owned retail.

Next phase of Oakwood Shores, 66 apartments
http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/7240/boothhansenoakwoodshore.jpg

http://news.uchicago.edu/article/2011/06/17/university-announces-plans-build-second-child-care-center

University announces plans to build second child care center
By Sara Olkon June 17, 2011

The University of Chicago, which announced plans last year for a child care center near the Medical Center, will build a second child care center on Stony Island Avenue, Provost Thomas F. Rosenbaum announced.

Child Care East, as the new center has been informally dubbed, will provide care for 124 children, ages six weeks to five years old. It is scheduled to open in September 2013, on University-owned land immediately south of the Laboratory Schools’ Earl Shapiro Hall on the Early Childhood Campus, which is now under construction.

...The University has selected Wheeler Kearns Architects to design the building.

Massive
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3161/5874535715_aa005cfacb_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/julierubes/5874535715/)
University of Chicago (http://www.flickr.com/photos/julierubes/5874535715/) by Julie Rubes (http://www.flickr.com/people/julierubes/), on Flickr

According to the Herald (http://www.hpherald.com/), the University is about to issue a RFQ for developing the McMobil lots on 53rd into retail + housing. I'm expecting a midrise out of this.

Second, the University is also planning to buy the vacant Borders on 53rd and lease it, possibly to more than one retailer. Hopefully it complements the Harper Court redevelopment.

I have no idea is anyone has every mentioned this before...so sorry if it has already been mentioned.

I was looking at an apartment highrise at 6430 S Stony Island called the Island Terrace Apartments in Woodlawn. I was checking out its Emporis page and Emporis said there was a proposed 34 story building next to it at 6400 S Stony Island. Here's the Emporis page about the proposed building: http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=building&lng=3&id=289543

I didn't see any other information about the building when I ran a quick search. I assume it's been around awhile and probably won't happen. Does anyone know anything about it? Have I been embarrassingly in the dark about this one?
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/3209/64th2od0.jpg

Lake Shore Drive Work Spurs $4B McCaffery Plan


http://chicago.curbed.com/archives/2012/03/08/pm-linkage-0308.php


http://www.globest.com/news/12_302/chicago/development/Lakeshore-Drive-Work-Spurs-4B-McCaffery-Plan-319443.html

Michael Reese Site



http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/theskyline/2012/03/chicago-solicits-plans-for-michael-reese-site-big-names-in-architecture-and-development-compete-to-g.html