South Side Development News

[nomarandlee]

OMG that looks so f'ing amazing. I would like to see that blown up, it looks even better then the last awesome renders. This has a very real good chance of being the coolest urban space in the city outside downtown. This looks like it could be a major draw not just for the soutside but the whole damn metro.

[The Urban Politician]

Holy MOMMA, guys

This development just got too cool to not happen. Wow.

So is this going to be a sort of black-middle-class shopping mecca sort of thing? I see this as a modern version of Brooklyn's Fulton St District.

Let the Gods of Urbanism shine their blessings on this thing so that it may be so...

[NearNorthGuy]

Originally Posted by spyguy

http://www.nearwestgazette.com/Archi...story0507b.htm

Metropolis development coming to Bronzeville

By Christine Mangan

Capri Capital Partners LLC has announced a joint venture with Judson Investment Co. to develop The Metropolis, a mixed-use building that will be located at the intersection of south State Street and Pershing Road.

Capri expects the proposed building will bolster economic development in Bronzeville and Grand Boulevard and generate both temporary construction jobs and permanent employment.

“Beyond economic development for the community, the ultimate design intent for Metropolis is to create a city center for the Near South Side of Chicago,” said Quintin E. Primo III, Capri’s chairman and CEO. “Importantly, the project addresses the chronic lack of commercial retail in the area and will offer market rate and affordable housing to the growing community.”

Primo said 20% of the 102 condominiums planned for phase one will be set aside for low- and moderate-income buyers.

Although specific retailers have not been named, Capri’s media spokesperson, Trish Hoffman, said the company is looking at the usual amenities, including a grocery store and a clothing store.

According to Todd Caruso, regional head of retail for CB Richard Ellis Group, a commercial real estate firm, “The Metropolis is well positioned between the Roosevelt Road retail corridor north and new retail development occurring on 87th Street south. The lack of retail supply in the general area should allow the project to readily draw shoppers from the surrounding 15 neighborhood communities.”

“This project is important to the South Side, and the numbers speak for themselves,” Capri’s Primo explained. According to MetroEdge, a market research arm of the Local Initiatives Support Corp., "approximately $671 million of the total $909 million in Mid-South consumer expenditures represent 'retail leakage,' or dollars spent by residents outside their community,” Capri explained.

Hugh Williams, president and CEO of Judson Investment Co., noted the building’s historical significance. “As minority-owned firms, Judson and Capri understand that Metropolis sits in the middle of an underserved area in the early stages of a rebirth," Williams said. "It will attract middle and upper income residents who will integrate with existing low-income area residents, who have been denied access to grocery stores and other simple amenities that people want in their neighborhoods.”

A three-phase project, the Metropolis will consist of approximately one million square feet. The initial phase will consist of 500,000 square feet; besides its 102 residential condominiums, it will create a green space surrounded by two six-story curvilinear buildings of steel and glass housing approximately 330,000 square feet of commercial retail space. Future phases call for more residential space and hotel facilities.

The Metropolis also will feature a public venue celebrating African American history, located in the building’s central, curvilinear public park. “It will encourage learning activity and dialogue between the retail spaces and the public," explained Ross Wimer, design partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP. "At the corner of State and Pershing, the proposed digital clock tower announces both the new landmark development and the renaissance of the historic Bronzeville/Grand Boulevard neighborhood.”

The firm’s architectural vision for Metropolis is “an abstract expression of Bronzeville’s unique cultural history,” Wimer continued. “The building facades recall the repeated musical patterns of blues and jazz, and the residential unit layouts invoke harmonious rhythms and the ideals of freedom and flexibility.”

Media contact Trish Hoffman said Capri anticipates breaking ground on phase one in fall 2008 and expects that phase will be completed by spring 2010.

The startling transformation of this area can be appreciated if we remember one recent historical event.

I am referring to the killing of Chicago Police Officer Michael Ceriale roughly 6-8 years ago. I don't remember the exact year.

Officer Ceriale and his partner were in plain clothes conducting surveillance on a narcotics open market operating at the base of the southernmost of since-demolished CHA high-rises located between Pershing and Bowen a half-block west of State. Someone spotted Ceriale and fired. That was late on a Friday night/Saturday morning.

I work nearby and I passed the site on Saturday morning, when it was crawling with police. Ceriale died at Cook County Hospital (in the old building, of course) about a week later from his injuries.

The whole block, which held roughly three high-rises, was later leveled. The area is sure changing, with Metropolis being part of that change.

[Abner]

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but is there any particularly good reason to think that this development will actually create retail and commercial tenants, rather than just retail and commercial space? I don't know this exact area well, but in that part of the city, I don't think the problem is generally that there is not any space for retailers, the problem is that there aren't any retailers. There are plenty of vacant storefronts in buildings that would undoubtedly command much lower rents than this new construction will, and probably with a lot fewer strings attached, since the residential units above those older buildings are occupied by renters who aren't about to block certain types of usage of the commercial space.

There might be something about it that I'm not understanding, but attracting tenants for new construction is such a problem as it is, even in wealthy and stable neighborhoods. I'm thinking it will likely be a pretty long time before all that space fills up with tenants, especially the retail tenants we might dream of attracting. And I'm not sure that positioning it all in that tucked-away drive is the best idea. Wouldn't it be better facing the street?

[The Urban Politician]

Originally Posted by Abner

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but is there any particularly good reason to think that this development will actually create retail and commercial tenants, rather than just retail and commercial space? I don't know this exact area well, but in that part of the city, I don't think the problem is generally that there is not any space for retailers, the problem is that there aren't any retailers. There are plenty of vacant storefronts in buildings that would undoubtedly command much lower rents than this new construction will, and probably with a lot fewer strings attached, since the residential units above those older buildings are occupied by renters who aren't about to block certain types of usage of the commercial space.

There might be something about it that I'm not understanding, but attracting tenants for new construction is such a problem as it is, even in wealthy and stable neighborhoods. I'm thinking it will likely be a pretty long time before all that space fills up with tenants, especially the retail tenants we might dream of attracting. And I'm not sure that positioning it all in that tucked-away drive is the best idea. Wouldn't it be better facing the street?

^ Well, it'll be new construction, near the L (if I'm correct), and it will probably have a lot of garage parking. Plus it will likely be marketed as 1 giant package, as opposed to individual scattered buildings with separate owners. There seem to be plent of differences to me.

[FreeRadical]

VOID

[spyguy]

From the Hyde Park Herald

[The Urban Politician]

Originally Posted by FreeRadical

This project looks pretty retro to me. 1960's urban renewal, only this time for the middle class.

I thought we were supposed to be incorporating the street grid, integrating new developments within the adjoining neighborhoods to make them pedestrian-friendly and interconnected? This is not Roosevelt Collection, where the site logistics dictate a solution of isolation. This seems like an attempt to build an urban fortress, a safe zone.

^ Point out one aspect of this development that isn't ped-friendly and connected to the street grid? Point out where the cul-de-sac is.

Some of you just don't understand urbanism at all. Just because the roads aren't straight doesn't mean it ain't urban.

[FreeRadical]

VOID

[spyguy]

Some more images of Metropolis

Site plan



Retail and digital clock

[ardecila]

Well, apparently, it's not integrated into the street grid AT ALL (except for a parking lot entrance that lines up with Dearborn).

The upside is, it comes right up to the street, minimizing the extensive, poorly-planned, worthless green space that helped doom the housing projects. The central courtyard is surrounded by brightly-lit, occupied buildings, discouraging crime.

[The Urban Politician]

I'm a bit confused. I thought this project was supposed to have underground parking. Are those surface lots?

That would be too bad if that's the case..

[BorisMolotov]

Those may be temporary. Weren't there several phases to this one. Maybe in the future, they'll be covered by towers.

[nomarandlee]

To me it looks like mid or high rises are supposed to go where it shows parking lots in the layout plan. At least I hope so.

[The Urban Politician]

^ Ahh, actually that makes sense looking at this second picture.

Surface parking in the beginning to attract retailers, then build the highrises later. So if this becomes a giant planned development from the get-go, and gets approved, the developer doesn't have to deal with NIMBYism squashing the highrises later on in the game.

Sounds good to me. Now all we need is for these guys to land some retailers.

[spyguy]

Here are some images of another big South Side development


^I wonder if they'll allow wind turbines

[The Urban Politician]

NICE FIND, SPYGUY!

Holy schnoikens, dude, how DO you keep doing that?

Seriously, though, I am definitely encouraged seeing that site plan. Looks like urban/ped-friendly/streetgrid will be the name of the game. Coolness to the max

[nomarandlee]

wow, I likes the southside works so far. Nice integration of green space and urbanism. The last few articles I read about has me a little concerned about it but I am starting to get more optimistic. It doesn't look like it will be dominated by detached single housing units also, hopefully that will remain the same. That little slip in the middle of the development has great potential to be a unique great urban space. I wonder if there are any plans to extend LSD or eventually the Green Line to it.

[BorisMolotov]

Back to Metropolis for a sec, do they intend to cover the buildings with grass, as shown?

And the Southworks site looks good too! I wonder how much of this plan will actually get completed though. They should build the towers first, and then the townhomes, so NIMBYS don't infest the place first.

[creil]

That will be a lot of res units to fill. Even if they roll it out in phases, I can see the Southworks project having a ghostown-like feel for quite some time before it becomes a lively neighborhood.