Quote:
Originally Posted by ardecila
I'd rather see a major riverfront site like this become housing. It's one L stop from Roosevelt and 2 L stops from the Loop. Even at townhouse densities there is enough land for almost 1000 units, plus there would be plenty of open space.
And unlike other megadevelopments like The 78 or Lincoln Yards, this one already HAS an L stop... ridiculous to waste such a prime parcel on a low-intensity Amazon facility. Related could trade this site for the equivalent acreage at The 78 and get a better housing development at lower cost.
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I don't like the City subsidizing successful companies, but this is one location I think would be well-suited to trying to get Amazon to put some of its parking on the roof, and the rest in a 2-3 level garage instead of so much surface parking. I do like that Amazon looks to be putting in a Riverfront park (or at least bike path type thing) along the River. Putting a western entrance/exit to the Orange Line at Corbett would be good, too, both for the neighborhood and for commuting workers.
It's really too bad that there hasn't been more residential stuff built around Halsted/Archer. It's a tight area, but such an easy commute to the Loop, and easy access to Midway, and despite tight lights between the River and the train tracks and the expressway, you could probably fit thousands of people in there, and maybe a decent-sized discount hotel. Say you put a 300-room extended-stay hotel there, nightly prices could be very reasonable and it'd be ideal for all sorts of business people. If that place filled out, Amazon could even develop a biggish residential tower at Halsted and the River on what is currently planned to be a parking lot. If all that land south of Archer were developed densely, with an elevated crosswalk directly across from the Orange Line, along with that industrial area to the east of the Dan Ryan, you could put another Orange Line stop at Canal and turn those buildings at Cermak and Jefferson into a nice alternate commercial district and that whole west Chinatown/east Pilsen/north Bridgeport corner could go from no-man's-land to something even more popular than the 78 and Lincoln Yards.