Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Downtown
Or—through some sort of land-use planning—we could just refrain from putting big destinations where transit is inconvenient.
Naw, that's just crazy talk.
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The problem is half of Chicago wasn't built for the way the modern economy employs people. Previously you either worked downtown and commuted in and out via streetcar or L or you worked in a neighborhood factory (which were very spread out around the city as we all know) and lived near work. It is unquestionably true that large areas of Chicago are suffering from a combination of the near total collapse of the manufacturing sector as an employment anchor and the urban flight trends which seem to have recently started to reverse. As such, that second way of living and working in Chicago has all but evaporated. Of course the creation of super highways and natural fligbh of industry to greenfield sites also complicates things further, but that's another story.
Now, with the new more mobile modern workforce, I don't think it is at all unreasonable to expect that firms, especially smaller firms that previously might have inhabited class C space which is rapidly disappearing, might start choosing to locate in the very spaces left vacant by industry. These areas are built to accommodate mass employment, that's the very story of Chicago itself. What is surprising is seeing a corporate giant like McDonald's jumping in on the trend.
I would say we should expect to see a lot more Green Exchange developments in the near future. And if we do, workers will adapt and move into long forgotten neighborhoods that are a fantastic place to live if your office is a half mile down Pulaski or Pershing or any other of Chicago's legacy industrial corridors. In fact, our next development of this type is already underway in the Olsen Rug / Marshall Field warehouse. Not only will this building contain expanded operations for Climateguard, a now open German Fresh Market, and additional big box retailers, but it will have 80 live work units and 300,000 SF of offices. All in all this is one of the biggest developments in the city right now at a whopping 1.5 million SF with 450,000 of that being office or live work. It's really a city unto itself and, if successful, it could create a gold rush to grab and reposition like buildings all over the city. Yet it's nowhere near transit and almost never talked about on this forum.