I'm glad the banks are more aggessively going after them. Nobody forces a developer or real estate investor to sign personal guarantees. And if there were no consequences to signing personal guarantees on failed projects, as well as other lending stipulations, then they shouldn't be used at all. In addition to strong macroprudential regulation and enforcement, lenders themselves need prudent standards and practices that they consistently enforce too....

Speaking of Lakeside,
 

Crain's has a hilarious interview of Dan McCaffery. Seems my skepticism is misplaced, this thing is ready to go!! :haha:

He's going to be talking to some brokers - to get the word out, and drum up interest! Great plan, Dan!

He actually thinks he has a chance of landing the presidential library at the site. What a joke of a developer. Perhaps he should try instead to get them to put it at Roosevelt Collection (after British School hopefully completely pulls out!)!! Double :haha:

What a goof.....

This is a trough for the electrical service (bypass), while the buried cables are replaced.

Tower Crane pad being poured at rice cube today.

Tower Crane base rebar being emplaced today at 212 W Illinois.

Looks like they may be done w the big Manitowac rig at 444 W lake.

Ah, cool. That explains why it looked so robust. So the movie trailers were just a red herring?

This thing looks like it is a trough for cables for electric power on set. We often have bridges constructed that way to deliver power from generators to studio set-ups on location or at sound stages.

But you don't usually start trenching the street at the same time ;-)

What do you want him to say? He's got a huge uphill battle convincing tenants and builders on the value of South Works. If Crain's wants to interview him, of course it's gonna turn into a marketing pitch.

I don't see why the Obama library is a long shot. Many of the libraries are free-standing institutions, and the JFK library is on a similar waterfront location in a working-class part of Boston. I don't know if Boston has the same south-side bias Chicago does, but the fundamentals are similar.

I think McCaffery needs to start changing perceptions. The Dave Matthews festival was a great idea, and so is the Chicago Velo Campus. Bring people down from the North Side to see the beauty of the location and experience the safety. There's ample room for any kind of event setup and virtually inexhaustible parking. Also, like I said before, transit access is a huge problem.

Man, I wish they would do something similar (or better -- like windows or active retail) exactly 1 block north, on the street level nw corner of the Marriott tower.

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There is some kind of steel framed structure going up on the north side of Division near Scott (just east of the soon-to-be demolished fire station) - anyone know what it is?

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Sorry if this has been covered, but the southernmost empty parcel on Sheridan Road (between 2800 and 2850) is undergoing site prep, and 1 lane of the roadway has even been barriered off. Is this a St Joseph Hospital project? FYI this is not the Wirtz parcel.

8 units, architect is Hanna. I'm hoping for something funky.

http://chicago.curbed.com/archives/2...orth-clark.php

Clark/North Ave.

So the Village Theatre is safe, and this is a brick/limestone building to complement the theatre, and the Germania building on the block. Interested to see renderings.

^ Just read article. Eyes did a complete rotation without head moving.

Where to begin?

Brick and limestone? Barf. Someone who previously supposedly hired Ralph Johnson now developing a brick and limestone building? Oh joy, can't wait to see this one...

Fioretti is just a hyper-panderer. His quotes are textbook invertabrate, don't give a flying f%c& about solid urban planning and design and what's actually good and appropriate policy for the 'community' alderdouche material - 'the developer needs to convince the community, ie I'm just here to ok their urban planning/development decisions (mob rules entitlement)'/'it needs to "blend in" (a good, long, hearty projectile vomit)'/'it needs to compliment the building next door (dry heaves, you know this is going to be some seriously unsophisticated postmodern rube-pandering schlock)'....

You know, not that I ever liked him, but I almost half-felt sorry for the little orange bastard when Council redistricted him out of his own ward as part of one of the most obscene and obviously illegal gerrymanderings I've ever seen.......I've certainly just lost whatever sympathy I did have after these awful comments, as well as his recent ones on the 'tower of Jewel'....seriously hope his new snakelike collection of like 55-60 disconnected neighborhoods sends this pathetic pandering pr$c# packing in '15.....that would be good riddance for sure....

The whole project is a pipe dream until the time when there has been serious reinvestment and rising property values in the existing neighborhoods in the area. McCaffery surely knows this - the whole thing is little more than a PR stunt unless they actually do change it to a '60-80' year vision profect or similar. Don't expect anything other than smallish, very surbanesque development here for quite a long time to come....maybe a strip center and a flex building by 2027....but perhaps I'm too pessimistic, so I'll add 3 subsidized single-family homes and a subsidized six flat added by 2035. Plus, is McCaffery even remotely the right master developer to successfully pull off something more ambitious?........I'll take that one - of course not.......US Steel should rethink everything here imho.

On the library, hard for me to see a reason why it wouldn't or shouldn't (only plausible perhaps is oversensitivity to some sort of elitist perception fear?) go in Hyde Park/UofC.........if there is some sort of dark horse also in the running, my gut for some reason is saying Michael Reese site....

Yeah, in terms of vacant land, Michael Reese is closer to the loop/tourists. Seems like the city has it's sights on developing the near south side sooner than this mega-project out in (practically) Indiana.

SamInTheLoop -

While I agree that the time frame for South Works seems a little optimistic, you seem to really have a bee in your bonnet about McCaffery and his supposed incompetence that I find interesting. You twice trashed him recently (comments 20695, 20722) specifically regarding Roosevelt Collection - why? Until his company took over there were ZERO retailers. Nothing. NADA. You say there isnt a restaurant but, hmmmm....what about Chica Loca; and a coffee sop has opened. There are now 8 or 9 retailers.

You also called him a goof and "a joke of a developer" and you hope the British School pulls out. Why?

I know this is coming off as very accusatory, but I don't get your dislike of him, and what he has manage to do with Roosevelt Collection. Just curious.

Speaking of the South loop British school
 

British School Merger, Construction Delay Won't Change Park Plan: Developer


http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20131...plan-developer

^^ No, I don't even think you're really coming off as being accusatory there. You merely asked a question, and I find it more than a fair one. Here's your answer:

Chica Loca, opening when exactly? Blackfinn, quietly pulled out. Close on asset in June or July 2011. The property was not actually suffering from anything fundamentally - it was purely that the original developer was in severe financial distress (highly overleveraged on the project like many other developers of specific projects at that time). The fact that they are where they are today with progress (mind-numbingly, absolutely unacceptably slow, rapidly coming up on 2.5 years post purchase close, is simply an astonishingly weak performance. Astonishingly.

There are plenty of reasons to look down with disdain on the pitiful McCaffery as a developer - whether that be because you like success - financial within reasonable timeframes or successful contributions to neighborhoods - or because you like high quality arechitecture and deisgn (McCaffery's atrocious track record and sorry long time collaboration with perennial hack Joe Antunovich qualifies as 'enough said' in that regard), or - likely both - careful evaluation and analysis of reality, is all that is required to despise the 'trashing' that Mr. McCaffery does to Chicago.

Further, to pour salt into our collective McCaffery-inflicted wounds, the nonsense they pulled with the British School at Roosevelt Collection, with a big assist from the ever-pliant, hapless hack Ald. Solis, was a pretty cynical and low blow...

Look, there's nothing harsh about assessing the world around us - it requires praising the good and or worthy, skewering the awful and or malicious, and 'mehing' everything else...

Ahhhh....didnt know about Chica Loca, and forgot about Ameripub.

From a retail standpoint, they seem decently successful, given that before the entire development felt incredibly empty. I like the Haberdash on State and could see killing time there before / after movie.

Looking at the McCaffery website, I do find the lack of decent design a little depressing.

i think hyde park is already saturated with libraries and investment. yes the world class ones are mainly just for students of UC but the question is does the area really need one? wheras if hes looking to think outside of the box, placing it in a disadvantaged/overlooked neighborhood could really do a lot more good. I like Lee Bey's idea from a few years ago to place it in Pullman.

(assuming it goes to chicago or he even decides to build one. i still think these things are kind of wasteful and egotistical)

^ I suppose I just don't see a potential prez library site being located in a disadvantaged/traditionally overlooked neighborhood as being anything more than a 'neutral' consideration (plus it's not as if this particular president is likely to be remembered for championing disadvantaged/overlooked urban neighborhoods). I certainly agree with your last point though (and yes - Obama will assuredly have one built - but no - I do not believe him to be more wasteful than the average US president, nor do I have any particular reason to think he's more egotistical than the avg prez)