^It says they are combining operations at a plant in rural Ontario and keeping company HQ and R&D in Chicago at the Merch Mart.

919 on Fulton - 919 W Fulton Market
 

March 19, 2024

812 W Adams
 

March 19, 2024

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...sidential-site

Former South Loop church site pitched as redevelopment opportunity
By Rachel Herzog

^ I bet CMK buys it and puts up two 19-story boxes.

Crain's has a rendering. More Chicago infill should look like this. HPA is the architect:

https://s3-rd-prod.chicagobusiness.c...E2%80%AFAM.png

^ well yeah.

It's all about facade depth.

Architects love to design it.

And developers love to VE it.

919 on Fulton - 919 W Fulton Market
 

March 25, 2024

https://www.costar.com/article/19781...s-on-the-scent

Closing Chicago Chocolate Factory Known for Sweet Aromas Puts Developers on the Scent

Blommer Facility in the River West Neighborhood To Be Sold After May

By Ryan Ori
CoStar News
March 26, 2024 | 4:10 P.M.

Thanks - I thought announced they were moving from here a long while back and then I never heard anything again.

Sad to see them go but this will help clean up that awkward area and connect River North more with Fulton Market.

Construction permits issued for 3951 N Wayne, 31 units. There's been a midrise mini-boom in the city the past year, probably because they're easier to get financing at the moment.

Ooohhhh — hopefully that Burger King at Clark/Irving? Yep, it’s the BK. But woof, that site plan — they are saving those curb cuts mamma! Whatever, that intersection is beyond civilizing, I suppose; gas station, 70s towers-in-park, cemetery, cemetery make up the corners.

They aren't *moving* everything. They are moving their HQ to Merchandise Mart. From an actual business perspective this is a wise move. It has nothing to do with cities or anything. That factory's location has become VERY valuable in terms of land values with everything going on nearby and what's planned nearby too. It makes complete sense for them to move their HQ operations to offices nearby, move manufacturing elsewhere (even consolidate to cheaper locations and expand potentially) and sell the land. They're sitting on tens of millions of dollars of land they can use to increase profit margins and probably not sacrifice too much in terms of manufacturing.

I would love to see them build a new factory in another part of the city or suburbs, but they already have a few factories elsewhere. We'll see what they do on that front but business-wise this makes actual sense to me what they're doing given the skyrocketing property values in that area.

Lincoln Park / Uptown infill
 

A couple small projects I passed today with active sites:

513 W Fullerton

https://i.postimg.cc/WNpFyR44/IMG-2152.jpg?dl=1

Concrete pour going on for this one. This is the view from Cleveland, so one of the single family homes.

5035 N Sheridan

https://i.postimg.cc/6BRv2LSB/IMG-2174.jpg?dl=1

BTW I hope these projects aren’t too small to post here. Just was happy to see some developments while I’m here touring apartments for my move (the name is misleading, I don’t live in Pullman). After I move I plan to use my drone to get some pics of the 400 N Lakeshore Drive site!

A 24 unit cube is proposed for 1055 W Diversey. Not sure how I feel about the design

https://chicago.urbanize.city/sites/...?itok=w_iFQ-zO
https://chicago.urbanize.city/post/r...055-w-diversey

^I actually don't mind it

Prefer what's existing, but not opposed to the proposed. Would be better one block west :D

I was gonna say, "looks like Studio Dwell." I like their work, but the collaborations they've had with Contemporary Concepts have not always resulted in well-realized designs. (See this apartment building on Broadway just N of Irving: https://maps.app.goo.gl/k3agi9uQ5gBRTQvCA)

Success or failure of the kind of design of this proposal rests wholly on the material execution, IMO, since fine differences between planes and the subtleties of the brickwork are most of what's driving the aesthetic value of the building. I think the concept is cool in an early-50s way, but if any party along the path to completion cheaps out, it's not gonna be pretty...

The version on the developer's website is a little more appealing to me: https://www.contemporaryconceptsinc....hrkptzksi6mry4 It has some different bonds interspersed in the larger expanses of masonry that lend verticality and help it balance better with the fenestration pattern.

The site plan is pretty typical for a Chicago condo. Front door on Wayne, the two BK curb cuts will be closed off and the garage doors accessed from the public alley. Actually with the ground floor residential, the whole Wayne frontage and half the frontage on Irving Park is lined with "real" windows.

Unfortunately you will see the garage doors from Irving Park and Clark because the senior housing site plan is so open, but there's nothing the developers can do about that.

https://chicagoyimby.com/2024/03/fur...lake-view.html

they're cutting the retail space by half: "will replace a pair of existing two-story commercial buildings with 18,960 square feet of retail space...The new ground floor will hold approximately 9,900 square feet of retail space instead."

So more housing density -- "210 residential units [!!] made up of 90 studios, 43 junior one-bedrooms, 58 one-bedrooms, and 19 two-bedroom layouts" -- but also much less retail.

Housing can go either on main streets like Belmont or on side streets, but retail is only allowed on the main streets. The end result is that developments like this kind of inevitably push out organic retail. Would be nice to have the Jane Jacobs-style retail around the corner off the main streets to allow for more variety.