CHICAGO | Highrise Projects & Construction, v7

[Randomguy34]

There's a new redevelopment plan for Cabrini-Green being studied, depending on the proposals selected there could be anywhere from 3000-4000 new units. Here the website to look at the redevelopment plan in more detail: https://www.thecha.org/doing-busines...nt/cabrini-now

Rendering if the densest scenarios are chosen:


Scenarios for south of Division St:


Scenarios for north of Division St:

[arCHItecture_]

Urbanize posted more renderings of 1060 W. Van Buren after the community meeting earlier this week.

https://chicago.urbanize.city/post/f...60-w-van-buren

[aaron38]

Originally Posted by Randomguy34

There's a new redevelopment plan for Cabrini-Green being studied

I was there 26 years ago. If the city had just stayed out of it and focused on a functional street grid, we would have a mature neighborhood today.
I won't say why, but you all know why.

[left of center]

I'm really liking 1060 W Van Buren. The adaptive reuse of the vintage corner building, the varied street front along Aberdeen, the height and density as well. WLCO did so much "damage" by keeping the West Loop very low rise (despite being literally a few blocks from one of the tallest buildings in the Western Hemisphere...), so its really nice to see at least the southern portion of it growing a bundle of mid rise towers.

Maybe Van Buren or Jackson can one day emulate the street life and vibrancy of the Fulton Market commercial corridors. Hopefully the empty lots in the area are capitalized wisely with tall, dense and pedestrian oriented developments

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by left of center

Maybe Van Buren or Jackson can one day emulate the street life and vibrancy of the Fulton Market commercial corridors. Hopefully the empty lots in the area are capitalized wisely with tall, dense and pedestrian oriented developments

I doubt it. It's getting a lot of density but it's still a bedroom community. It will never be packed with bars and restaurants, drawing people from all over the city and tourists to boot.

The area could use more small-scale retail to liven up the street a bit, but it'll never be truly bustling... West Loopers go to Madison to dine or drink, that isn't changing anytime soon.

[Jstange059]

[Jstange059]

[Jstange059]

upload image

[Jstange059]

And with that marks my first day back in Chicago. I’ll be here until around late November or possibly later, but permanently returning in the summer of 2026. Well, in the meantime, expect to see a lot of photos of various construction sites, many of which have been largely unseen on this forum!

[mh777]

Originally Posted by Jstange059

And with that marks my first day back in Chicago. I’ll be here until around late November or possibly later, but permanently returning in the summer of 2026. Well, in the meantime, expect to see a lot of photos of various construction sites, many of which have been largely unseen on this forum!

Awesome! We all very much appreciate the updates. Welcome home!

[BrickellBased]

Great to have a new Chicago photo poster on the forum! Welcome!

Originally Posted by Jstange059

And with that marks my first day back in Chicago. I’ll be here until around late November or possibly later, but permanently returning in the summer of 2026. Well, in the meantime, expect to see a lot of photos of various construction sites, many of which have been largely unseen on this forum!

[left of center]

Thanks for all the photo updates, Jstange! Happy to hear you will be back home permanently in a few years!


Love the new Damen stop, and the density provided by the Westhaven Park tower. Now if we could do something with that fugly cell phone tower just south of the CTA stop. It probably isn't going anywhere, since there is a ton of very expensive data infrastructure located there. A blank wall with murals on it would not be the most ideal, but would definitely help.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by left of center

Love the new Damen stop, and the density provided by the Westhaven Park tower. Now if we could do something with that fugly cell phone tower just south of the CTA stop. It probably isn't going anywhere, since there is a ton of very expensive data infrastructure located there. A blank wall with murals on it would not be the most ideal, but would definitely help.

Well, I'm hoping the Westhaven Park tower itself can host the next gen/5G cell tower equipment and the old tower is vacated.

Even if that doesn't happen, it's not the end of the world - a few small tweaks can conceal the tower. There's a cell tower at 1055 W Madison in the middle of a bustling restaurant district. You barely notice it with a tall wrought-iron fence and mature trees hiding it.

[left of center]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Well, I'm hoping the Westhaven Park tower itself can host the next gen/5G cell tower equipment and the old tower is vacated.

Even if that doesn't happen, it's not the end of the world - a few small tweaks can conceal the tower. There's a cell tower at 1055 W Madison in the middle of a bustling restaurant district. You barely notice it with a tall wrought-iron fence and mature trees hiding it.

I was thinking about that cell tower too, hah! It has been there forever, and I remember hating it back when I was a UIC student in the early 00s. It always annoyed me how it was so visible, being at the terminus of the Aberdeen St offset/shift at Madison. From street level it isn't too terrible, since the tree canopy helps conceal it from pedestrians.

I'd love to see a rooftop tower replace that cell tower at some point as well. As the West Loop builds taller and taller, signal degradation and range limits might eventually force them to

[iguy]

With interest rates allegedly set to come down, what are the odds we see movement on some of the larger current proposals?

[twister244]

Originally Posted by iguy

With interest rates allegedly set to come down, what are the odds we see movement on some of the larger current proposals?

Interest rates are only one factor......

We have economic uncertainty..... Record office vacancy rates that won't come down..... etc.

Reduced interest rates may help tug a couple projects across the line if it means a little more capital is available from investors, but I don't see it suddenly giving us Tribune East.

[k1052]

Originally Posted by twister244

Interest rates are only one factor......

We have economic uncertainty..... Record office vacancy rates that won't come down..... etc.

Reduced interest rates may help tug a couple projects across the line if it means a little more capital is available from investors, but I don't see it suddenly giving us Tribune East.

Quite a few rental projects that are already approved might start to pencil as rates come down. Office is not going to be back anytime soon which is why developers have switched uses where they can.

[dreamy-developer]

Originally Posted by twister244

Interest rates are only one factor......

We have economic uncertainty..... Record office vacancy rates that won't come down..... etc.

Reduced interest rates may help tug a couple projects across the line if it means a little more capital is available from investors, but I don't see it suddenly giving us Tribune East.

Building upon this, personally I think that it will help move some pending / already approved projects across the finish line. I think interest rates carry a bigger weight here compared to other cities that are seeing big population growth, or just have the insane high demand (Miami, NYC, Toronto etc.) compared to us. I think investors, banks and developers are more weary about Chicago as the population has either stagnated or remained flat. -- And current leadership does not help either.

I agree that even if rates are cut once or twice in the next 3-6 months that it won't get a Tribune East level project green lite, but I do think we could see 3-400' footers move dirt finally. But I also agree that any current proposed office buildings of any height will likely not move an inch no matter how much rates are cut soon.

[Randomguy34]

Loop office tower could be back on track for residential conversion

A proposal to convert a vintage Loop office tower into apartments is getting a second wind.

Chicago-based Mavrek Development is stepping in as a joint venture partner with Acres Commercial Realty Corp., which took control of the property through a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure agreement in March, to convert 65 E. Wacker Place into more than 200 apartments, according to sources with knowledge of the plans.
....
Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, is expected to inform constituents of the Wacker Place proposal and solicit feedback in his newsletter this evening. Reilly’s office didn’t provide a comment. Mavrek Development and Acres Commercial Realty Corp. didn’t respond to requests for comment on the plans.

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

[SolarWind]

August 6, 2024