CHICAGO: boom rundown - everything over 12 floors. v4

[wrab]

Originally Posted by BVictor1

.....SCB... Wonder if we are going to het the vertical banding, or something different
.....

Yeah, you'd think they were the only game in town, given the number of large new projects they have...I do hope that they manage somehow to work the horizontal banding out of their collective bag of tricks.

[SamInTheLoop]

Well that just made my morning! Now we need a residential project to replace the Walgreens at Franklin/Randolph and the garage at Wells/Randolph and Sammy will be very happy...

[dvidler]

Did SCB sign some deal with the city or something? I cant remember the last time their name did not come up for some big project

[VivaLFuego]

Originally Posted by SamInTheLoop

Well that just made my morning! Now we need a residential project to replace the Walgreens at Franklin/Randolph and the garage at Wells/Randolph and Sammy will be very happy...

If memory serves, Buck has his sights on this land for an eventual twin office tower to 155 N. Wacker. The site of the Walgreens would be a plaza, while a large office tower would rise on the site of the current garage and surface lot (and that shack that serves some of the best General Tso's Chicken in the city)

[Steely Dan]

i love hearing about shitty old 3 story parking garages becoming new residential towers. it had actually been awhile since we heard a new tower announcement, i was starting to get a little worried.........

if someone could get this project added to the emporis database, i can go ahead and add it to page 1 as well. thanks in advance.

[i_am_hydrogen]

Great to hear. And so another parking structure meets its demise. I like that much of the parking-related traffic will be channeled underground, though I worry about what the base will look like given the amount of parking it's expected to accommodate. I hope it contains retail as that area could really use a little more vibrancy.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Dan in Chicago

This is just a suggestion, I don't care how you all want to classify these... but I would remove the following from "site prep" status:

The Curve - nothing going on there

Walton on the Park - the activity reported there earlier only led to the erection of the sales center.

Parkview East - won't get started for a year or two

1555 South Wabash - no activity there since last spring

Some of the others are questionable too, like Blue Cross, Streeter II, and 469 West Huron.

thanks for keeping tabs on all thise projects dan. i'll take it all under advisement and get these projects out of "site prep". this perfectly demonstrates the problems with the "site prep" category and it also shows why we wait until actual foundation work commences to make the call on construction. scraperfans in other cities see a a piece of equipment show up on a job site and say, "hey look, it's under construction", but we in chicgao know better.

[honte]

^ Re: Streeter II, they definitely tore up the lot, no? I'd guess they're waiting for contractors / permits on that one, but I have no way to verify. Perhaps one of our super-sleuths will get the real beef.

[Dan in Chicago]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

this perfectly demonstrates the problems with the "site prep" category and it also shows why we wait until actual foundation work commences to make the call on construction. scraperfans in other cities see a a piece of equipment show up on a job site and say, "hey look, it's under construction", but we in chicgao know better.

Well put. That is not to say, of course, that the site prep category is not very useful as a watchlist for upcoming construction. It helps us to remember to keep an eye on those sites, leading to more timely announcements of construction starts.

By the way, it seemed to me from our photos on Emporis that Kingsbury Plaza (the former Grand Kingsbury) topped out in January. The mechanical penthouse was already formed.

[museumparktom]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

thanks for keeping tabs on all thise projects dan. i'll take it all under advisement and get these projects out of "site prep". this perfectly demonstrates the problems with the "site prep" category and it also shows why we wait until actual foundation work commences to make the call on construction. scraperfans in other cities see a a piece of equipment show up on a job site and say, "hey look, it's under construction", but we in chicgao know better.

There seems to be more than a few that have fallen into a holding pattern. OMPW and Michigan Ave Tower 2 are also in this limbo state of "pre site prep" I tend to think that some of this may be the weather and permitting delays rather than a response to the condo market.

[spyguy]

A proposed Residential Business Institutional Planned Development Application and Lake Michigan and Chicago Lakefront Application No. 517 submitted by The City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development for the property generally located at 2401 South Lake Shore Drive. The application allows for the construction of up to 5,000 dwelling units, 1,000 hotel keys and certain other public and temporary improvements.

[Chicago Shawn]

200 West Lake has been added to emporis, bu>292839.

[honte]

Originally Posted by spyguy

A proposed Residential Business Institutional Planned Development Application and Lake Michigan and Chicago Lakefront Application No. 517 submitted by The City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development for the property generally located at 2401 South Lake Shore Drive. The application allows for the construction of up to 5,000 dwelling units, 1,000 hotel keys and certain other public and temporary improvements.

So here's my burning question about the Olympic Village... if they actually build this thing, which would be great IMO, how can future growth at McCormick Place be handled? I had always assumed that these air rights over the staging area would eventually be used for convention halls.

They cannot go north due to large-scale residential, they cannot go south due to the Stevenson, and they cannot go west due to the Motor Row landmark district. The only space left that I know of is due north of the Lakeside (original) building, where Soldier Field has parking lots. But Daley has (quite mistakenly) called for the demolition of the Lakeside building, so I do not understand how he could agree to yet more bulky buildings on the lakefront.

Any ideas?

[denizen467]

^ It looks like there is plenty of unbuilt space on either side of King Drive, south of the Stevenson. Assuming the residential projects would be confined to the air rights east of the South Shore tracks, it seems like there is enough space to build a 'MP5' around MLK & 25th. Of course, there are active buildings there now, probably related to the hospital(s), but hasn't there been news that the hospitals might shut down or move anyway?

Of course this land would be more costly than the air rights land, and you have to be able to move conventioneers back and forth across the Stevenson, so maybe the next phase would be east of LSD after all.

On a related note, does anybody know exactly where Hyatt II would be built?

[denizen467]

Fabulous news about Lake/Wells. I was sure that that would be the LAST parcel ever developed in the Loop, because of the noise and the obstructed views and the kind of dungeony feel at street level (though the el atmosphere is much loved by many of us Chicagoans). At a minimum, I never would have thought it would be residential that gets built there - more power to them.

[BVictor1]

http://www.suntimes.com/business/roeder/255704,CST-FIN-roeder14.article

Annex buy could signal a dorm in the works

February 14, 2007

BY DAVID ROEDER Sun-Times Columnist

The Fine Arts Building at 410 S. Michigan is a landmark, one of Chicago's finest. Don't look for it to be radically altered, but keep an eye on the parcel just west of it.

Roosevelt University has signed a contract to buy what's called the Fine Arts Annex at 421 S. Wabash, an insignificant building behind the landmark. Roosevelt spokesman Thomas Karow said the school's use of the site is undecided and the deal won't close until September, an unusually long lead time.

Insiders wonder if Roosevelt wants to build a high-rise for student housing, following the precedent developers have established in building new towers behind the famous Boul Mich streetwall facing Grant Park. The extended period before closing would allow the school time to prepare its zoning case for the city.

Karow said the school is scouting sites downtown for student housing because of the success of the multi-school University Center at State and Congress. He declined to comment on any potential high-rise.

The seller of the property was a partnership run by Robert Berger, also the owner of the Fine Arts Building. Berger said he doubts Roosevelt plans new construction, and said it was just a case of the school needing space and him having some to sell. The annex covers about 20,000 square feet, he said. "That school is a wonderful neighbor, and I was glad I could help them out," he said.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Chicago Shawn

200 West Lake has been added to emporis, bu>292839.

thanks shawn. 200 West lake has been added to page 1. and the stagnant
"site prep" projects dan pointed out have been bumped back down to "proposed".

[VivaLFuego]

Originally Posted by honte

So here's my burning question about the Olympic Village... if they actually build this thing, which would be great IMO, how can future growth at McCormick Place be handled? I had always assumed that these air rights over the staging area would eventually be used for convention halls.

They cannot go north due to large-scale residential, they cannot go south due to the Stevenson, and they cannot go west due to the Motor Row landmark district. The only space left that I know of is due north of the Lakeside (original) building, where Soldier Field has parking lots. But Daley has (quite mistakenly) called for the demolition of the Lakeside building, so I do not understand how he could agree to yet more bulky buildings on the lakefront.

Any ideas?

My assumption is that they still have their eye on the neighborhood between Cermak and the Stevenson, east of State st. The South Loop boom hasn't seen too much construction in these parts (I think "Motor Row" is the only active development). It will be curious to see if there's any effort to hault condo development there, since it seems the most logical geographically.

Shorter term, I think the next phase should probably tearing down the relatively crappy and small McCormick North and replacing it with a larger, more functional space, extending farther north over Metra air-rights to about 18th St.

[the urban politician]

^ Maybe somebody can confirm this, but isn't Dorothy Tillman the Alderman of that area? I remember reading recently that, in her infinite wisdom, she is against highrises in her part of downtown.

[brian_b]

Originally Posted by denizen467

^ It looks like there is plenty of unbuilt space on either side of King Drive, south of the Stevenson. Assuming the residential projects would be confined to the air rights east of the South Shore tracks, it seems like there is enough space to build a 'MP5' around MLK & 25th. Of course, there are active buildings there now, probably related to the hospital(s), but hasn't there been news that the hospitals might shut down or move anyway?

Of course this land would be more costly than the air rights land, and you have to be able to move conventioneers back and forth across the Stevenson, so maybe the next phase would be east of LSD after all.

On a related note, does anybody know exactly where Hyatt II would be built?

I took a taxi to the auto show the other day and as we sat at the corner of 25th and MLK waiting to turn north I looked over and saw that there is a large townhouse development being put up right there, on the west side of MLK. I can't for the life of me remember the name or website, but anyone in the area can find out as the signs are quite large.