CHICAGO | Boom rundown - everything over 12 floors. v5

[GregBear24]

Does anyone know if anything has gone on with the lot at the northwest coner of michigan and 14th streets? There was a land for sale sign there for over a year, but now it's suddenly gone. With this being a prime spot to build a highrise, it naturally caught my attention.

[Chicago Shawn]

^Ah, see the PD Application has some missleading language then. I guess it just seperates the buildings at the light well into two structures, unless of course, structurally the are indepedent and linked together from their initial construction. I would be fine with a 200 room hotel in the existing buildings, however it would carve up the interiors as well. Perhaps they would keep the pool and perhaps not.

Originally Posted by honte

^ So Shawn, they have scrapped the proposal that would only leave 4 courses of brick of the original the Monroe Street (annex) building? Last I heard, the floor heights didn't line up, so the facade was going to be slapped on to a new building, with floors misaligned with the window penetrations.

No, the whole annex building will be saved. The doument mentions the need to do some leveling "fillers" to address the issue though.

[honte]

^ Well, that is a great improvement. Thanks for the info.

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

Two-thirds of the Cobb building would be removed, including a marble-clad swimming pool and the Cherry Circle barroom. It's not a separate building in the back that's being torn down, it's the original 1893 building.

This was my understanding as well, but I have not seen the revised plans.

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

Do you really think this building will stand vacant for decades if they can't put in a 350-room hotel? Why not be satisfied with a 200-room hotel that fits into the existing buildings?

Precisely.

[BVictor1]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

Does preservation in this town mean the ornament panels only? Why not just let the developer build an 80-story condo tower there, as long as they promised to put a nice inkjet photomural of the old building on the front?

I'd have to see a design before I make any judgements

Let's see the plans first before we rush to judgement.

[Mr Downtown]

Is that what historic preservation means to you? It's all based on whether you like the design of the replacement building?

[BVictor1]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

Is that what historic preservation means to you? It's all based on whether you like the design of the replacement building?

No, I was just pushing your buttons

But I do think that old and new can work together successfully.

[Jaroslaw]

Some interesting numbers from AppraisalResearch at cribchatter.com.

--estimated downtown condo sales for 2007: 4,000 (down from 5,783 last year and 8,162 in 2005)

--unsold inventory (new and u/c) is at 7,601 units

[10023]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

Two-thirds of the Cobb building would be removed, including a marble-clad swimming pool and the Cherry Circle barroom. It's not a separate building in the back that's being torn down, it's the original 1893 building.

Does preservation in this town mean the ornament panels only? Why not just let the developer build an 80-story condo tower there, as long as they promised to put a nice inkjet photomural of the old building on the front?

"Can't-see-it-from-the-opposite-sidewalk" is a reasonable compromise in Old Town or Pullman, but not for the Michigan Avenue streetwall.

Do you really think this building will stand vacant for decades if they can't put in a 350-room hotel? Why not be satisfied with a 200-room hotel that fits into the existing buildings?

Awful news. Which building is this? Is this Reilly's area? This is what he should be focused on.

[SamInTheLoop]

Originally Posted by Jaroslaw

Some interesting numbers from AppraisalResearch at cribchatter.com.

--estimated downtown condo sales for 2007: 4,000 (down from 5,783 last year and 8,162 in 2005)

--unsold inventory (new and u/c) is at 7,601 units

Jaroslaw - just a correction on unsold inventory. The 7,601 figure is almost assuredly for completed, under construction, as well as pre-construction units that are being marketed. The pre-construction unsold units are a huge percentage of the total unsold almost by definition (as under-construction needs to be at least 50% pre-sold - and as many of the under construction projects are 70-90% pre-sold, the overall average must be closer to 60-70%....)

[SamInTheLoop]

Originally Posted by BVictor1

No, I was just pushing your buttons

But I do think that old and new can work together successfully.

Yes they certainly can (old, new, tall, short, thin, squat together successfully as well). In fact, I don't think there's anything wrong at all with first evaluating almost any proposal before passing judgment.

Lest we forget, Mr. Downtown opposed (still stubbornly opposes?) The Legacy, for pete's sake!

[10023]

The more useful figure would be units scheduled for delivery within twelve months plus the existing backlog of completed units. That way one could compare new units available to absorption rates, which I'd assume would be 3,000-3,500 next year based on that trend and current conditions.

[SamInTheLoop]

Originally Posted by honte

Hope he hires a real architect for this prime site... no more schlock.

_________________________

Nov. 14, 2007

Developer buys Michigan Avenue site
By Alby Gallun
http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=27115

(Crain’s) — South Loop condominium developer William Warman is buying a premier Michigan Avenue development site after a high-profile Miami developer dropped plans to build a 50-story condo-and-hotel tower there.

...

No kidding! The entire design-minded community in Chicago just collectively cringed! Warman's just horrible. His projects are generally awful architecturally, and from what many contend, quality of construction-wise as well....

[SamInTheLoop]

[QUOTE=Chicago Shawn;
[B]601 West Monroe[/B] My guess is this is the fail safe plan should BP not be landed as an anchor tennant for the sexy green tower that we all want to see. Will put into Emporis in due time.


Actually, wouldn't people rather see an ambitious, super-environmentally-advanced, architecturally stunning HQ tower for the BP unit in a more prominent location? I'm thinking a riverfront location (one of the Wolf Point towers, Fraklin Point). I would even prefer an inside-the-loop location such as the next proposed Buck tower after 155 Wacker rather than the West Loop wasteland known as Fifieldom....

[spyguy]

Originally Posted by honte

Nov. 14, 2007

Developer buys Michigan Avenue site

Like the previous Crain's article on 300 N. Michigan, again I'm more interested in the one sentence about Roti's plans for the Motor Club than this development.

Originally Posted by APPRAISER

I was driving in from the south side from an appointment yesterday, and there area a million craines from the roosevelt collection all the way south to cermak. I guessing about 15-20 craines in all!!!!

I tried to capture some South Loop cranes last week but the photo didn't turn out too well

[SolarWind]

November 14, 2007

[honte]

Originally Posted by spyguy

Like the previous Crain's article on 300 N. Michigan, again I'm more interested in the one sentence about Roti's plans for the Motor Club than this development.

Agreed. The City should just landmark the darn thing already. They've had tons of warning that something disrepectful is probably about to happen to the gem. Sure, he says he will restore the lobby, but this is coming from a guy who was ready to tear the whole thing down a few short months ago.

[i_am_hydrogen]

Parkview West and 600 N LSD, taken today:

[samoen313]

looks great!^ just get a few dozen more of those things up and and all the corpulent 80's/90's streeterville crap will finally be what they are. trifles (architecturally of course).

i was in chicago a few weeks back and did a quite wonderful boat tour, led by a droll octogenarian who couldn't answer my one question. on the west side of the south loop of the river. there is one twenty or thirty story building with no windows on all but the top three floors. in fact, it looked like all the floors below had been cemented in. the concrete might be best summed up as evoking a september in moscow circa 1980s. not that all the po-mo constructions over there are gems, but this one elicited a gasp of horror from my fellow architects. anyway, i was just wondering: what is it? why is it? and when might it ever go away?

[Jaroslaw]

Originally Posted by SamInTheLoop

Jaroslaw - just a correction on unsold inventory. The 7,601 figure is almost assuredly for completed, under construction, as well as pre-construction units that are being marketed. The pre-construction unsold units are a huge percentage of the total unsold almost by definition (as under-construction needs to be at least 50% pre-sold - and as many of the under construction projects are 70-90% pre-sold, the overall average must be closer to 60-70%....)

It's always been hard to distinguish between the two except by very close reading. I think you're right, though. From the AR website:

"Though downtown developers were sitting on just 64 unsold completed units at the end of the quarter, the supply of unsold condos includes 3,539 units that are under construction and will be completed between now and 2010, according to Appraisal Research...."

There are other variables in this number, but I don't want to get deleted.

[SolarWind]

Originally Posted by i_am_hydrogen

Parkview West... taken today:

Great shot, i_am_hydrogen! Here's a close-up of a balcony that I took today.