CHICAGO | General Developments

[ithakas]

Originally Posted by UrbanLibertine

I'm not as much of a fan of this proposal any more.

My understanding is that they're only demoing the rear 1-story of the building and renovating the main portion of 156 N. Jefferson for residential, though the language on that permit doesn't necessarily indicate that.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by ithakas

My understanding is that they're only demoing the rear 1-story of the building and renovating the main portion of 156 N. Jefferson for residential, though the language on that permit doesn't necessarily indicate that.

Yeah the wording is concerning, but it's possible that they are just demo'ing the rear 1 and 4 story components while preserving the 4 story component that fronts Jefferson St? After all, the article states that the plan is to renovate the building into apartments.

[Steely Dan]

^ the building that fronts jefferson is only 3 storIes. behind it there is a 4 story building and a 1 story building. my guess is that the demo permit refers to those two structures, as per the original plan to renovate the 3 story building that fronts jefferson.

[ithakas]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^ the building that fronts jefferson is only 3 stores. behind it there is a 4 story building and a 1 story building. my guess is that the demo permit refers to those two structures, as per the original plan to renovate the 3 story building that fronts jefferson.

Good catch and glad to hear it.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by spyguy

Excited and hopeful that this actually gets done. The development team includes:


They also announced a new outpatient facility on Damen/Polk (designed by Gensler I believe)

Handsome, now if only they actually built all the developments planned for this area, we might see land disappearing as quickly as it is over in Cabrini, the other downtown adjacent urban renewal nightmare.

[F1 Tommy]

Originally Posted by aaron38

In development news, just saw this on TV at the gym.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local...l-redevelop-met-0406-20160405-story.html
New plan for old Cook County hospital: hotel, apartments, shops



The article mentions up to 125 hotel rooms and 150 apartments.

Great to see a promising plan to save this important building in Chicago's history. It's getting old and dirty but is still not hard on the eyes.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Handsome, now if only they actually built all the developments planned for this area, we might see land disappearing as quickly as it is over in Cabrini, the other downtown adjacent urban renewal nightmare.

Yeah the lack of progress has been disappointing.

At least Malcolm X College got done and took out a huge parking lot. Now it looks like the Hawks and Rush will move ahead with their plans for the old college site.

There's actually a pretty sizable chunk of dense campus in the IMD along Paulina and Wood, but the edges along Damen/Ogden/Roosevelt are super sparse and desolate.

Here's hoping that Gateway manages to get started.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Yeah, there is actually tremendous density there, but it suffers from isolation and a total lack of anything else going on besides medical and institutional uses. Add a few more hotels, apartments, shops, and office buildings and you could have a downtown like atmosphere. There is no lack of people in this area, just a lack of anything worth walking around to.

[tjp]

I heard some guys from Fifield, John Buck, Magellan, and JDL speak at the Marcus & Millichap multifamily forum today. Predictably, they're all pretty upset over the changes to the Affordable Requirements Ordinance. One of them even said they expect to see a ~50% reduction in new projects next year. Obviously some of that is just hot air, as the new requirements are still in dispute, but it still has me pretty concerned.

[UrbanLibertine]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^ the building that fronts jefferson is only 3 storIes. behind it there is a 4 story building and a 1 story building. my guess is that the demo permit refers to those two structures, as per the original plan to renovate the 3 story building that fronts jefferson.

Thanks for clearing that up. The wording was a bit confusing.

[streetline]

Originally Posted by spyguy

Excited and hopeful that this actually gets done. The development team includes:


They also announced a new outpatient facility on Damen/Polk (designed by Gensler I believe)

Not bad, and it looks like it may eliminate that weird little frontage road between Polk and Taylor next to Damen.

I'm excited to see if 125 hotel rooms and 150 apartments and associated retail from the Old County General projects, plus the hotel from the project on Ogden, plus the continuing growth of the IMD's eds&meds can build a more populated and walkable bridge between university village and tri-taylor (with offshoots pushing north twoards the United Center). That whole area developing into a medically focused 24h walkable mixed use neighborhood, from the single use suburban area it is now, would be incredible.

I especially like the idea of lining the existing garage at Wood and Polk with retail and residential. Hospitals may need parking, but stacking it high and wrapping it in active uses can mitigate the harm it does to the streetscape.

[the urban politician]

IMD is the reason the IMD is so lifeless. Medical facilities are so ill-equipped to handle land usage for anything other than medical needs. And the reality is, the IMD has way too much land. This land should be zoned and sold off to private entities.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

IMD is the reason the IMD is so lifeless. Medical facilities are so ill-equipped to handle land usage for anything other than medical needs. And the reality is, the IMD has way too much land. This land should be zoned and sold off to private entities.

Agreed, especially the land south of Roosevelt. They are doing 99-year leases to people like Costco, the heliport, etc. The problem is that there's just so much open land that's worth so little. The natural temptation is to do suburban-style development.

The area's housing demand should be satisfied by Roosevelt Square on the middle-class end, and West Loop for the higher-income professionals. There's just not a lot of excess demand in this area for new construction housing right now. Hopefully there is a market for hotel, entertainment and retail. Roosevelt Road sucks and I hate driving there. I'd love to see a New City-esque development here, I think Gateway would fill that niche but I'm not super confident in the development team that was chosen.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Agreed, especially the land south of Roosevelt. They are doing 99-year leases to people like Costco, the heliport, etc. The problem is that there's just so much open land that's worth so little. The natural temptation is to do suburban-style development.

The area's housing demand should be satisfied by Roosevelt Square on the middle-class end, and West Loop for the higher-income professionals. There's just not a lot of excess demand in this area for new construction housing right now. Hopefully there is a market for hotel, entertainment and retail. Roosevelt Road sucks and I hate driving there. I'd love to see a New City-esque development here, I think Gateway would fill that niche but I'm not super confident in the development team that was chosen.

I think single family homes would sell like hotcakes there.

I know everybody hates the idea of such low density, but I'd rather see that than all the wasted plots of grass we have now. Hospitals, homes, and perhaps one more hotel. Done. Land developed. Move on

[ardecila]

^ Somebody's already trying that. I don't think they're selling like hotcakes.

http://www.smarttechhomes.com/#!ecosquare/c959

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by ardecila

^ Somebody's already trying that. I don't think they're selling like hotcakes.

http://www.smarttechhomes.com/#!ecosquare/c959

I read an article about that development stating that they were selling so well that they did away with townhomes and switched to more SFH's.

I make no representations about the accuracy of what I read. I can only say that I read that somewhere a few months back.

[BrinChi]

Originally Posted by ardecila

^ Somebody's already trying that. I don't think they're selling like hotcakes.

http://www.smarttechhomes.com/#!ecosquare/c959

Those are quite a bit farther west.

[ardecila]

The IMD goes west all the way to Oakley, so I would consider "Eco Square" to be pretty close by, just 1/4 mile.

http://www.imdc.org/about/illinois-medical-district-map

[nathanjamahl]

There’s an active proposal for a vacant parcel at the southwest corner of 31st and Indiana in the Douglas neighborhood. The site once hosted a gas station and will need to be remediated. The developer spoke yesterday at a ward meeting hosted by Alderwoman Dowell. The developer intends to build a six-story(?) residential building, comprised one, two and three-bedroom units. One-bedroom units will lease for $1600. I cannot recall price points for other units. The developer will not appeal for a zoning variance to build more than what the current zoning allows.

[dc_denizen]

do you guys think cook county hospital has a chance of being renovated quickly? that was a cool building, sad to see it w/ graffiti.