CHICAGO | General Developments - Page 1316

wierdaaron · #**26301** Posted **Oct 29, 2014, 4:24 PM**

I wrote up the current situation with Lake Meadows, thanks everyone for the input. http://chicago.curbed.com/archives/2...nt-back-on.php

While I was trying to track down Draper & Kramer, the firm who originally came up with the redevelopment plan, it was like trying to find a ghost. Their website hasn't been updated (including their news & development page) since 2008, and I couldn't find any solid mentions of them in news in the last few years. Only stuff like a VP from D&K donating a few million to the boy scouts this month, and them securing loans for projects but never any talk of the projects moving forward. I sent an email to their published address and it bounced back.

Does anybody know if the firm still exists? Are they just really quiet?

edit:

Looks like it's just "Draper & Kramer" that's silent. Their sub-companies are still in business.

http://www.dkcondo.com/

http://www.dklivingapts.com/

They could definitely use some SEO.

(thanks jz)

Mr Downtown · #**26302** Posted **Oct 29, 2014, 7:41 PM**

The small site (currently a parking lot, just 165 feet of frontage) just south of River City is set to be purchased by CMK, says Crain’s. This is not the much larger vacant parcel that stretches south to Roosevelt Road.

Meanwhile, across the street at 859 S. Wells, a parking lot that closed recently south of Paper Place Loftominiums, Michigan Avenue Partners plans four-story condos, a total of 86 units. I’m surprised the land was cheap enough for these to pencil out. The developers have two similar projects finished in the West Loop, and two more under construction there. I'm not crazy that the ground floor of these will be parking (1:1) with blind windows, but it's hard to make much of a case for the retail required in B2-3. I wish they'd at least do the traditional urban solution of putting the parking a half-level down, so occupied units would be only a half-level up from the sidewalk.

wierdaaron · #**26303** Posted **Oct 29, 2014, 8:14 PM**

I was hopeful when I heard about CMK buying that lot south of river city, because despite the terrible floor plans of 1345 Wabash CMK is big enough to know what they're doing.

Those townhouses, on the other hand, are gross.

When thinking about that strip of Wells you have to keep in mind that the Wells-Wentworth connector is going to completely change the dynamic of that street, changing it from a dead-end desert into a major thoroughfare for traffic between downtown and chinadown and further south. Boring townhomes might make sense for the context of now, but in the future context they're a huge miss.

If RC's next phases take off, they'll be almost surrounded by highrises. Ugh I hope whoever the hell is the alderman there come january (Solis?) can stop this.

Mr Downtown · #**26304** Posted **Oct 29, 2014, 8:19 PM**

^They don't need a PD or variation, except to allow ground-floor residential rather than the retail required in B2. Since this is the part of Wells that's unlikely to ever be widened, I'm not sure how retail could ever be comfortable here. The Wells-Wentworth Connector will bring lots of cars past the front, but CDOT (maybe even IDOT) is likely to operate it as a four-lane street, with no possibility for generous sidewalks or protective curb parking.

wierdaaron · #**26305** Posted **Oct 29, 2014, 8:24 PM**

Since most of the Wells-facing land in the area is currently undeveloped, is there any hope of getting walkability added to the WWC plan? I'm sure McCaffery would be interested in making the area around RC pedestrian-friendly, and wont someone think of the little british kids??

munchymunch · #**26306** Posted **Oct 29, 2014, 8:40 PM**

Great Development spot

Quote:

Amalgamated Bank of Chicago put its longtime State Street headquarters up for sale as it prepares to join its banking brethren in the city's financial district.

The bank hired the local office of Cushman & Wakefield Inc. to sell its headquarters at 100 and 112 S. State St., adjacent buildings it will leave next year for about 60,000 square feet in the office tower at 30 N. LaSalle St., said Amalgamated Chairman and CEO Robert Wrobel.

Amalgamated will open a retail branch on the building's ground floor, he said.

“We've been here almost 45 years. State Street has been very good for us,” Mr. Wrobel said. “(But) we have really run out of space here.”

“My sense is there's enough interest and ability to have a deal work from a retail standpoint,” said Cushman Senior Director Michael Marks, one of the brokers working on the sale. “That's what I think will drive the demand.”

But a buyer could tear down the two buildings and develop something taller, he said.

“If someone does a retail deal and puts a tenant in with a 10- or 15-year term, either they or the next owner will be in position to build in that future cycle,” he said.

The property is offered without an asking price. Pricing will depend on whether a buyer values the property with income in-place with a retail tenant or expects to knock down what's there and redevelop the 14,400-square-foot parcel, according to Mr. Marks. Mr. Wrobel said the market will determine a price.

Amalgamated’s buildings are a block north of another significant batch of State Street properties awaiting a new life: four long-vacant buildings in the 200 block of the street that are owned by the federal government. This summer, a federal agency sought ideas from developers and others on what to do with the buildings.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/reale...ldings-in-play

wierdaaron · #**26307** Posted **Oct 29, 2014, 8:45 PM**

Not really relevant, but I hate the little half-jog State makes right at that bank.

joeg1985 · #**26308** Posted **Oct 29, 2014, 8:54 PM**

^^ Oh this is great news. Walked past this building every week day for a year and a half. It's nothing special but I did really like the large canopies at the doors. Hopefully a new development could incorporate something similar or better.

It's funny that they say they are running out of room in that building. The first floor lobby/bank always looks so empty.

And the jog is a block north at Maddison.

ardecila · #**26309** Posted **Oct 29, 2014, 9:00 PM**

Renovation on Goose Island

Quote:

1071 W Division St - Interior and exterior alterations to 4-story building to include removal of top level (4th floor), masonry chimney, and adjacent 1 story structure. interior demolition and remodel of space. proposed multi-tenant office building with adjacent parking lot

george · #**26310** Posted **Oct 29, 2014, 10:37 PM**

Renovation or demolition? ^

10/19

Northwest Tower boutique hotel rehab

ardecila · #**26311** Posted **Oct 29, 2014, 11:02 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by george

Renovation or demolition? ^

Yes... I edited my post with the permit description. Sucks to lose the top floor but I'm glad they are reusing this super urban building.

SamInTheLoop · #**26312** Posted **Oct 30, 2014, 12:25 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

The small site (currently a parking lot, just 165 feet of frontage) just south of River City is set to be purchased by CMK, says Crain’s. This is not the much larger vacant parcel that stretches south to Roosevelt Road.

Meanwhile, across the street at 859 S. Wells, a parking lot that closed recently south of Paper Place Loftominiums, Michigan Avenue Partners plans four-story condos, a total of 86 units. I’m surprised the land was cheap enough for these to pencil out. The developers have two similar projects finished in the West Loop, and two more under construction there. I'm not crazy that the ground floor of these will be parking (1:1) with blind windows, but it's hard to make much of a case for the retail required in B2-3. I wish they'd at least do the traditional urban solution of putting the parking a half-level down, so occupied units would be only a half-level up from the sidewalk.

Capital "T" is right!

This is a joke, right?

4 story piddley wink shit in the 800 block of S. Wells? In 2014?? 6 blocks south of Willis Tower?!

Nauseating...........

Uh, for a preview of things to come if this nonsense actually gets built, see super-suburbanite NIMBY situation at 400 W Huron....

And not only that - what's with this design? It looks like pure unadulterated ass.....

SamInTheLoop · #**26313** Posted **Oct 30, 2014, 12:29 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by wierdaaron

I was hopeful when I heard about CMK buying that lot south of river city, because despite the terrible floor plans of 1345 Wabash CMK is big enough to know what they're doing.

Those townhouses, on the other hand, are gross.

When thinking about that strip of Wells you have to keep in mind that the Wells-Wentworth connector is going to completely change the dynamic of that street, changing it from a dead-end desert into a major thoroughfare for traffic between downtown and chinadown and further south. Boring townhomes might make sense for the context of now, but in the future context they're a huge miss.

If RC's next phases take off, they'll be almost surrounded by highrises. Ugh I hope whoever the hell is the alderman there come january (Solis?) can stop this.

Promising whenever CMK lands a new piece of land, from an architectural addition standpoint. Regarding their floorplans, they might be sketchy, but since I have no plans to move to a CMK building, I couldn't possibly care less......

SamInTheLoop · #**26314** Posted **Oct 30, 2014, 12:34 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by munchymunch

Great Development spot

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/reale...ldings-in-play

Exciting times for State Street indeed. This, the GSA-owned buildings, obviously Block 37, I'm sure there will be other things popping up as well. Still a damn shame that Joey Chetrit decided to lease the Sears State St frontage right away to CVS. What a wasted opportunity there. If that douche had the slightest bit of patience, he could have landed something(s) both much more energetic for the overall Street and equally - and I'm sure likely more (perhaps much more) financially lucrative......

denizen467 · #**26315** Posted **Oct 30, 2014, 5:06 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

I’m surprised the land was cheap enough for these to pencil out.

How can this be happening. Two blocks north on an even smaller site, somebody built Vetro, a residential high rise, about a decade ago. Did soil testing reveal Mrs O'Leary's cow is buried somewhere underfoot and they can't sink caissons where needed?

the urban politician · #**26316** Posted **Oct 30, 2014, 12:44 PM**

^ I don't mind an occasional low scaled building intermixed with highrises, but the design of this one is just awful (although all we have to go by is that one pic Mr. D provided).

It looks like the ground level will be pretty much dead, with perhaps some sort of courtyard-like entrance set far back from the street. Retail would have been nice

Mr Downtown · #**26317** Posted **Oct 30, 2014, 1:55 PM**

^Much as I like the theory that there would be retail spaces on the ground floor, it's hard to see that as realistic for this block. River City's retail is all empty, the Roosevelt Collection focuses any retail energy on Roosevelt Road, and there's no visibility to transit. I don't know that we need a bunch of mortgage brokers and dentists offices with the blinds drawn—like you see all along Division or Lincoln or Damen—just because the B2 zoning requires ground-floor retail.

Ryanrule · #**26318** Posted **Oct 30, 2014, 2:02 PM**

can we like start leaving flaming dog shit on aldermans lawns until they behave themselves?

Baronvonellis · #**26319** Posted **Oct 30, 2014, 3:43 PM**

Wither goes the Spire? I thought the deadline is tomorrow??

george · #**26320** Posted **Oct 30, 2014, 4:01 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ardecila

Yes... I edited my post with the permit description. Sucks to lose the top floor but I'm glad they are reusing this super urban building.

That's great, glad to see it re-purposed. The old cornice dental is a nice feature to top out the structure.