CHICAGO | Lincoln Yards

[ardecila]

I'd be surprised if we didn't see a significant townhouse component in the revised design, especially on the north portion. Granted it's not easy to sell townhomes these days like it was pre-2008, but this is such a strong market they would certainly sell.

But a lot of new families raises the question of school capacity, and JDL may not want the expense of building a new school. Magellan has never been able to afford a new school at Lakeshore East. And the environmental remediation may need to be taken even further for a residential use.

[moorhosj1]

Originally Posted by ardecila

But a lot of new families raises the question of school capacity, and JDL may not want the expense of building a new school. Magellan has never been able to afford a new school at Lakeshore East. And the environmental remediation may need to be taken even further for a residential use.

The new school is a good point, would the TIF help cover those costs?

[VivaLFuego]

Originally Posted by moorhosj1

The new school is a good point, would the TIF help cover those costs?

At what point would people finally question whether it's worth throwing public subsidy at this? The CPS system already has FAR more capacity than it has enrollment.

[moorhosj1]

Originally Posted by VivaLFuego

At what point would people finally question whether it's worth throwing public subsidy at this? The CPS system already has FAR more capacity than it has enrollment.

I get the point, but having school capacity in Austin and Englewood doesn't help people who want to move to Lincoln Yards and send their kids to school. Does Bell Elementary have the capacity?

[west-town-brad]

You’d shift the attendance boundaries of existing schools instead of building a new one… there is more than enough capacity in the area schools (as evidenced by the huge attendance boundaries that exist today)

[ardecila]

LY North is districted into Mayer, LY South is districted into Burr.

Honestly Burr is not that far from Lincoln Yards, and would have a high quality pedestrian connection if/when the 606 extension opens. Mayer is kind of a schlep from LY, but has "better" pedestrian connections / just need to get across Clybourn. Of course plenty of rich parents would opt to drive their kids to school anyway.

Maybe I'm delusional but I think there could be something attractive about a new-construction community in the heart of the city where parents can easily and safely walk their kids to school - could certainly be a selling point. If the target income is high enough, we might see a new private school like GEMS or British School spring up there.

[VKChaz]

Originally Posted by ardecila

LY North is districted into Mayer, LY South is districted into Burr.

Honestly Burr is not that far from Lincoln Yards, and would have a high quality pedestrian connection if/when the 606 extension opens. Mayer is kind of a schlep from LY, but has "better" pedestrian connections / just need to get across Clybourn. Of course plenty of rich parents would opt to drive their kids to school anyway.

Maybe I'm delusional but I think there could be something attractive about a new-construction community in the heart of the city where parents can easily and safely walk their kids to school - could certainly be a selling point. If the target income is high enough, we might see a new private school like GEMS or British School spring up there.

Probably an impossible idea, but Parker was looking to expand. I don't know what happened with that, but they are sandwiched into a small area. It would be a huge undertaking and longish move, but if someone like them wanted to commit to more space, this would offer it

[VKChaz]

Originally Posted by munchymunch

Residential vs. Office would make no difference in how active the riverfront is or not imo. This is 100+ acres of riverfront property wedged between two of Chicago's most affluent neighborhoods. It has all the potential to be just as popular as the River Walk downtown, 606, or the lakefront.

Again, it's about execution. First, access and infrastructure need to be improved in the area. Then, the riverwalk itself needs to be accessible and have things to do, like bars, restaurants, shops, etc.

As they say... if you build it, people will come.

We will see what direction JDL wants to go. But these private little residential enclaves often like to be exactly that.

[moorhosj1]

Originally Posted by ardecila

LY North is districted into Mayer, LY South is districted into Burr.

Maybe I'm delusional but I think there could be something attractive about a new-construction community in the heart of the city where parents can easily and safely walk their kids to school - could certainly be a selling point.

There is something very attractive about that type of community. Wicker Park/Bucktown is largely that (without new builds), which is why Burr is at 111% capacity. Mayer is only at 82% of capacity with around 150 extra seats. Lozano, to the southwest, would be the next-closest option.

[Chicago Shawn]

Originally Posted by VKChaz

We will see what direction JDL wants to go. But these private little residential enclaves often like to be exactly that.

Agreed. I don't want to see this dumbed down to just inward facing townhome clusters. We should have enough density built here to cover the infrastructure concepts previously laid out to foster better connectivity, that was the entire idea behind Lincoln Yards and the traffic studies supported adding those additional bridges. Without that density, we don't get an improved street grid and we will just have slower buses in gridlock and cumbersome pedestrian wayfinding.

Lincoln Yards was on par with what other multi-nodal global cities do, but alas, in this town we continue to do most of everything half-assed. Perhaps Sterling Bay was in over their head, but really the timing just could not have been worse, hence why The 78 hasn't taken off either. Would be nice to have leadership in City Hall take a proactive approach to help move these projects along, but again, that seems to be too much to ask for in this town half the time. LOL at Waugespack supporting a Fire stadium, the most traffic intensive use possible while Mr. Anti-density has historically never approved anything higher than six stories in his ward, but perhaps he is more open-minded here.


It is extremely rare to have an assembly of waterfront property this large between two very sought after neighborhoods, this needs to be something special and perhaps some non-conventional thinking behind it. The stadium falls into that line of thinking, what else could we be doing here that makes it a draw, but please no more of the auto-centric stuff that came to the north branch corridor in the '90s.

As far as transit, we don't need to reinvent the wheel. Buy Metra a couple of the battery EMUs and run 15 minute service between Ogilvie and Evanston, especially as they will be taking over dispatching on the UP-N soon. A rebuilt and better station at Clybourn can serve this area just fine with a 606 link as well as an extended water taxi system. For the later though, the density and trip generation needs to be enough to make it happen.

So I look forward to seeing what JDL brings to the table, and we know they already have a good working relationship with Bank OZK.

[Cress3803]

CPS winds up budgeting at the school level, so some of this doesn't track. There are schools in the area with large class sizes while CPS sends money to schools with really low enrollment that should close. Big shock it's all political and under Johnson's CPS extra CPS money that might be used for more teachers isn't going to places around Lincoln Yards

[clark wellington]

While Burr is full, Lozano is certainly not. Can easily accommodate students from this area. While obviously not as appealing, I think with an influx of new parents could pretty quickly turn around a school that for all intents and purposes should be filled and high quality given the neighborhood. Would maybe keep some more parents in Wicker as well...

[Jstange059]

The 606 extension through Lincoln Yards may no longer be happening

“Neither the 606 extension nor the skate park is in the works any longer.”

https://bsky.app/profile/stevevance..../3lstgdznlsc2b
https://chicago.suntimes.com/real-es...r-rahm-emanuel

[twister244]

Damn - That's a shame.... If anything were to happen in the future, it will have to get financing through some future mechanism or if JDL can help finance it. They have just started getting their hands on the properties at LY, so I doubt they have even though about the 606.

[ardecila]

I wouldn't jump to any conclusions yet. The 606 extension under the Kennedy to Elston is not in jeopardy - that's a Cook County project and isn't tied to LY. That is moving slowly through the approvals and engineering process.

Any further extensions are really part of the North Branch riverwalk, and ALL developers are required to build riverwalk throughout the city whenever a riverfront property is developed. LY is no exception, whether the project is led by JDL or Sterling Bay. There might still be a gap between Elston and the river, but that's just ~300ft of trail on a former railbed that the city already owns. It'll get done eventually.

[Randomguy34]

The northern 31-acre portion will be renamed to Foundry Park. No word on plans for the southern portion

One of nation’s largest development sites gets new investors, name and vision in Chicago

They plan to build homes, condominiums, rental apartments and commercial space on the site, according to a statement, while working with the city on specific plans that are expected to increase the amount of affordable housing on the site.

The statement did not say how many residential units are planned or how many square feet of commercial space is envisioned, other than to say plans were being scaled back from Sterling Bay’s previous design.

Kayne Anderson and JDL said their vision for Foundry Park is a walkable neighborhood with tree-lined, low-traffic streets and green space for year-round recreation along the river.

https://www.costar.com/article/18232...ion-in-chicago

[Randomguy34]

More details from Crain's and Sun-Times. Will be 500-1,500 units less than the original 3,500 units for the northern site. Assuming a conservative 1.5 ppl per household, that's still pretty dense with anywhere from 62-100k ppl/sq mi. Will have several buildings 12 stories and higher, with the highest being 38 stories

In an interview today with Crain's, JDL CEO Jim Letchinger described Foundry Park as a "highly walkable, very attractive residential neighborhood" with somewhere in the range of 2,000 to 3,000 residential units — including apartments, condos, townhomes and single-family homes — centered around the intersection of Southport and Cortland as "main and main" in the development. A public plaza at that core would be the largest piece of what he envisions as about eight acres of open space on the site, which will be rife with "family-oriented" amenities like playgrounds and other outdoor attractions, including a new stretch of riverwalk.

Street retail, restaurants and other commercial uses such as boutique office and medical office space would be part of the development, with an extension of Southport through the site serving as a main corridor and "ample underground parking" to encourage more pedestrian activity around the project, according to Letchinger. JDL and Kayne are proposing residential mid-rise buildings about a dozen stories or slightly higher, though the development would still stand out from its neighborhood surroundings with the tallest building rising around 38 stories.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...oln-yards-site

“We’re really being respectful of our neighbors,” Letchinger said. He said a couple buildings might be in the 30-story range, but the rest will be under 20 stories. Early plans, to be finalized in talks with the city, call for a mix of housing types, even some single-family homes, with a dash of commercial space.

In their announcement, Letchinger and Kayne Anderson said, “The community will be a walking neighborhood, with tree lined, low traffic streets and new open green space that engages the river and offers a four-season recreational opportunity. Foundry Park will be a gathering and recreational place for all.”
....
Letchinger said he hopes to have renderings in a couple months. He promised a marked departure from the steel-and-glass emphasis of Sterling Bay.

His goal is to begin construction in about a year. “We will move very quickly. Time is deadly in real estate,” Letchinger said.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/real-es...n-yards-parcel

[twister244]

All in all, I think this is a pretty solid plan, and I have faith JDL will get this off the ground quickly. I really do wish the city would work on getting the 606 connected into this development. The Crains article only mentions work being done on the riverfront and roads, with no mention of the 606.

Overall, very happy to see this will get filled in with fairly solid residential development.

[r18tdi]

Really hope the multimodal Dominick bridge still happens too.
Definetly more complicated when two different entities own each side (and one of them is broke).

[left of center]

Originally Posted by r18tdi

Really hope the multimodal Dominick bridge still happens too.
Definetly more complicated when two different entities own each side (and one of them is broke).

Agreed. The area needs more connections. Dominick St bridge will definitely help. Hopefully they preserve a rail/BRT ROW so that transit can tie the area in better to the Loop. The biggest hurdle to clear however is the E-W connections. Transit is really lacking in this regard. The Armitage/Courtland connection is a disaster, and while the area is flanked with north-south rail transit on each side (Blue & Metra UP-N/NW to the west, Red/Brown/Purple to the east), there is no rail directly on the site, and the 72 & 73 buses gets stuck in the perpetual gridlock on North and Armitage/Courtland. Dedicated ROW for transit is going to be necessary I think.


I was also under the impression JDL was in talks to purchase the remaining site from Sterling Bay. Hopefully they do. A bigger site will allow them to plan better. They should have the funds to get this going ASAP as well.