CHICAGO | General Developments

[the urban politician]

Harold Ickes Homes 1st phase construction to begin late summer:

https://therealdeal.com/chicago/2019...redevelopment/

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Harold Ickes Homes 1st phase construction to begin late summer:

https://therealdeal.com/chicago/2019...redevelopment/

Excellent news!

[boeing738]

6/18 - Work Continues Outside the Apple Store

[maru2501]

^ those bigger trees didn't take

[aaron38]

Furniture maker Herman Miller leaving the Mart to anchor new Fulton Market project
The company will occupy 45,000 square feet at 1100 W. Fulton Market

https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/6/18...-showroom-move

[SamInTheLoop]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Excellent news!

Finally!

[the urban politician]

^ I believe that had already been reported last week

[SamInTheLoop]

Posting here as I think it's 11 stories, so might not qualify as a high-rise. This one is about to begin caissons, if it hasn't already - Harry had posted photos in the high-rise thread a few days ago.

Really looking forward to this one. Strong design addition to Fulton Market, and it's an appropriately-scaled office building for the neighborhood...it's a boutique building of around 85,000 sf of rentable office space. From a planning perspective, this makes sense - that there might be a smattering of boutique-type office spaces intermixed with other uses (which should additionally include residential - huge mistake for the city to zone out residential along the Fulton corridor - it made sense to when the area was light industrial, it does not make sense for the new incarnation of the district - which again, should be mixed-use commercial, entertainment, residential). What does not make sense for Fulton from a planning perspective is a concentration of medium to large size office buildings, as the area is not at a nexus of transit (a dense area easily accessible to the broadest possible swath of the region's population).....I know - this is a crazy concept!

Another commercial use for Fulton that is of a type and scale that makes sense is the above mentioned relocation of Herman Miller to the district. That's a fantastic use, and addition for what Fulton should be.

[jc5680]

It's a Highrise if you consider the rooftop floor. Maybe it is splitting hairs if it is not leasable space, but I think it is more than just elevator core that empties onto the roof.

From the Fulton East developer's site.

This $26 million project includes a 12-story core and shell office building featuring ground floor retail space, 3 floors of parking, 8 floors of white core space for lease, and a green roof used as outdoor amenity space.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Harold Ickes Homes 1st phase construction to begin late summer:

https://therealdeal.com/chicago/2019...redevelopment/

This is great news. Hopefully with Lightfoot in charge, we can make some progress on the many long-dormant CHA developments planned for Cabrini, Roosevelt Square and West Haven as well as Ickes.

CHA is sitting on almost a billion dollars in cash reserves and has a waiting list a mile long for housing units, but they've basically been twiddling their thumbs for a decade. The only major CHA project to get off the ground since the recession is Lathrop, plus a few one-off buildings like the Little Italy Library/housing complex.

[moorhosj]

Originally Posted by ardecila

This is great news. Hopefully with Lightfoot in charge, we can make some progress on the many long-dormant CHA developments planned for Cabrini, Roosevelt Square and West Haven as well as Ickes.

CHA is sitting on almost a billion dollars in cash reserves and has a waiting list a mile long for housing units, but they've basically been twiddling their thumbs for a decade. The only major CHA project to get off the ground since the recession is Lathrop, plus a few one-off buildings like the Little Italy Library/housing complex.

Is Atrium Village CHA?

[Mr Downtown]

^No, it's subsidized rather than public housing, under a different FHA program that provided subsidies for nonprofits building such projects. A number of nonprofits, some linked to churches, have such projects on the South Side. The Chicago Dwellings Association was, I think, the largest developer. I think the Marshall Field Town & Garden Apartments were in the 1970s somehow converted into such a project. But I've never looked into the details.

[Blahshead]

Neat crane at the corner of Astor and Goethe

[SamInTheLoop]

Originally Posted by ardecila

This is great news. Hopefully with Lightfoot in charge, we can make some progress on the many long-dormant CHA developments planned for Cabrini, Roosevelt Square and West Haven as well as Ickes.

CHA is sitting on almost a billion dollars in cash reserves and has a waiting list a mile long for housing units, but they've basically been twiddling their thumbs for a decade. The only major CHA project to get off the ground since the recession is Lathrop, plus a few one-off buildings like the Little Italy Library/housing complex.

Outrageous that the CHA has just been sitting on projects like this for years while having a lot of money to put to work. Where is the oversight of this agency?

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by SamInTheLoop

Outrageous that the CHA has just been sitting on projects like this for years while having a lot of money to put to work. Where is the oversight of this agency?

The longer version of the story is that CHA's directive, since the time they tore down the highrises, is to build mixed-income developments. This means partnering up with private developers to fund and construct each project.

However, as you know, private developers compete for capital... and with the housing market being so hot, why would investors choose to sign on to a dicey mixed-income development when there's countless juicy market-rate projects to sink their money into?

CHA also wanted the market-rate portion of these developments to be for-sale units... the thought, right or wrong, was that having homeowners in the community instead of 100% renters will lead to better outcomes. But of course, the for-sale market is anemic and has been for over a decade. Millennials aren't as interested in buying a home, and the ones that are interested are often unable to qualify. The limited demand that IS out there is, again, drawn to market-rate developments and not CHA mixed-income communities where there's not much hope of appreciation over time.


CHA has the cash to rebuild 100% public housing, but they're reluctant to do that because the public consensus is still in favor of mixed-income even if such developments are now all but impossible to get off the ground.

[ChiPlanner]

Originally Posted by SamInTheLoop

Outrageous that the CHA has just been sitting on projects like this for years while having a lot of money to put to work. Where is the oversight of this agency?

Regardless of their overall performance, they had many of their new developments sort of... ready to go when the recession hit- much of it with high percentage ownership components. That said, when the economy tanked, their plans went out the window due to the shifting economic landscape.

Needless to say it has now taken nearly a decade to get new plans created and projects off the ground.

Are they the most responsible and proactive Housing Authority- not by a long-shot, but at least now we're finally seeing meaningful improvements and developments within their portfolio.

[Citizen]

Came across this today on Instagram. Probably just another conceptual/spec proposal for the former spire site? Anyone seen this before?

https://www.instagram.com/p/By1kR9dJ..._web_copy_link

[maru2501]

^ I'm sure

but it's cool

[Citizen]

Yeah, thought it best to post here to avoid (SVH) Spire Void Hysteria. :-)

[Handro]

Originally Posted by ardecila

The longer version of the story is that CHA's directive, since the time they tore down the highrises, is to build mixed-income developments. This means partnering up with private developers to fund and construct each project.

However, as you know, private developers compete for capital... and with the housing market being so hot, why would investors choose to sign on to a dicey mixed-income development when there's countless juicy market-rate projects to sink their money into?

CHA also wanted the market-rate portion of these developments to be for-sale units... the thought, right or wrong, was that having homeowners in the community instead of 100% renters will lead to better outcomes. But of course, the for-sale market is anemic and has been for over a decade. Millennials aren't as interested in buying a home, and the ones that are interested are often unable to qualify. The limited demand that IS out there is, again, drawn to market-rate developments and not CHA mixed-income communities where there's not much hope of appreciation over time.


CHA has the cash to rebuild 100% public housing, but they're reluctant to do that because the public consensus is still in favor of mixed-income even if such developments are now all but impossible to get off the ground.

I think it has less to do with lack of interest and more to do with stagnant wages, obscene debt, and rising COL, but I digress.

Couldn't CHA break up some of their larger plots into smaller plots (thinking Cabrini or something like that) and then sell disparate plots to private developers, let them build, and then build 100% affordable to fill in the gaps, thus creating a mixed use community? Do they already do that?