CHICAGO | General Developments

[Baronvonellis]

I was just walking around the Six Corners yesterday. This is really cool to hear. Narrowing the cross walks would help alot for the area. The bank of America on the South east corner has an really beautiful restored beaux arts lobby in it. I never knew that since the outside must have been a really nice beaux arts classical bank building, but was totally gutted for a ugly 70's renovation. I hope their is a way to save that lobby interior if they want to build a new building at that corner.

Originally Posted by Justin_Chicago

Finally, a neighborhood with an appropriate master plan.

The area around Six Corners must become more dense and pedestrian friendly for it to reclaim its status as one of Chicago's premier shopping districts, according to a master plan commissioned by the city.

Among the recommendations:

• A cluster of high-rise buildings with some 300 apartments and condominiums should be built on the southeast corner of Irving Park Road, Cicero Avenue and Milwaukee Avenue.

• Two new mixed-use commercial developments should to be constructed along Milwaukee Avenue with shops or offices on the ground floor and homes on the upper floors.

• A plaza should be built near Belle Plaine and Cuyler avenues. In order to make that possible, a strip mall that now houses a Subway restaurant and a Dollar Tree store should be reconfigured.


Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com//chicago/2013...#ixzz2MFLM3nxi

[BWChicago]

There is a picture of the bank building here: https://www.cityofchicago.org/conten...Prelim_Sum.pdf

[Baronvonellis]

Thanks. That's an interesting document. What a shame they replaced that bank facade with this

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll...32.89,,0,-2.52

[Mr Roboto]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

The hottest urban center in the U.S. — Chicago's mega-Loop

a positive and informative article, we need more of those. i can get pretty pessimistic about the progress of this city. thanks for posting

[markh9]

Originally Posted by Swicago Swi Sox

Project info starts at 1:20 (per the link)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGuAhVuinMc&t=1m20s

Did we see the massing model of Phase II yet? Screengrabbed it from the video.



Also, Curbed linked to a Tribune gallery of the Wells St bridge construction.

One of my favorites from that set:

[pottebaum]

This is huge--and I'm glad it's opening by O'Hare rather than in a further out suburb. However, how cool would it have been if Block 37 had gotten in on this...I mean, the architecture is certainly worthy of an outlet mall.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...-rosemont-mall

Barneys, Gucci among tenants for new Rosemont mall

Fashion Outlets of Chicago, the major new mall set to open in August near O'Hare International Airport, announced its full tenant list today.

As reported last week, the two-level, 530,000-square-foot center will be anchored by a Bloomingdale's outlet, Last Call by Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th and Forever21.

More than 100 other retailers will join them, including Banana Republic, Barneys New York, Giorgio Armani, Gucci, J.Crew, Michael Kors, Nike, Prada and Tory Burch.
.....

[nomarandlee]

Damn. I know they are just outlet shops but that is pretty darn impressive list of retailers that are going up there.

[ardecila]

I'm excited for the Bloomie's. I'm sure retailers were lured by the location, right between the country's #2 airport and its #2 CBD. I wish Rosemont didn't suck so much. It has a Blue Line station with the world's worst pedestrian connection.

Chicago could be capitalizing on this growth around Cumberland, but instead we're busy letting some sketchy Indian dude run an immigration scam, and encouraging the office towers to surround themselves with huge moats of parking.

[Elchupanebre4]

I'm kind of sick of suburban developments (and businesses for that matter) leaching off of their metro's name and in the case of many tourist oriented developments claiming to be "Chicago". Random thought, but has anyone ever heard of a City actually trying to challenge this type of naming convention (eg. Fashion Outlets of Chicago)? Seems to me like there might be some precedent for Rahm to come in and make some sort of infringement claim on all these business claiming to be Chicago, but paying their taxes and calling the Suburbs home. After all Chicago is a Brand that took a lot of money to build (for better or worse), shouldn't the city have sole rights to only having businesses in the city benefit from its name?

[Vlajos]

http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.co...to-10-year-low

This makes it even more impressive:

"The vacancy rate decline is all the more remarkable because the total amount of downtown retail space between Lake Michigan on the east, the Chicago River on the north, the river on the west, and Congress Parkway to the south, has climbed about 44 percent, to 4.3 million square feet, in 2012, up from 3 million square feet in 2002, according to Stone."

[VivaLFuego]

Originally Posted by Elchupanebre4

I'm kind of sick of suburban developments (and businesses for that matter) leaching off of their metro's name and in the case of many tourist oriented developments claiming to be "Chicago". Random thought, but has anyone ever heard of a City actually trying to challenge this type of naming convention (eg. Fashion Outlets of Chicago)? Seems to me like there might be some precedent for Rahm to come in and make some sort of infringement claim on all these business claiming to be Chicago, but paying their taxes and calling the Suburbs home. After all Chicago is a Brand that took a lot of money to build (for better or worse), shouldn't the city have sole rights to only having businesses in the city benefit from its name?

There was some discussion in the 1970s, on the part of a former mayor, about the "Arlington Heights Bears" should that team have followed through with threats of a move to the suburbs...

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Elchupanebre4

I'm kind of sick of suburban developments (and businesses for that matter) leaching off of their metro's name and in the case of many tourist oriented developments claiming to be "Chicago". Random thought, but has anyone ever heard of a City actually trying to challenge this type of naming convention (eg. Fashion Outlets of Chicago)? Seems to me like there might be some precedent for Rahm to come in and make some sort of infringement claim on all these business claiming to be Chicago, but paying their taxes and calling the Suburbs home. After all Chicago is a Brand that took a lot of money to build (for better or worse), shouldn't the city have sole rights to only having businesses in the city benefit from its name?

There are other, much more important things in this world to be angry about.

Think:

Metropolitan area. We are all in this together.

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

There are other, much more important things in this world to be angry about.

Think:

Metropolitan area. We are all in this together.

This is actually good for travelers on shorter layovers that want to get out of the airport, but can't make the long 45 minute blue line journey or $45 cab ride to downtown, within a reasonable amount of time. But a 15-20 minute hop over to that Rosemont area is doable.

This may result in them spending more dollars in Cook County.

[VivaLFuego]

Putting on my cost-unconstrained crazy planner hat for the first time in a while...

Expand the ATS in the style of JFK Airtrain, combining a free intra-terminal people-mover with a paid transit service connecting to nearby hubs: branch off the current ATS route east of Terminal 5 and run along the (planned) Balmoral Ave extension straight into the Rosemont commercial district, turning north along River Rd to connect to the Rosemont CTA Rail + Pace bus terminal, with faregates for both entry/exit at non-airport stations.

Granted, how exactly that CTA/Pace connection might work is a legitimate geometric question.

In the meantime, the route will have passed over the Rosemont NCS station, which would provide a much tidier connection point between that line and the ATS than the "O'Hare Transfer" station ~1.5 miles to the north.

[PerryPendleton]

Sorry in advance for not providing a link.

Any information on the construction proposal for Chestnut and Franklin? (on the surface lot by MK).

This area of River North could really use the development.

[woodrow]

Originally Posted by Hayward

...This may result in them spending more dollars in Cook County.

THIS^

Outlet mall with good stores in Cook County, with easy access from all over the metropolitan area? Yes please. Fill up the county coffers with sales tax!

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by woodrow

THIS^

Outlet mall with good stores in Cook County, with easy access from all over the metropolitan area? Yes please. Fill up the county coffers with sales tax!

Retail sales have grown rather nicely according to this report. What I find most interesting is that retail sales in the City of Chicago are growing faster than the region. Suburban Cook is growing faster than the rest of the region as well.

http://www.melaniphy.com/sites/defau...r%202012_0.pdf

[emathias]

Originally Posted by PerryPendleton

Sorry in advance for not providing a link.

Any information on the construction proposal for Chestnut and Franklin? (on the surface lot by MK).

This area of River North could really use the development.

I wouldn't call that area River North. It needs a new name, since it really has little to do with any of the traditional definitions of River North which nearly all end at Chicago Ave.

[wierdaaron]

Originally Posted by emathias

I wouldn't call that area River North. It needs a new name, since it really has little to do with any of the traditional definitions of River North which nearly all end at Chicago Ave.

According to this map based on city data, Franklin/Chestnut is "near north".

http://chicagomap.zolk.com/

If I can trade that for another unsolicited question:

Does anybody know about work being done at the LaSalle Metra station? I've seen them loading a large quantity of rigid cabling to the southern end of the station, but I haven't heard about any work there.

My secret hope is that they're installing something that will let the trains draw grid power when they're parked in the station, rather than running the loud and dirty diesel engines for half an hour or more. I've read that they pulled some federal funds for such a system, but that was for Union Station/Ogilvie.

[k1052]

Originally Posted by wierdaaron

Does anybody know about work being done at the LaSalle Metra station? I've seen them loading a large quantity of rigid cabling to the southern end of the station, but I haven't heard about any work there.

My secret hope is that they're installing something that will let the trains draw grid power when they're parked in the station, rather than running the loud and dirty diesel engines for half an hour or more. I've read that they pulled some federal funds for such a system, but that was for Union Station/Ogilvie.

On the viaduct or at ground level? ComEd has been doing extensive Smart Grid related work around the station and in the old freight tunnel network for quite a while now.