CHICAGO | General Developments

[aaron38]

Originally Posted by spyguy

There were a lot of security concerns / sightlines stipulated in the RFP IIRC. Surprising that it's coming up now. Hopefully these buildings are still rehabbed.

And how far away does a tall building have to be to not have a sightline? The entire loop has a sightline unless another building is in the way.

Then like I said, courthouses with those security concerns have to relocate out of the DX zoning areas. They have to be low slung fortresses surrounded by trees. Or they hang curtains.

Are the owners of DX zoned property going to be told how far away from courthouses they have to stay?

[i_am_hydrogen]

Rainforest Cafe is closing

"The RFCDTC location, Rainforest Downtown Chicago, will be closing by the end of the lease which is roughly 20 months."

https://www.reddit.com/r/chicago/com...ll_be_closing/

[gebs]

Praise the Flying Spaghetti Monster!

[Handro]

Originally Posted by i_am_hydrogen

Rainforest Cafe is closing

"The RFCDTC location, Rainforest Downtown Chicago, will be closing by the end of the lease which is roughly 20 months."

https://www.reddit.com/r/chicago/com...ll_be_closing/

This is promising but hopefully it actually gets sold and developed quickly and that ugly building doesn't sit vacant...

[Handro]

https://blockclubchicago.org/2019/12...evealed-plans/

Proposal for the Sears at Six Corners--building rehabbed and turned into condos and a new 10-story rental building replacing the auto center directly behind it.

Sounds good to me--if the rehab is done well that will be a cool building. Now lets see if Gardiner wants to create just another hole at the intersection for no discernible reason.

[Baronvonellis]

Originally Posted by aaron38

And how far away does a tall building have to be to not have a sightline? The entire loop has a sightline unless another building is in the way.

Then like I said, courthouses with those security concerns have to relocate out of the DX zoning areas. They have to be low slung fortresses surrounded by trees. Or they hang curtains.

Are the owners of DX zoned property going to be told how far away from courthouses they have to stay?

Yea, this is dumb. The empty building is more of a risk now being unoccupied than it would be occupied. Aren't there already buildings nearby with sight lines, should those be torn down for the security perimeter now?

I read that none of the courtrooms have windows and are in the interior of the building, but the judges offices have the windows.

How about bullet proof glass, or window tinting??

[Baronvonellis]

Originally Posted by Handro

https://blockclubchicago.org/2019/12...evealed-plans/

Proposal for the Sears at Six Corners--building rehabbed and turned into condos and a new 10-story rental building replacing the auto center directly behind it.

Sounds good to me--if the rehab is done well that will be a cool building. Now lets see if Gardiner wants to create just another hole at the intersection for no discernible reason.

Looks awesome!! That's a great plan!

I don't subscribe to block club, did the article say if the alderman was against it?

Otherwise, it's probably dead then cue the nimbys- too tall, too dense, too much traffic ect..

[Handro]

Originally Posted by Baronvonellis

Looks awesome!! That's a great plan!

I don't subscribe to block club, did the article say if the alderman was against it?

Otherwise, it's probably dead then cue the nimbys- too tall, too dense, too much traffic ect..

Here you go:

Originally Posted by Block Club

Ald. Gardiner said the project could boost the Six Corners area by bringing a demographic that would live and shop in the area, thus helping the struggling business corridor.

Later in the meeting, several neighbors asked Gardiner if he was going to support the project as presented. He initially said he was there to gather feedback from the audience. But after another neighbor pressed him to voice his opinion on the project, Gardiner said he was “excited” for it but did have one concern.

“There’s definitely some tweaking we can still definitely do,” Gardiner said. “The homes right behind the project on Belle Plaine, I’d like to talk to the residents there to see how this would impact their lives.”

A few other residents, including James Suh, owner of Car Care Auto Spa at 3618 N. Cicero Ave., asked Tucker if he felt the alderman had negotiated with them in good faith up to this point.

Suh organized a protest in October against the alderman after he pulled the plug on the Point At Six Corners development.

He and other neighbors who stepped up to the microphone said they were worried Gardiner could potentially stall the Sears development the way he did the Point at Six Corners project.

Responding to audience fears about Gardiner pulling the plug on the project, Tucker said he’s been negotiating in “good faith” with the alderman so far.

I don't trust Gardiner at all so his "excitement" means nothing to me. I could see him getting a concession from the developer only to go all in for some insane demand, then blocking when he doesn't get it. I actually think residents of the area are likely to approve of it the same way they did senior living building across the street that was ultimately blocked by Lord Gardiner.

[ardecila]

I don't know what to make of Gardiner, but I assume the developers wouldn't be holding a public meeting if they hadn't gotten the nod from him in private. That doesn't mean he'll support it, but at least he didn't call it DOA and thought it was worth bringing to the community. Note that the project includes a huge parking component (almost 1000 spaces) for less than 500 apartments. I doubt the retail use needs that much parking either.

The senior housing proposal across the street is a little different, since it was a holdover from the John Arena days. It's pretty clear that Gardiner wanted to send a message to his voters that he would personally stop anything Arena had tried to push through, to the maximum extent possible.

[nomarandlee]

Originally Posted by i_am_hydrogen

Rainforest Cafe is closing

"The RFCDTC location, Rainforest Downtown Chicago, will be closing by the end of the lease which is roughly 20 months."

https://www.reddit.com/r/chicago/com...ll_be_closing/

Cool. Hope whatever gets built there does a much better job respecting the street and a possible eventual park (Post Office building) more than it's immediate high-rise neighbors do with their huge concrete parking podiums.

Perhaps the Hard Rock site could also be bought up and the new owners could get all the more creative with the site.

[r18tdi]

Originally Posted by nomarandlee

Perhaps the Hard Rock site could also be bought up and the new owners could get all the more creative with the site.

I've thought about that too, but they would need to vacate that alleyway to make that work. I guess anything is possible.

[Ricochet48]

Originally Posted by nomarandlee

Cool. Hope whatever gets built there does a much better job respecting the street and a possible eventual park (Post Office building) more than it's immediate high-rise neighbors do with their huge concrete parking podiums.

Perhaps the Hard Rock site could also be bought up and the new owners could get all the more creative with the site.

I've heard rumors of a park based on zoning, but not much more. I live directly across the street and would LOVE that. Any more info?

Does anyone know the zoning on the RFC? I hope they don't build something too tall to block my view. As noted, just about anything would have better street interaction though.

[Freefall]

https://www.chicagotribune.com/busin...ml#nt=screamer

"But the owner of the building in Chicago said he is planning a new use for the site when the restaurant’s lease at 605 N. Clark St. ends. There is about two years left on the lease, after which the site will be developed for a new retail tenant or a high-rise, property owner Sean Conlon said."

"The one constant is that the site is one of the best locations in Chicago. I am exploring options but nothing set yet.”
...
Conlon said he could sell the property to a developer or bring in a development partner."

[Suburban Shadow]

Looks like RFC is zoned DX-7.

Would that realistically equal a 24-30 story apartment tower?

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Ricochet48

I've heard rumors of a park based on zoning, but not much more. I live directly across the street and would LOVE that. Any more info?

Does anyone know the zoning on the RFC? I hope they don't build something too tall to block my view. As noted, just about anything would have better street interaction though.

I don't see the Fort Dearborn Post Office moving out of that site. Where else can they get a full block in River North where they can park delivery vehicles and unload semi trucks easily?

Realistically they'd have to move west of the river, which makes all of their deliveries more time-consuming. And, ironically, River West has worse access to the expressway despite being closer, because of how the Ohio feeder is designed.

[r18tdi]

Originally Posted by Suburban Shadow

Looks like RFC is zoned DX-7.

Would that realistically equal a 24-30 story apartment tower?

Maybe? It's actually not a very large site tbh.
I could see a mid-rise limited service hotel with no parking go in there. Something along the lines of 110 W. Huron... or Moxy?

[SamInTheLoop]

Originally Posted by aaron38

And how far away does a tall building have to be to not have a sightline? The entire loop has a sightline unless another building is in the way.

Then like I said, courthouses with those security concerns have to relocate out of the DX zoning areas. They have to be low slung fortresses surrounded by trees. Or they hang curtains.

Are the owners of DX zoned property going to be told how far away from courthouses they have to stay?

The issue here of course, though, is that the GSA owns these State St buildings (they don't own other surrounding structures that have sightlines into judges' offices - or courtrooms - or what have you). So, they have complete veto power of a use or design that they do not want there. For example, through not agreeing to sell to the city for a proposed PD (again, it's fuzzy as to whether that is what actually happened in this case), or perhaps through putting in a restrictive covenant with any sale to a new owner/developer.

As ardecila speculated in the high-rise thread, there very well could be another issue behind the scenes here that hasn't been publicly reported on (yet) that could be the real culprit behind scuttling this deal.

Ultimately, this is so disappointing. It was a great plan to repurpose these buildings and bring this block back to life. Clearly I now wish the GSA had pursued its original plan to put up a new tower here (even if it would have meant demo of the historic structures - which is definitely not my first choice), as my concern is that nothing is going to happen now for a long while. I would love to be proved wrong, but there is so much that needs to fall into place. What economically viable plan for adaptive reuse is the GSA going to sign off on?

[Mr Downtown]

I was surprised when GSA decided to sell these buildings instead of redeveloping them for federal office space. That was the first whiplash move, but it also seemed to signal that reason had returned after a decade of post-9/11 hysteria. Now I wonder if we're seeing a little pissing match between GSA, which thinks it has authority over federal office space, and federal judges, who think they have unchallenged authority over federal courthouses. The Dirksen Building, of course, is both.

[marothisu]

That one Triangle Square development at Elston & Webster was issued a building permit for new construction yesterday. Site is mainly vacant right now

Supposed to have a 7 story 66 condo unit section as well as a 7 story 300 unit apartment building with ground floor retail. On top of that, it's supposed to have a 24k sq ft retail building

Current: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9205...7i16384!8i8192

Source: https://theljc.com/portfolio/triangl...2075-n-elston/

[spyguy]

Originally Posted by i_am_hydrogen

Rainforest Cafe is closing

"The RFCDTC location, Rainforest Downtown Chicago, will be closing by the end of the lease which is roughly 20 months."

https://www.reddit.com/r/chicago/com...ll_be_closing/

I believe the Lawry's building on Ontario is also for sale, but hopefully they are able to preserve some of it. Also the Amanda apartments on Chicago Avenue, after they butchered the first floors a few years ago.