Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Downtown
^But what are we seeing in the rendering? Shallow caissons, pilotis, or piers raising the building above a parking level? Does the site slope downward moving south from Lake?
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Look again. The "alley" disappears.
I believe what you are seeing in the rendering is that the "alley" will be vacated, if necessary, and the developer will be allowed to build in air rights over what is now alley and the sloped embankment on the west side of the Kennedy - along the existing east line of the condo building just to the south of the subject property (NW corner of the Kennedy and Randolph).
Pylons would be necessary to build on the sloped Kennedy embankment. That's what the TIF grant is for, IMO. (Google the building and look at where the parking area behind the building is built out to - far to the east of the "alley.")
Just a little nibble from what most people would consider the air rights above the Kennedy expressway as a gift to the developer. It's just a precedent for later plans to pave over the expressways - but in that case - it's advertised as for parks.
Whether you like or dislike the architecture or supposed use of the property, it's a pretty slick, not very publicized move, if that's the case, which serves the short term interests of a developer - who owns a virtually unbuildable lot without doing an assemblage - and what the City considers its long term interests.
This one needs a little more transparency about what's really going to be built there in the end and what the real deal is. $3.1 in TIF money for a property that sold for $1.4M? ROFL!