CHICAGO | General Developments - Page 1031

ardecila · #**20601** Posted **Oct 9, 2013, 10:03 PM**

I'm really glad to see the Chicago Athletic Association get remodeled. It was under threat for awhile, since the landmark designation only covers the facade. The interior spaces are equally wonderful. I'm looking forward to what Roman & Williams will do here.

SamInTheLoop · #**20602** Posted **Oct 10, 2013, 7:25 PM**

^ Same here. Not just from a design perspective (although importantly that), but also the reactivation and intensification from an economic/activity standpoint. No part of greater downtown has me more excited right now than what's happening in the eastern and northeastern part of the Loop....a few years from now, the additional hotel and apartment developments are going to be paying major dividends....

BWChicago · #**20603** Posted **Oct 11, 2013, 4:05 AM**

http://www.safeway.com/ShopStores/In...page#iframetop

New press release says that Jewel is taking over the Dominick's at Roosevelt/Canal... presumably this means the Roosevelt/Wabash location will be available for redevelopment.

wierdaaron · #**20604** Posted **Oct 11, 2013, 5:08 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by BWChicago

http://www.safeway.com/ShopStores/In...page#iframetop

New press release says that Jewel is taking over the Dominick's at Roosevelt/Canal... presumably this means the Roosevelt/Wabash location will be available for redevelopment.

Yeah, that's interesting. I wonder if Jewel will keep the Roosevelt/Wabash store open. It's not unheard of for grocery stores to keep locations that close to each other, but with Mariano's just opening a few blocks away likely to eat up the South Loop grocery market east of the river, they might figure they'd rather close that location and sell the land.

ardecila · #**20605** Posted **Oct 11, 2013, 6:27 AM**

!!! Also the one at Division/Clybourn. Unless Old Town Square can find another anchor, it's gonna be a prime candidate for redevelopment. I suppose Wal-Mart might open up here, or Fresh Market.

thewaterman11 · #**20606** Posted **Oct 11, 2013, 11:22 AM**

Back on the 3rd, there was a small groundbreaking ceremony for the new new Malcolm X college. The lowdown: $251 million, set to be completed by the end of 2015.

http://www.wbez.org/blogs/lee-bey/20...college-108835

Skyguy_7 · #**20607** Posted **Oct 11, 2013, 12:00 PM**

^ Not bad, compared to the existing Fortress of Malcolm.

LouisVanDerWright · #**20608** Posted **Oct 11, 2013, 1:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by thewaterman11

Back on the 3rd, there was a small groundbreaking ceremony for the new new Malcolm X college. The lowdown: $251 million, set to be completed by the end of 2015.

http://www.wbez.org/blogs/lee-bey/20...college-108835

Depending on the materials this could end up quite nice! Hope the brown is cor-ten steel.

Can we all just reflect for a minute on how far the city has come? It seems like a week doesn't pass now without another lot in the west loop biting the dust and for the first time since pretty much when the west side was first built, we are seeing two entire blocks being built on at once.

Does anyone have any updates on the bulls practice facility construction? It looked like they started on that months ago.

kemachs · #**20609** Posted **Oct 11, 2013, 2:29 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Depending on the materials this could end up quite nice! Hope the brown is cor-ten steel.

Can we all just reflect for a minute on how far the city has come? It seems like a week doesn't pass now without another lot in the west loop biting the dust and for the first time since pretty much when the west side was first built, we are seeing two entire blocks being built on at once.

I agree, it's awesome to watch the progress in the west loop and other evolving neighborhoods. Also, I gotta say that I really appreciate your optimism. Listening to all of the negative PR (the media lately, not sure why, maybe Obama?) can really make a guy feel down, and I feel like the general attitude/outlook on this forum hasn't been as cheery.

to Chicago,

to the haters

wierdaaron · #**20610** Posted **Oct 11, 2013, 2:51 PM**

This is a few days old, but I haven't heard mention of it here...

Harpo has hired a real estate firm to explore selling their West Loop studio (as well as Oprah's home, but that's less interesting to me).

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...us-up-for-sale

When they built that studio, the West Loop was pretty dead. Now it's probably one of the hottest parts of the city. I'd bet the land is more valuable than the building is, so it seems likely that whoever buys it would probably want to tear it down and build a hotel or condos or a midrise office.

Does anybody here have any insight?

emathias · #**20611** Posted **Oct 11, 2013, 3:02 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ardecila

!!! Also the one at Division/Clybourn. Unless Old Town Square can find another anchor, it's gonna be a prime candidate for redevelopment. I suppose Wal-Mart might open up here, or Fresh Market.

OMG, that would be awesome. Jewel isn't far, there's Plum now on Wells, Target is a block away - there's really little need for a big grocer there in the short term so it would be awesome to get that whole thing redeveloped into something much more pedestrian-oriented. If I were the City, I'd propose returning Scott Street there, then putting townhomes or 3-flats on the north side of it, and denser development on the acreage on the south side of it along the lines of the buildings along Division between Sedgwick and Wells, with maybe one boutique commercial office building. All built to be pedestrian-oriented and timed with a Division Brown Line stop

the urban politician · #**20612** Posted **Oct 11, 2013, 3:17 PM**

^ yes that would be ideal. As anti urban as that shopping center is, it's not nearly as heinous as the one with the Dominick's at Roosevelt and Canal. The latter is just so damn horrific, and wastes a tremendous amount of land on parking

wierdaaron · #**20613** Posted **Oct 11, 2013, 3:23 PM**

Yeah that Canal St. Dominicks is really aggravating. It ruins that whole corner, in an area that's trying to dense up and attract walkers. I wonder if Jewel could be working on a plan to redevelop to be more urban and less suburban, like they did with "Tower of Jewel".

intrepidDesign · #**20614** Posted **Oct 11, 2013, 3:57 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by wierdaaron

This is a few days old, but I haven't heard mention of it here...

Harpo has hired a real estate firm to explore selling their West Loop studio (as well as Oprah's home, but that's less interesting to me).

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...us-up-for-sale

When they built that studio, the West Loop was pretty dead. Now it's probably one of the hottest parts of the city. I'd bet the land is more valuable than the building is, so it seems likely that whoever buys it would probably want to tear it down and build a hotel or condos or a midrise office.

Does anybody here have any insight?

Apparently the ideal goal would be to leave the studio in place (we have no shortage of work) and just change landlords. That being said, who knows

After 7 years of being in this building, I wouldn't mind moving to shiny new offices. We still shoot quite a lot of shows, even commercials, hosted Obama fundraisers here, so there is definitely need for studio space.

But speaking of the west loop, I came across this article:
http://urbanland.uli.org/industry-se...el-resurgence/

In it, about a quarter of the way down, I came across this "In addition, Chicago developer Sterling Bay Cos. is planning a new 150-room hotel on a site adjacent to Google’s new offices" Does anyone have any insight on this? Renderings? I just remember what the old cold storage is suppose to look like.

Link N. Parker · #**20615** Posted **Oct 11, 2013, 3:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ardecila

!!! Also the one at Division/Clybourn. Unless Old Town Square can find another anchor, it's gonna be a prime candidate for redevelopment. I suppose Wal-Mart might open up here, or Fresh Market.

I always thought that this site would be a great place to build a couple of high rise apartments in the former parking lot...with one building hugging the corner and another building nehind it creating a cozy european style "shopping alley" that keeps the existing building (and tenants) intact.

Same thing with the Dominicks up at Clybourn and Damen!

*I HOPE SOME DEVELOPERS ARE READING THIS SITE AND TAKE MY IDEAS TO HEART!!!*

Ok, Caps Lock off.

Link N. Parker · #**20616** Posted **Oct 11, 2013, 4:04 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by emathias

OMG, that would be awesome. Jewel isn't far, there's Plum now on Wells, Target is a block away - there's really little need for a big grocer there in the short term so it would be awesome to get that whole thing redeveloped into something much more pedestrian-oriented. If I were the City, I'd propose returning Scott Street there, then putting townhomes or 3-flats on the north side of it, and denser development on the acreage on the south side of it along the lines of the buildings along Division between Sedgwick and Wells, with maybe one boutique commercial office building. All built to be pedestrian-oriented and timed with a Division Brown Line stop

Omg, yes yes yes! hahaah

I was thinking something simialr as well! Restore the city's Street Grid as much as possible!

ardecila · #**20617** Posted **Oct 11, 2013, 4:20 PM**

Unfortunately Old Town Square has lots of smaller tenants, and it was intended by CHA to be a "walkable" (lol) grocery option for public housing tenants in the area. That suggests the landlord will be under a lot of pressure to find a replacement. There are a few downscale choices - Wal-Mart, Pete's Fresh Market, Aldi, etc.

PerryPendleton · #**20618** Posted **Oct 11, 2013, 4:25 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Link N. Parker

I always thought that this site would be a great place to build a couple of high rise apartments in the former parking lot...with one building hugging the corner and another building nehind it creating a cozy european style "shopping alley" that keeps the existing building (and tenants) intact.

Same thing with the Dominicks up at Clybourn and Damen!

*I HOPE SOME DEVELOPERS ARE READING THIS SITE AND TAKE MY IDEAS TO HEART!!!*

Ok, Caps Lock off.

I totally agree. There are a number of parking lots in front of large grocery stores that should adopt this.

Namely the Jewel @ Milwaukee & Paulina in Wicker. That lot irritates me to no end.

Steely Dan · #**20619** Posted **Oct 11, 2013, 4:33 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ardecila

Unfortunately Old Town Square has lots of smaller tenants, and it was intended by CHA to be a "walkable" (lol) grocery option for public housing tenants in the area. That suggests the landlord will be under a lot of pressure to find a replacement. There are a few downscale choices - Wal-Mart, Pete's Fresh Market, Aldi, etc.

perhaps with target now open 2 blocks down the street there won't be such strong pressure to maintain a gorcery presence there? CHA people in the area could just as easily walk to target and get their groceries there and save some money to boot.

spyguy · #**20620** Posted **Oct 11, 2013, 4:35 PM**

Now that Safeway is exiting, a whole slew of prime sites, some needing minimal improvements, have opened up. I kind of wonder if this will actually having a chilling effect on new development, especially those needing a grocery store as an anchor retail tenant. For example, would Mariano's still have built their West Loop store if they could have taken over the Dominick's in Skybridge? Same thing with the New City project, 16th and Clark, etc.