CHICAGO | 108 North State (Block 37)

[Alliance]

Originally Posted by cbotnyse

^^ what a failure.

Amen.

[i_am_hydrogen]

CTA 'super station' in a hole
Over-budget project halted—for the most part

By Jon Hilkevitch |Tribune reporter
11:04 PM CDT, June 11, 2008

Faced with runaway costs, the CTA and City Hall slammed the emergency brakes Wednesday on ambitious plans to build a "super station" in downtown's Block 37 to speed express trains to both Chicago's airports.

A combined $213 million has been spent on the project, yet there is not much more than a massive hole in the ground to show for it.

...

Acting on Huberman's recommendation, the CTA board indefinitely delayed the controversial station—but not before agreeing to spend an additional $45.6 million. That money will be used to pour concrete slab floors and do other preliminary work on the skeleton of the future station and to complete the shell of the connector tunnel, all by the end of the year, officials said.

Without spending the additional $45.6 million, Huberman said, the CTA would have virtually no chance of attracting private developers to rescue the transit project.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...tory?track=rss

[wrab]

Well, at least CTA has some new management now. Perhaps this latest embarrassment, coupled with the IOC's recent pan, will shake things up some more...

[bnk]

That is one devastating article and a damn fiasco. I suspect that the express service and station will not ever be completed in the way it was envisioned.

What would the cost of new lines above and or below grade to each airport cost in this day in age?

[shaberko]

This part of the article was encouraging:

"Our office building is not dependent on it," said Michael Newman, CEO of Golub & Co., which has mostly completed a 16-story office building at the site. Only one floor remains to be leased, and tenants include CBS and Morningstar.

Freed and Associates, which is building a mixed-use project in Block 37, also said it was not greatly affected.

"Our Block 37 project will provide access to both the CTA Red and Blue Lines via the pedway level of the project," the company said in a statement. "The opening of the retail portion of the project next spring will be followed by construction of a hotel and a residential component that are already in the planning phase."

Freed's tenants so far include a David Barton Gym; a Rosa Mexicano Restaurant; a Lettuce Entertain You restaurant; Muvico Entertainment, a multiscreen movie theater; and apparel retailer Club Monaco.

[honte]

Even if the station just sits for the next 40 years, I am glad they built it. It's probably the only part of this development that I don't consider a missed opportunity. Some day, people will be glad that the right of way was preserved and that the infrastructure is possible. It's like the hole in the Post Office that didn't make much sense for 30 or so years.

[cbotnyse]

Originally Posted by honte

Even if the station just sits for the next 40 years, I am glad they built it. It's probably the only part of this development that I don't consider a missed opportunity. Some day, people will be glad that the right of way was preserved and that the infrastructure is possible. It's like the hole in the Post Office that didn't make much sense for 30 or so years.

I agree, and I was glad to hear they are spending the extra money to make it happen.

It was just so discouraging to read something like this failing. You'd think this portion of the project would be of utmost importance and handled with special care. Its embarrassing something could get this far and just stop.

[the urban politician]

^ Embarrassing, I guess.... But is it really?

I mean, is anybody really surprised at this? Pretty much all of us knew that nobody had signed on to the airport express, so why the sudden rush of dissappointed grumblings?

[cbotnyse]

what do you mean "nobody had signed on to it"?

[the urban politician]

^ Meaning there was no private entity involved with the project as of yet.

A private entity was going to pay for a large chunk of this thing after all--not the city, not the State, and certainly not the Federal Govt

[cbotnyse]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ Meaning there was no private entity involved with the project as of yet.

A private entity was going to pay for a large chunk of this thing after all--not the city, not the State, and certainly not the Federal Govt

I was not sure how or from who the funding would come from. I am disappointed that this particular part of the project didn't have the highest priority, even before they broke ground on B37.

[the urban politician]

^ What do you mean it didn't have the highest priority? They spent hundreds of millions of dollars on it. What else did you expect the city to do? If they didn't act now, building a station below a huge 4 level retail center with office, apt, and hotel towers would have been an enormously expensive task.

We're talking about a major, multi-billion dollar project here. Chicago just doesn't have that kind of money to spend on one item. It never did--those of you who were actually expecting a complete build out of this project to happen as a natural progression to Block 37 are simply being unrealistic.

[cbotnyse]

multi-billion??? are you sure its that much? where did you get that figure?

so you're saying they started this knowing it wouldn't get finished?

[SolarWind]

June 10, 2008

[Alliance]

That grey stuff above and below the glas stripes...thats not permenant is it?

[emathias]

Originally Posted by cbotnyse

multi-billion??? are you sure its that much? where did you get that figure?

so you're saying they started this knowing it wouldn't get finished?

The station itself won't be multi-billion, but the entire Airport Express concept is. A lot of track work to make actual express service to O'Hare work as an express.

[depaulhifi]

Hey guys, long time no talky... just wanted to poke my head in and ask if anyone's heard news on whether or not a grocery store (Whole Foods) is moving in? Is the cta's colossal failure of a superstation going to impede work on the Washington Red Line station opening later this year?

[spyguy]

Originally Posted by depaulhifi

Hey guys, long time no talky... just wanted to poke my head in and ask if anyone's heard news on whether or not a grocery store (Whole Foods) is moving in?

I don't think there's going to be a grocery store in B37, however, Fox & Obel is opening a store in the Carson's building.

[cbotnyse]

Originally Posted by emathias

The station itself won't be multi-billion, but the entire Airport Express concept is. A lot of track work to make actual express service to O'Hare work as an express.

do you have a link to these numbers? I've never heard muti-billion talked about. and what track work? did they plan to built a new dedicated track for this?

[k1052]

Originally Posted by cbotnyse

do you have a link to these numbers? I've never heard muti-billion talked about. and what track work? did they plan to built a new dedicated track for this?

As I recall the cost for adding passing sidings to route around normal service would have run almost $800M to add to the Blue Line elevated and Orange Line.

A Kennedy-UP alignment was estimated around $1.5B

Neither of these figures inculded the B37 station expenditure AFAIK.