CHICAGO | General Developments

[ChiPhi]

^^
As in someone will build a building/ club type thing there or as a short- term use for that giant empty lot.

[Tom In Chicago]

^That would actually be pretty cool. . . better than the ad hoc River City dog park it's been for the last 25 years. . . and easily removable if a developer wanted to build on it. . .

. . .

[a chicago bearcat]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

Rumors of a golf clinic/driving range on the Franklin Point parcels at Harrison & Wells.

oh, so in a decade or so it will be replaced by a Magellan development!

[Remy_Bork]

Hey, I was wondering if anybody knows what's going on at the empty lot along Kimball Ave. just north of the intersection of Kimball, Milwaukee, and Diversey. It's bordered by Kimball, Dawson, and an alleyway. It's a pretty good sized triangular area that's been a weedy parking lot for many years.

Somebody has recently put up a new fence around it and bulldozers have torn up the remains of the parking lot that was there.

Any info is appreciated!

[Joe Zekas]

The Maxwell, Canal & Taylor by YoChicago1, on Flickr


The Maxwell, Canal & Taylor by YoChicago1, on Flickr

Shots taken earlier today.

[simon07]

Originally Posted by Joe Zekas

The Maxwell, Canal & Taylor by YoChicago1, on Flickr


The Maxwell, Canal & Taylor by YoChicago1, on Flickr

Shots taken earlier today.

What A Great Development....Those Views Are Going To Be Amazing.

[Mr Downtown]

^I don't know much, but I hear that DHED is trying to block this. Apparently they object to the housing component in a DS-5 district.

[J_M_Tungsten]

Ugh, you got to be kidding me. Is it possible to block or are thing past that stage now?

[Mr Downtown]

I don't think there's been a PD yet.

[Joe Zekas]

View east from Whole Foods by YoChicago1, on Flickr

This view was shot earlier today from the roof of the parking garage at Whole Foods on Roosevelt Road. If the top floors of the Maxwell are higher than that roof, this will approximate the view east from some of the units.

[Kippis]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

^I don't know much, but I hear that DHED is trying to block this. Apparently they object to the housing component in a DS-5 district.

So...they want to block a perfectly viable economic development on a now vacated site? Am I hearing that right? For a department that has the words "economic development" in their letter head, that kind of seems bass ackwards if you ask me. Doesn't DS-5 zoning specify single or mixed-use development?

Maybe I'm just being selfish; I certainly don't want to look out my window and see a giant vacant lot -- but hey, that's just me.

[ardecila]

The developer will probably prevail, but in a larger sense I disagree with the whole idea of zoning a massive block of land as "downtown service". It just creates an urban dead zone at the heart of the city. If downtown needs services, they should be scattered in among the residential and office buildings.

This is especially true north of Roosevelt. Hell, they've proposed a subway here and it's only a few blocks from one of the country's busiest train stations, yet DSED wants to preserve low-intensity industrial use?

I think a PD was filed, although I can't look it up right now.

[Mr Downtown]

Residential is not permitted in DS zoning—which that entire area is. Approving residential here would be pretty conspicuous spot zoning in a city that has almost no large homogeneous zones.

Economic development covers a lot of things besides letting one foolhardy developer make a pile of money. He knew it was DS when he bought the old building.

[Kippis]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

Residential is not permitted in DS zoning—which that entire area is. Approving residential here would be pretty conspicuous spot zoning in a city that has almost no large homogeneous zones.

Ah, well this would make more sense then. I'm not a huge zoning buff, so I was unaware that that was the case. Thanks for clearing that up.

[ardecila]

So, what does the DS allow? Large-scale industrial properties and big box retail? Seems like there's nothing "downtown" about this category.

To be clear, I'm not in favor of the scale of the Maxwell project, only the diversity of use it brings to the area. With so much single-use retail in the Roosevelt corridor, it's good to have a counterpoint.

[SamInTheLoop]

Clearly this parcel is badly zoned if it doesn't allow mixed use including residential. That just doesn't make sense. Any fantasies of preserving some sort of large scale light industrial or something similar in this particular area by not allowing mixed use residential in the underlying zoning are pretty much misplaced nostalgia. It's not 1982. Clearly I think we'd all agree that zoning that would pretty much exclusively encourage single-use suburbanesque retail with large parking fields in this area isn't desirable. That's sort of the opposite of good urban planning. I get the point about the scale, but still - all things considered, what the PD has proposed here is highly appropriate for this area in the year 2012 in terms of mix of use. I really hope the developer prevails against any oppostion from DHED in this case!

[Mr Downtown]

DS allows pretty much everything except residential. I think the idea is that you want to have an area for things that support downtown but can't pay CBD land prices. However, office and retail—which pay more per sq ft than anything—are allowed. So maybe the idea is to allow things (like UPS, USPS, check-processing, warehousing, vehicle repair) without running the risk that they'll prompt complaints from new residents.

[the urban politician]

Keep in mind that if the Maxwell ever gets converted to condos later, they can be a major source if Nimbyism down the road

[paytonc]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

So maybe the idea is to allow things (like UPS, USPS, check-processing, warehousing, vehicle repair) without running the risk that they'll prompt complaints from new residents.

Just-in-time logistics has increased demand for warehouse and fabrication locations that are CBD-adjacent. These back-end services aren't sexy, but parcel delivery, data centers, fresh food preparation and delivery, printers, even wholesalers of buttons undergird what happens in the skyscrapers and boutiques.

There's been quite a battle recently as Midtown Manhattan's offices have begun encroaching on the Garment District. Sort of predictably, there's a swank-looking website (http://madeinmidtown.org) arguing that the city's fashion industry depends on having a complete ecosystem of services, wherein super-cool designers need proximity and access to the very-not-cool shops selling buttons and bolts of cloth. This approach may spread to more industries as production continues to evolve towards more customization and faster turnaround times.

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

^Not in a philosophical sense. They're both mimetic architecture designed only to sell the products of the current tenant.

Originally Posted by Hayward

After living on Oak for about 3 years now I've come accustomed to stores totally replacing facades.

20 years ago, Bob Stern's jungle-era Banana Republic facade lasted what, eight years? Still, retail is all about branding and displaying, and nowadays that extends to the skin of the building.

Originally Posted by untitledreality

Or Ginza with the SANAA Dior, Herzog and de Meuron Prada, Toyo Ito Tods, and Ricardo Bofill Dior... all within stones throw from one another.

Er, Aoyama/Omotesando, but point well taken.

[k1052]

Originally Posted by paytonc

Just-in-time logistics has increased demand for warehouse and fabrication locations that are CBD-adjacent. These back-end services aren't sexy, but parcel delivery, data centers, fresh food preparation and delivery, printers, even wholesalers of buttons undergird what happens in the skyscrapers and boutiques.

There's been quite a battle recently as Midtown Manhattan's offices have begun encroaching on the Garment District. Sort of predictably, there's a swank-looking website (http://madeinmidtown.org) arguing that the city's fashion industry depends on having a complete ecosystem of services, wherein super-cool designers need proximity and access to the very-not-cool shops selling buttons and bolts of cloth. This approach may spread to more industries as production continues to evolve towards more customization and faster turnaround times.

The comparison of this area to the Garment District really isn't valid. Many of the warehouse properties are vacant and have been for some time. The warehouse that is being demolished for the Maxwell had been vacant for years. The makeup of uses besides vacant light industrial north of Roosevelt is largely surface parking, ComEd substations, self storage, government buildings, and two large office buildings belonging to Northern Trust. There are only a couple light industrial users left at this point. Even during the day the area is a virtual ghost town.

If CBD adjacent warehousing is needed there is a bunch of property down Cermak and Blue Island only a couple miles distant from this area that can easily meet any such need.