CHICAGO | General Developments

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280

No surface parking. The lot is beneath the store. The extra lot space is being used for an urban farm that got approved simultaneously with the Target. I'm not certain, but I think some of the produce from the urban farm may be sold at the Target...

Why is there an urban farm at this site? It's not like there aren't hundreds of vacant lots on the south and west sides.

[Mr Downtown]

^And thousands of unused acres of farmland all over the region. They're sort of like yellow ribbons for locavores, established by people with absolutely no grasp of economics, just to "show we care."

[Buckman821]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

^And thousands of unused acres of farmland all over the region. They're sort of like yellow ribbons for locavores, established by people with absolutely no grasp of economics, just to "show we care."

Nailed it. But at the same time i really don't mind. As long as their temporary status is very clear.

[Rizzo]

Duplicate post

[Rizzo]

Hayward update....

- The majority of the scaffolding has come down at TopShop revealing the new facade. The sleek metal panel and glass are a nice contrast against the limestone. It also coordinates well with the Columbia Sports facade next door.

- Window infilling is up to floor 8 behind the old Burberry...not because the new flagship will rise to that height, rather I think they are trying to avoid view of the rooftop mechanical

- For cyclists, the new metal decking is installed on Kinzie Street Cycle Track

- Really nice looking warehouse renovation going on North Ave near the Metra tracks and freeway. Anyone know more about this?? Sorry for the crap phone pic. Look at the before shot! http://maps.google.com/maps?q=North+...18.07,,0,-4.14


- Warehouse conversion + 4 story addition at Blue Island and Western into a Charter School

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by lawfin

And the further march of turning Clybourn into a suburban hell hole auto sewer continues unabated......

too bad Clybourn if it had developed in a more traditionally midrise urban form type of way could have been a great commercial strip instead we have the mork and mindy indy from parking lot to parking lot

To be honest, I was expecting something like the shopping plaza down the street. Yup, set my expectations very low so at least the disappointment will only be half as bad.

[Nowhereman1280]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

^And thousands of unused acres of farmland all over the region. They're sort of like yellow ribbons for locavores, established by people with absolutely no grasp of economics, just to "show we care."

I generally tend to agree, but there is so much vacant land at New City right now that I see no problem with a temporary farm adjacent to the Target. I also think it would be pretty cool if Target were to buy the produce off the community organization and sell it in its store. That I think would be a first for the local-sourcing movement and hopefully would help to attract those nerds in droves to the city bringing their yuppie checkbooks with them.

In other words, I don't care if it makes sense as long as it increases Chicago's stature and reputation and is temporary.

I'm sure they will have no problem closing this farm down and building highrises once New City fills back in and the demand for developable land soars.

[lawfin]

^^I don't know. Maybe. The concern i have is that these so called temporary farms become permanent. After sat several years you get vested interests and people clamoring don't take away our farm etc

Joe Moore has a similar proposal on a plot along howard east of the redline in RP...I am concerned about that as well. I get it that it is better than an empty lot but I am not convinced it is a "temporary" solution.

I could segue into a diatribe about Joe Moore but I won't

[wrab]

More of Ronan's Poetry Foundation Building:

[montasauraus]

The La Casa Dorm in Pilsen is under construction. Just down 18th, the new MB Branch is finally going up. Also, the streets around the future Costco at 14th and Ashland have been blocked off for site prep.

Also there is soil testing going on at the site of the future East-West University building on Wabash where those old Johnson Publishing loft buildings used to be.

[i_am_hydrogen]

Nice, wrabbit.

[the urban politician]

Nice update, Montasaurus, and welcome to the forums.

Can't think of a better first post than one that contains new construction updates

[denizen467]

Originally Posted by montasauraus

the future East-West University building on Wabash

I don't think I've ever seen a render for this.

Can't believe "university city" keeps growing in even more places. Before you know it all these schools will be dripping in cash from the price appreciation of South Loop and Grant Park area property. Then they will build even bigger, and so on...

[Mr Downtown]

^Um, what would be the realization event? Universities hardly ever sell off any of their property. Meanwhile, South Loop revitalization means that they pay very high prices when they buy land.

[denizen467]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

^Um, what would be the realization event? Universities hardly ever sell off any of their property. Meanwhile, South Loop revitalization means that they pay very high prices when they buy land.

I would think if there is ever a situation where universities would eventually sell off their property, this neighborhood is it. Beginning with the Roosevelt University athletics mini-building on super-prime real estate at Congress, I get the picture that a lot of these universities own a lot of various parcels around the South Loop that are going to seem rather underutilized soon, compared to highest-and-best use. We're talking stuff within 0 to 200 feet of Michigan Avenue and Grant Park and permanent unobstructed views of the lake ... this is kind of like putting a small, regional college at 5th Avenue and (randomly) 60th Street in Manhattan (except we won't even have major NIMBY opposition to most highrise construction compared to NYC). Economics should nudge them out of there gradually over the decades, unless they truly find the prestige essential and worth the money. For the most part they have no need to be on Michigan or Wabash long-term so they could either sell their less-crucial properties or simply move their entire campus (harder for the couple schools that have seriously planted roots there) to Class C office space downtown or redevelopable land off-Michigan or elsewhere in the South Loop or downtown.

[Mr Downtown]

^Have you ever heard of any university, even in New York, doing that? In fact, have you ever heard of any university selling off land it was using as part of the campus?

[ardecila]

Yeah, I don't see the universities selling off the land.

As downtown Chicago's population and stature grows, the universities will continue to attract increasing student populations. With more students, the land holdings will be critical in accommodating the growth. Unutilized or underutilized parcels will be developed more intensively.

[denizen467]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

^Have you ever heard of any university, even in New York, doing that? In fact, have you ever heard of any university selling off land it was using as part of the campus?

First off, we are not talking only about universities - there are colleges and other small institutions in this area. To be honest, I really don't know much about them, but I know in contrast to a marquee presence like DePaul there are places like Robert Morris or East-West, and maybe smaller ones, in non-descript facilities, that could fit my criteria.

Second, yes I have heard of this happening; I don't quite get why it seems like such an unthinkable concept. Kennedy-King College relocated its entire campus a mile north and a mile west very recently. (Other prominent entire-campus relocations include hospitals -- VA and Children's -- though I'm not sure if that's more profound or less profound than a university relocating.) Graduate schools move a lot (Notre Dame's business school just moved in near the Art Institute; the Adler School just relocated to Dearborn; didn't John Marshall Law School consider moving until recently?) (not all those examples involve owned property though). I could see the Gleacher Center getting replaced by a high-rise one day at Cityfront Plaza. Colleges around the country have been known to do land banking or swapping. Of course selling land is not a frequent occurrence and I don't have other examples that come off the top of my head; the most recent examples in memory may well be outside the Midwest. Actually, didn't DeVry and/or Oakton Community College relocate their campuses in the last couple decades?

Merely never having heard news from NYC or any other city about a college selling property and moving is hardly evidence that it never occurs. Other than with a nationally-known school, 95% of the time it would be just local news, so even if it were to make some kind of national press, it probably wouldn't even register in one's mind as when flipping through the news.

Originally Posted by ardecila

As downtown Chicago's population and stature grows, the universities will continue to attract increasing student populations. With more students, the land holdings will be critical in accommodating the growth. Unutilized or underutilized parcels will be developed more intensively.

That's a nice statement but it's perfectly generic, so it doesn't take into consideration the whole issue of the unique nature of this strip of the city.

[Nowhereman1280]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

^Um, what would be the realization event? Universities hardly ever sell off any of their property. Meanwhile, South Loop revitalization means that they pay very high prices when they buy land.

I don't agree with Denizen that they would ever sell of their land, but increased property values aren't only realized by sales. Having higher property values are extremely useful in several ways. The first is leverage. If such an institution were to have huge value gains, they could use that value to either cross collateralize for other construction projects, campus improvements, other lending needs, or, to construct larger buildings on the property itself. Which segues to a second way that value can be used:

Higher property prices will incentivize the schools to find ways to increase the intensity of use on their property. Thus it's likely that a lot of these small buildings that Denizen references will be razed or incorporated into new highrises like the Roosevelt Dorm. The best example of this is Loyola's downtown campus (the most "mature" of the urban campuses). Loyola is constantly deciding which old classroom buildings it will replace with larger facilities. Having a higher land value can again be used to ease the financing of such structures.

Finally I suspect we'll see a lot of cases of mixed use utilization of this land. In other words there is nothing stopping a university from capturing the value of it's land while at the same time using it. Just look at The Claire. Loyola only needed classroom space and anything above 3 or 4 stories from grade isn't so great for classroom space. So they decided to sell the air rights to another charity which essentially built Loyola free classroom space in exchange for the use of the air rights. Chicago got a 45 story building out of that. As awesome as the Roosevelt "vertical campus" is, most of the schools in the South Loop are only going to need one, maybe two, buildings like that, but will probably require five or six classroom buildings that are near grade if they grow to the size of Loyola's campus. This means each school may spawn several towers like The Claire if property prices continue to rise in the South Loop.

[SamInTheLoop]

Originally Posted by montasauraus

The La Casa Dorm in Pilsen is under construction. Just down 18th, the new MB Branch is finally going up. Also, the streets around the future Costco at 14th and Ashland have been blocked off for site prep.

Also there is soil testing going on at the site of the future East-West University building on Wabash where those old Johnson Publishing loft buildings used to be.

Thanks for the update. The La Casa project looks like a very nice addition to Pilsen. Anyone know who the architect is there?

Architect on East-West's planned building?