CHICAGO | General Developments

[Busy Bee]

^It says they are combining operations at a plant in rural Ontario and keeping company HQ and R&D in Chicago at the Merch Mart.

[SolarWind]

March 19, 2024

[SolarWind]

March 19, 2024

[BVictor1]

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...sidential-site

Former South Loop church site pitched as redevelopment opportunity
By Rachel Herzog

A Chicago-area megachurch has put its shuttered South Loop campus up for sale, teeing up the site for a redevelopment play that could include hundreds of residential units.

Willow Creek Community Church ceased operations in February at its downtown location and has hired real estate brokerage CBRE to sell the property at 1319-1347 S. State St. While the one-acre site holds a low-slung building that includes offices, day care space and a 730-seat auditorium, prospective buyers are most likely eyeing the site for its proximity to a planned megaproject, The 78, and its potential for denser development.

The site's zoning allows up to 200 residential units, and CBRE’s marketing materials play up the opportunity for a buyer to take advantage of the city’s Neighborhood Opportunity Bonus program. Doing that would let the buyer pay into a city fund and build up to 503 residential units.

[r18tdi]

^ I bet CMK buys it and puts up two 19-story boxes.

[r18tdi]

Originally Posted by Randomguy34

Grand Ave is finally feeling the Fulton Market boom. Proposal for a 61 foot, 72 unit building at 455 N Carpenter. This is across the street from Sterling Bay's development at 1100 W Grand

https://chicityclerkelms.chicago.gov...C-001DD80685D6

Crain's has a rendering. More Chicago infill should look like this. HPA is the architect:

[Steely Dan]

^ well yeah.

It's all about facade depth.

Architects love to design it.

And developers love to VE it.

[SolarWind]

March 25, 2024

[BVictor1]

https://www.costar.com/article/19781...s-on-the-scent

Closing Chicago Chocolate Factory Known for Sweet Aromas Puts Developers on the Scent

Blommer Facility in the River West Neighborhood To Be Sold After May

By Ryan Ori
CoStar News
March 26, 2024 | 4:10 P.M.

Blommer Chocolate plans to end its 85-year tradition of sending candied aromas into Chicago’s River West in May, but real estate developers are getting a fresh whiff of the possibilities of the long-coveted site on Kinzie Street that's large enough to hold two residential high-rises.

After announcing plans last week to shut its four-story factory at 600 W. Kinzie St., Blommer now says it is headed toward an eventual sale of the 5.5-acre site that long has been eyed by property professionals.

[BrickellBased]

Thanks - I thought announced they were moving from here a long while back and then I never heard anything again.

Sad to see them go but this will help clean up that awkward area and connect River North more with Fulton Market.

Originally Posted by BVictor1

https://www.costar.com/article/19781...s-on-the-scent

Closing Chicago Chocolate Factory Known for Sweet Aromas Puts Developers on the Scent

Blommer Facility in the River West Neighborhood To Be Sold After May

By Ryan Ori
CoStar News
March 26, 2024 | 4:10 P.M.

[Randomguy34]

Construction permits issued for 3951 N Wayne, 31 units. There's been a midrise mini-boom in the city the past year, probably because they're easier to get financing at the moment.

[Jibba]

Originally Posted by Randomguy34

Construction permits issued for 3951 N Wayne, 31 units. There's been a midrise mini-boom in the city the past year, probably because they're easier to get financing at the moment.

Ooohhhh — hopefully that Burger King at Clark/Irving? Yep, it’s the BK. But woof, that site plan — they are saving those curb cuts mamma! Whatever, that intersection is beyond civilizing, I suppose; gas station, 70s towers-in-park, cemetery, cemetery make up the corners.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by BrickellBased

Thanks - I thought announced they were moving from here a long while back and then I never heard anything again.

Sad to see them go but this will help clean up that awkward area and connect River North more with Fulton Market.

They aren't *moving* everything. They are moving their HQ to Merchandise Mart. From an actual business perspective this is a wise move. It has nothing to do with cities or anything. That factory's location has become VERY valuable in terms of land values with everything going on nearby and what's planned nearby too. It makes complete sense for them to move their HQ operations to offices nearby, move manufacturing elsewhere (even consolidate to cheaper locations and expand potentially) and sell the land. They're sitting on tens of millions of dollars of land they can use to increase profit margins and probably not sacrifice too much in terms of manufacturing.

I would love to see them build a new factory in another part of the city or suburbs, but they already have a few factories elsewhere. We'll see what they do on that front but business-wise this makes actual sense to me what they're doing given the skyrocketing property values in that area.

[pullmanman]

A couple small projects I passed today with active sites:

513 W Fullerton

the site will be split up into nine separate lots, eight for single-family homes, two-flats, and one for a multi-unit building on a 20,175-square-foot lot at the center of the site accessed off an extended N Cambridge Avenue from W Fullerton Parkway. The remaining eight lots will consist of three fronting W Fullerton Parkway roughly 4,800 square feet in size, three fronting N Cleveland Avenue roughly 5,600 square feet in size with onehaving an extra 2,000-square-foot leg, and two-fronting N Cambridge Avenue roughly 5,000 square feet in size.

Concrete pour going on for this one. This is the view from Cleveland, so one of the single family homes.

5035 N Sheridan



BTW I hope these projects aren’t too small to post here. Just was happy to see some developments while I’m here touring apartments for my move (the name is misleading, I don’t live in Pullman). After I move I plan to use my drone to get some pics of the 400 N Lakeshore Drive site!

[Randomguy34]

A 24 unit cube is proposed for 1055 W Diversey. Not sure how I feel about the design


https://chicago.urbanize.city/post/r...055-w-diversey

[pip]

^I actually don't mind it

[IrishIllini]

Prefer what's existing, but not opposed to the proposed. Would be better one block west

[Jibba]

Originally Posted by Randomguy34

A 24 unit cube is proposed for 1055 W Diversey. Not sure how I feel about the design


https://chicago.urbanize.city/post/r...055-w-diversey

I was gonna say, "looks like Studio Dwell." I like their work, but the collaborations they've had with Contemporary Concepts have not always resulted in well-realized designs. (See this apartment building on Broadway just N of Irving: https://maps.app.goo.gl/k3agi9uQ5gBRTQvCA)

Success or failure of the kind of design of this proposal rests wholly on the material execution, IMO, since fine differences between planes and the subtleties of the brickwork are most of what's driving the aesthetic value of the building. I think the concept is cool in an early-50s way, but if any party along the path to completion cheaps out, it's not gonna be pretty...

The version on the developer's website is a little more appealing to me: https://www.contemporaryconceptsinc....hrkptzksi6mry4 It has some different bonds interspersed in the larger expanses of masonry that lend verticality and help it balance better with the fenestration pattern.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Jibba

Ooohhhh — hopefully that Burger King at Clark/Irving? Yep, it’s the BK. But woof, that site plan — they are saving those curb cuts mamma! Whatever, that intersection is beyond civilizing, I suppose; gas station, 70s towers-in-park, cemetery, cemetery make up the corners.

The site plan is pretty typical for a Chicago condo. Front door on Wayne, the two BK curb cuts will be closed off and the garage doors accessed from the public alley. Actually with the ground floor residential, the whole Wayne frontage and half the frontage on Irving Park is lined with "real" windows.

Unfortunately you will see the garage doors from Irving Park and Clark because the senior housing site plan is so open, but there's nothing the developers can do about that.

[dewbs]

Originally Posted by twister244

Yeah, I'm normally not one to oppose a development, but man.... This stretch of Belmont is not something I think should go.

I was just walking down this stretch yesterday, and it's such a great stretch of organic retail/food right next to CTA. I don't recall seeing any spaces not being utilized, and I'm sure many folks who live in that area would also hate to see it go.

If the developer were to maintain the old facade/spaces, and integrate the new construction behind it, that would be great. But to just knock all of that down is depressing.....

https://chicagoyimby.com/2024/03/fur...lake-view.html

they're cutting the retail space by half: "will replace a pair of existing two-story commercial buildings with 18,960 square feet of retail space...The new ground floor will hold approximately 9,900 square feet of retail space instead."

So more housing density -- "210 residential units [!!] made up of 90 studios, 43 junior one-bedrooms, 58 one-bedrooms, and 19 two-bedroom layouts" -- but also much less retail.

Housing can go either on main streets like Belmont or on side streets, but retail is only allowed on the main streets. The end result is that developments like this kind of inevitably push out organic retail. Would be nice to have the Jane Jacobs-style retail around the corner off the main streets to allow for more variety.