South Loop Neighbors is hosting a discussion Wednesday, Feb. 24 about new student residences in the neighborhood. Invited guests include Lesley Slavitt, vice president of governmental relations and outreach at Roosevelt University, and Keith Giles, a principal at Kargil Development.
Roosevelt is building a 32-story "vertical campus" that will replace the Herman Crown Center at 421-425 S. Wabash. The structure will host seven floors of classrooms, six floors of student services and 615 beds for the school's freshmen and sophomores, as well as space for student organizations and activities and street-level retail.
Kargil Development, which has built and rehabbed number of residential structures in the South Loop, wants to build a $100 million, 21-story tower with 420 two-bedroom suites and 20 single rooms for dorm resident assistants at 1136-1140 S. Wabash, land currently owned by the city.
Also Ald. Fioretti is hosting an event on upcoming construction projects around the Sloop:
Fioretti will be hosting a meeting March 2, meanwhile, about three major infrastructure projects slated to start this April: the Congress Parkway remake; reconstruction of Wacker Drive; and repaving the Eisenhower Expressway. Representatives from the city and state departments of transportation will be on hand to discuss the projects.
The road construction meeting starts at 6 p.m. March 2 at Robert Morris University, 401 S. State, in Room 803.
If you click on the Congress Parkway remake link above you will find an interesting PowerPoint talking about that project. It looks like the idea of this is to make the street more pedestrian friendly (which we love). The duration of the project is scheduled for two years (to start during Spring of 2010 and wrap up in Spring of 2012). Here are some renderings from the PowerPoint:
7 comments:
I'm very excited about the Congress re-pavement project. It's really needed and could make a huge impact on beautifying the area.
Ecchh... I'm not very impressed. The best way to beautify congress parkway would be to reduce it to 6 lanes (from 8). This would slow down traffic slightly and make the area much more pedestrian friendly. The extra space would make the sidewalks more conducive to outdoor cafes and retail too.
I have high hopes for the Congress project. However I am not looking forward to what I'm sure will be two years of loud construction at night...
Annonymous, according to the Powerpoint here the project will "narrow and reduce lanes to provide wider sidewalks to accommodate heavier pedestrian traffic and landscape improvements and decrease the crossing distance of intersections".
So it sounds like the plans are to do what you said.
So how can Kargil be in default, bankrupt on other projects, being sued by banks (XO), yet have approval to build a dorm that no schools have committed to yet?
I have the same question about how Kargil can keep plugging away with failed developments in the South Loop, but still stay in business by building for Roosevelt University?
Has anyone else noticed that now commercial spaces in the Sloop are being auctioned? I noticed two commercial spaces on Michigan Ave. (1700 south and 1900 south) with auction signs in the window. I spoke with a buddy in commercial real estate, and it sounds like auctioning commercial spaces (and not the entire building or even a stake in building ownership) is highly irregular. I guess we should brace ourselves, once again, for more low quality commercial tenants in the hood.
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