Crain's Confirms: 469-Unit Tower Coming to 1000 S. Clark

Rendering of 1000 S. Clark from
Chicago Architecture Blog

There have been some rumblings about activity at 1000 S. Clark in 2014.  To recap, a reader sent us a picture of a truck taking soil borings back in January.  Then just last week, we posted about some sleek, glassy renderings appearing on the Chicago Architecture Blog.

Now crains confirms that this is in fact true:

As he wraps up apartment projects in Old Town and Wrigleyville, developer Jim Letchinger is preparing to launch an even bigger one in the South Loop.

Mr. Letchinger said he plans a 469-unit tower at 1000 S. Clark St., just north of the Target store on Roosevelt Road. He is “very, very close” to securing a construction loan for the development, which he would build in a joint venture with lender iStar Financial Inc. iStar which took the property back from its prior owner in 2011.

“We're working with three different lenders and trying to decide which way to go,” Mr. Letchinger said.

Though apartment rents and occupancies in the greater downtown have begun to slip after surging the past few years, developers continue to push forward with new high-rises. Builders are expected to complete more than 6,000 apartments downtown this year and next, and some landlords worry that demand won't keep up with supply.

Though we're not super jazzed about the design, in our opinion anything that adds density to the neighborhood is probably a good thing (some will definitely disagree with this idea).

This is right next door to the existing AMLI tower and the additional buildings they're working on at the corner of Polk and Clark.  The chairman of AMLI echos our thoughts:

“While I am always concerned about new supply and while we will clearly be impacted by this many new units (in the JDL project), on balance this will finish out Clark between Loop and Roosevelt,” Amli Chairman and CEO Greg Mutz wrote in an email. “Will bring more pedestrian traffic, more cabs and support more restaurants. All in all a net positive after the agony of a lease-up.”

So more residential appears to be coming to the Sloop (as we just mentioned on two days ago).

Are things heating up in a good way or a bad way?

(Hat tip:  JJ!)