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| Map showing where people ride their Divvy's from Roosevelt/Wabash station |
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| Train tracks where "Gateway" Project Could Rise? |
The developers of Central Station in the South Loop are seeking a partner for the first phase of another huge residential project next door that would overlook Soldier Field and the Museum Campus.
Called Gateway, the $3 billion project would encompass 3,000 homes and 500 hotel rooms rising above train tracks on the west side of Lake Shore Drive from Roosevelt Road to McCormick Place, said Chicago developer Gerald Fogelson, who owns the site in a joint venture with Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises.
The venture is exploring three options for the project's first phase: developing it by itself, selling the development rights or bringing in a partner, he said. Fogelson would prefer to team up with another partner.
| Ryan McCaskey at Acadia (1639 S. Wabash) |
Acadia, Ryan McCaskey's fine-dining restaurant in the South Loop, was boosted to two Michelin stars, and Parachute and Dusek's Board & Beer received one star apiece, as the Michelin Guide announced its star selection for Chicago restaurants Tuesday.
"McCaskey's got it all," said Michael Ellis, international director of the Michelin Guide. "He has great technique and produces elegant food that tastes great. For a restaurant to go from one star to two, that's what we like to see."
Acadia's promotion and the first-ever star awards for Parachute and Dusek's were the happy surprises on a list that otherwise varied little from the Michelin list of a year ago.
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| South Gate Market (looking east) |
The University of Chicago announced Thursday it will build a $8 million new clinic in the South Loop.
The university said Thursday it had signed a 12-year lease for 18,000 square feet on the second floor of Southgate Market, 1101 S. Canal St. for clinic offering primary care, cardiology, orthopedic, sports medicine and obstetrics-gynecology, reproductive and other services for women.
The clinic is expected to open in late 2016 with 15 physicians based in the South Loop and others rotating in for specialist care.
“We listened to our patients who wanted our state-of-the-art care closer to where they live, work and shop,” said Sharon O'Keefe, president of the University of Chicago Medical Center, in a statement.Seems like a good addition for the neighborhood and a nice boon for Southgate Market. As you may remember this (presumed) space used to be an Office Depot but that closed back in 2008. The space has been sitting vacant since then.
The university also cited the rapid increase in the number of people moving to the South Loop as an enticement to look north of Hyde Park for the new clinic.
Roosevelt Road Reconstruction Public Presentation - 9/22/2015
As promised, we were able issue a FOIA to get a copy of the September 22nd presentation from the South Loop Town-Hall meeting at McCormick Place.
At that meeting, CDOT Representatives were on hand to discuss the project, listen to complaints, concerns, and feedback from residents in regards to the Roosevelt Road project impact. CDOT also discussed what it has done (correct traffic light timing errors), and what they are reviewing to address, as well as provide and overview of the remaining work on the project.
Unfortunately, if you give people directions to the South Loop, they may get confused. Check out the picture below:
I was driving earlier today, with my father, at about 1:30p.m., and we noticed that the sign was placed on the wrong street. I called 311 at about 3:30 to report it. I wonder how long they will take to change it.
| The Dinning Room at Kurah |
Three 2015 Bib Gourmands closed: Azzurra EnoTavola, Browntrout and Nightwood. Lao Hunan, one the restaurants Tony Hu sold in the wake of a 2014 raid by the FBI and IRS as part of an investigation, also was left off the 2016 list. Hu has said he sold the property, along with a handful of others, to focus more on his Lao Sze Chuan franchise. Homestyle Taste, Kurah and Mixteco Grill also were dropped.If you're not sure what the Bib Gourmand list is here is an overview:
For the second year in a row, Michelin trimmed its list of Chicago restaurants honored with Bib Gourmand designations for 2016, reducing the number of restaurants to receive the designation to 58.
The sixth annual Bib Gourmands, which are released a week in advance of the guide, are awarded to restaurants that deliver quality food for an affordable price (two courses and a glass of wine or dessert for $40 or less, excluding tax and tip).
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| The "Harmony" Mural by Ben Eine |
Creating an arts district in Chicago has been no small feat. Wicker Park has attempted to do so, unifying the assembly of galleries along Milwaukee Avenue. And for years Pilsen has hosted the popular Second Friday series with monthly open houses of working studios. Yet with the establishment of the Wabash Arts Corridor (WAC) in 2013 another picture is starting to be painted, one that pits the South Loop as the city’s newest “living urban canvas.”
Unifying the creative resources of eight educational institutions, 19 galleries, 14 performance spaces, 40 restaurants and 5 hotels along Wabash from Van Buren to Roosevelt, “the district is starting to come alive and understood for what it represents,” says Mark Kelly, chair of the WAC and vice president of student success at Columbia College Chicago. The school was the first to spur the initiative and now partners with a long list of supporters from Roosevelt and DePaul Universities to the Hilton Hotel, the Elephant Gallery, Harold Washington Library and the Auditorium Theatre, among others.
The idea comes together in the annual WAC Crawl, now in its third year, a free public event that highlights the various attractions and brings together hundreds of artists — both student and professional — with special programming for one night. Voted as a “Best Event” by the Friends of Downtown in its inaugural year, the WAC Crawl is “gaining momentum,” says Kelly, and “will be bigger and more compelling than even a year ago.”The event details are as follows:
WABASH ARTS CORRIDOR CRAWL
When: 4 to 10 p.m. Oct. 23
Where: Various locations along Wabash, between Van Buren and Roosevelt
Tickets: Free
Info: wabashartscorridor.org
The city's North Side-South Side rivalry is always in play, most prominently in the baseball version that this year has been so decisively settled.
But in another category, I am casting my vote differently. When it comes to the lakefront bike trail, the South Side rules.
Ah, South Side lakefront! How I have come to love you, with all your new goodies. The Chicago Park District has been pouring in money and improvements — over $160 million in new projects in lakefront parks south of Roosevelt Road since 2011 — and it shows.
Crickets sing amid wildflowers in the Burnham Centennial Prairie. Boats bob in season in the new 31st Street Harbor. The relatively new Oakwood Beach and beach house beckon. It goes on for mile after mile, beaches interspersed with prairie and savanna, crisp concrete walls providing countless spots to gaze at the lake — and all of it bathed in peace and tranquillity.
It's not a big deal, but why can't the new crosswalk they just painted, after the construction at Harrison & Wabash, be lined up straight? I think it looks sloppy and unprofessional. I'm sure the cost of the project was pretty significant. Not significant enough to get the finishing touches right? It's really the only part that of the construction that anybody will actually notice. It is right out my window where I spend all day on my laptop(complaining). Am I the only one, or is this wrong? Just wondering.
Yesterday afternoon, the Chicago Plan Commission held three separate votes to approve the proposed Lucas Museum. The controversial site selection is an empty surface parking lot just south of Soldier Field, stretching from roughly 1801-1931 South Lake Shore Drive and is used only a handful of days throughout the year, primarily by tailgaters during football season. The controversy is primarily derived from the fact that the site is presently located east of Lake Shore Drive, where as according to the Chicago Lakefront Protection Ordinance and Corresponding Lakefront Plan, no private development may occur.
Didn't see it in the counter, but BW's is open at the Maxwell. Looks like there is 2 stories of seating and was full of people watching the cubs win.Good to see it open! Business Counter is updated.
I live near the construction site at 1345 and for this entire week, there's a drone noise that corresponds to the construction activity.
Does anyone know what's causing this drone-type activity? It's worse than an airplane engine on a long-haul flight.
And, aren't there rules/laws about this type of noise?
It's time to start a civic conversation about getting rid of the shoreline's Berlin Wall — the Lakeside Center of the McCormick Place convention center, a powerful work of steel-and-glass modernism that is one of Chicago's worst urban design mistakes.
Set on a massive brick podium and rising just south of the Lucas museum site, this black 1971 behemoth is a brutally divisive presence, though it has no watch towers and barbed wire like the Berlin Wall that was the focus of President Ronald Reagan's 1987 "tear down this wall" challenge to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
The giant Lakeside Center blocks views of — and, to a large extent, access to — the shoreline from the west. On the lakefront itself, it visually divides north from south, a holdover from the bad old days of a separate and unequal shoreline that favored affluent whites on the north at the expense of poor blacks on the south.
Parking lots and expressway ramps were built to serve it, further blighting the lakefront and Lake Shore Drive. It has never been easy to reach by public transportation. And it has long been an effective killer of migratory birds.
Life and politics are about trade-offs. The mayor is hellbent on building the Lucas museum despite Friends of the Parks' federal lawsuit and warnings from this quarter that the museum will further clutter an already overbuilt stretch of Chicago's lakefront. So be it. He can make amends — and make history — by undoing the blunder of the Lakeside Center, which is the byproduct of an era that wrongly prioritized commerce and transportation over the traditional lakefront touchstones of nature, recreation and culture.
The applicant proposes construction of a new mixed use tower of 29 stoires, containing on-site parking (150 spaces), Hotel/Hilton (196 rooms) and extended stay (85 rooms), structure height 298' (maximum), ground level commercial of 3,000 s.f.+/-, ground level site 13,678 s.f., total building 233,587 s.f.While this would be big news normally, these days it seems like a typical announcement. Regardless, in our opinion a new hotel/extended stay building is definitely a welcome addition compared to a parking garage (which is currently there).
Is there now, or will there be adequate public school space for continued development and population growth? It would be very interesting to hear if anyone has knowledge of new public schools in the pipeline? Or ideas for where new schools could be built? Granted the neighborhood has many excellent private schools (The British School, Old St. Mary's, etc.) but not all parents choose to, or can afford to, send their kids to private schools. Thoughtful planning of public schools is imperative in anticipation of continued development and population growth.
The South Loop is a fantastic place to live, and if these proposed developments actually happen, we should be poised to provide quality education to welcome the future children of the neighborhood.It appears that the Sloop is going to grow both in terms of development and in return inhabitants.
Friday's the last day to get advance tickets for South Loop Neighbors' Loft Walk. This year's urban housewalk features 16 amazing lofts with unique designs and amazing views, all over the South Loop from 235 W. Van Buren to Motor Row. Two trolleys will shuttle folks from the starting point at Dearborn Station. The walk is Saturday, October 10, from noon to 5 pm. More at www.loftwalk.com
Dana Louder who owns Pin Me Up and Mane Space is under contract to buy 2411 south Michigan in the Motor Row district. She is opening an event space.We're not familiar with either of those places, but sounds like it's going to be a different type of business than her Salons. Does anyone have any info on this?
Attached are two pictures of sail boats that have perished after a couple days of harsh waves. There was a third one but I don't know if that boat sank or someone got it out.
If you recall the South Loop became a real wasteland during the housing bust and it wasn't until Related Midwest bought 504 condos and remarketed them that we were able to put that whole series of unfortunate events behind us. But according to a May article in Crain's it took Related Midwest just about 3 years to sell all those condos. So how long will it take the South Loop to absorb 1123 new condos and 2061 new apartments?
Let's review the historic data for the South Loop in the graphs below. Most importantly there is the inventory spike and recovery that the South Loop went through. At it's worst the inventory of condos and townhomes hit slightly more than a 28 week supply. When Related came in they initially took a lot of that inventory off the market, but it was really still there, so the numbers appeared to plummet. Eventually they sold through that "shadow inventory" and now we're sitting at a fairly authentic 3.2 month supply, which is low by anyone's standards. This level is fairly typical of the more popular Chicago neighborhoods and it's considered a seller's market.
So, on the surface, this endeavor is probably doable provided the Chicago economy doesn't fall out of bed in the meantime or everyone decides to leave the city because of skyrocketing property taxes.
Then again there is all that other new supply being built around the city and not just condos but all those rental units. At some point if the supply of rentals keeps rents down renting may become cheaper than buying and undercut the demand for condos so who knows? Once the results are in we can all claim to have seen it coming.
The South Loop, which has worked to reinvent itself in fits and starts, is poised to become the next big thing in Chicago's housing market.
Four developers announced plans recently for high-rise apartment buildings at the south end of Grant Park along South Michigan Avenue, including a striking 86-story tower designed by star architect Helmut Jahn that would be the 6th tallest in the city.
Other lofty rental projects include a 76-story tower and two nearly 50-story buildings that, if approved, will flood the South Loop with some 2,000 upscale apartments over several years. On top of that, hundreds of condominium units also are on the drawing board.
Once home to rail yards and printing presses, the South Loop saw its last wave of residential development dry up as a result of the recession. With the new proposals, developers are placing even bigger bets that the neighborhood bordering the Museum Campus can rival pricier downtown locales and become the city's next residential hot spot.
"If you play the economy game and you're a renter, every dollar is important," said Murphy, CEO and chairman of Murphy Capital Management. "So you start looking around in Chicago, you're in River North, you're looking for a significant amenity building in a great location. It's just natural, if you look at the dynamics of the South Loop, that this will be the next one to go and you're seeing a huge propagation of properties being developed now to capture that."While it's a good read, it doesn't even really reference all the other projects that are actually being built or have been proposed throughout the neighborhood (and as a reminder you can check those out at our development tracker).
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| Pic of Freshii in South Loop Target |
Fresh food will be on offer in nine Target store cafes around the country, and the change is starting in Chicago.
The Minneapolis-based retail giant is testing a new cafe concept in 14 stores nationwide. In nine of those stores, the cafes that offer ballpark food such as nachos, hot dogs and slushies will be replaced with health-food chain Freshii. Eight of those nine Freshii locations are set to open in Chicago-area Targets starting next month.
Forty percent of Target customers use the cafes, which are the first thing they see after walking into the store, a Target spokeswoman said in an email. The company hopes to reshape its customers' first impression and push healthier options.
The first two Target Freshii locations—in South Loop and Arlington Heights stores—are set to open Oct. 12While we probably would have prefered to see a standalone Freshii in the neighborhood, the fact that we're getting one is still pretty good.
Freshii was founded by Matthew Corrin in Toronto, in 2005. Originally called "Lettuce Eatery", the store opened to large queues and ran out of food on the first day before the end of lunch. Corrin's vision of fast, fresh food, custom-built, inspired Freshii's reputation for healthy, environmentally sustainable meals and snacks served quickly in a cool, clean setting for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.
Opinions about the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art ranged from excitement to distaste as residents got their first chance to speak about the proposed addition to the lakefront at two public hearings this week.
"I'm here absolutely enraged by them taking away public land for private enterprise," said Jim Purgatorio, 72, before a hearing Wednesday. "My major concern is that if we allow them to do this, that there's no end to the land grab that people are going to make beyond this."
Others, like Martin Thaler, 60, a professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology, came to the hearings just to learn more about the project.
"I'm fascinated by George Lucas and the idea behind the museum," Thaler said.
The Chicago Park District sponsored the hearings Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss museum plans for architecture, landscaping and traffic.
The most anticipated portion of the presentation was about traffic and the impact the museum would have on drivers. Chris Hutchinson, senior traffic engineer with Terra Engineering, said during Tuesday's hearing that most people would be using East 18th Drive to get to the museum and that analysis shows there would be little effect on traffic.
"Most of the traffic entering the area is going to be using the interchange at Lake Shore Drive and 18th, and really what we found evaluating these new trips that are coming to the Lucas Museum is really 18th, Museum Campus (drive) and this area right now is very underutilized," Hutchinson said. "The signals currently run flash, they don't really run unless there's something going on because there's just no traffic down there."
