Developer Ditches Apartment Plan, Tries Condos for West Loop
[Rendering: LG Development]
If at first you don't succeed, try, try and try yet again. That's the approach developer LG Development is taking with their plan for a residential project for 111 S. Peoria Street in the West Loop neighborhood. Last November, the developer introduced a plan to build a wild-looking 13-story, 205-unit rental building for the site and after several well attended meetings and verbal mud slinging between Alderman Walter Burnett and West Loop residents, the plan was finally nixed last month. However, the West Loop Community Organization blasted a newsletter yesterday afternoon indicating that there will be yet another regarding this site. That's right. Just weeks after having the door slammed in their faces, LG has come back with a proposal for a nine story, 95-unit condo building with 99 parking spaces on site.
Three West Loop Lofts You Can Buy Right Now for Under $300K
The West Loop area is changing fast, but deals can still be easily found in the area. Now that the housing market has recovered from the deep freeze of the recession, home prices are beginning to climb, but the West Loop area has a solid inventory of lofts that can be had for under $300,000. Don't expect to get an enormous raw space with multiple bedrooms though, but single folks and couples without kids can easily make any of these units work. The area's residents may not be hot on the idea of building anymore new rental units in the neighborhood, but would-be West Loopers will find that a mortgage on a $250,000 unit will be about the same, if not less, than the price of a new rental.
Nobu Hotel Proposal Heads to Plan Commission This Week
[The original plan called for a 12-story building, but it has been since reduced to seven. Rendering by Booth Hansen Architects.]
It's been a while since there has been any updates on the planned Noburestaurant and hotel for Randolph Row in the Fulton Market/West Loop area, however, the proposal heads to the Chicago Plan Commission this Thursday for a vote. When it was formally unveiled last summer, the proposal caused quite a stir due to its height and the fact that it would be a new construction project in an area that has been the center of a hotly contested debate on becoming an official Landmark District. The original proposal sought to bring 155 hotel rooms, 65 parking spaces and 10,000 square feet of restaurant space in the form of a 12 story brick and glass building, however, the plan was changed earlier this year, reducing the total room count to 83 keys and bringing the height down to seven stories. Thursday will be a make or break moment for the proposal, but it's very likely that the West Loop area will be getting one more boutique hotel in the near future.
·City panel to consider Nobu Hotel plan [Crain's]
·West Loop Nobu Hotel Developer Chops Proposal Down [Curbed Chicago]
·West Loop Nobu Hotel & Restaurant Proposal Gets Public Debut[Curbed Chicago]
·City panel to consider Nobu Hotel plan [Crain's]
·West Loop Nobu Hotel Developer Chops Proposal Down [Curbed Chicago]
·West Loop Nobu Hotel & Restaurant Proposal Gets Public Debut[Curbed Chicago]
Exploring a Sweet Loft in the West Loop's Old Nabisco Factory
Welcome to House Calls, a feature in which Curbed tours the lovely, offbeat, or otherwise awesome homes of regular Chicagoans. Think your space should be featured next? Drop us a line with a few photos and details about your place.
The West Loop is rapidly changing, but as the area's large inventory old industrial buildings are given new life and put to new use, the neighborhood has become one of the trendiest areas to work, play and live in Chicago. Developers are rushing in on the area to convert brick buildings into office space and residences, but there have been some concerns about losing touch with the neighborhood's past. While tech companies are moving in and changing the image of the area once dominated by meat and produce distributors, many buildings pay homage to the neighborhood's history as a heavyweight in the food business. For today's edition of House Calls, we visited a unique loft in the former Nabisco plant in the West Loop. While it no longer churns out baked goods, it certainly is a sweet place to be.
Rise of JDL Properties Developer Chronicled in New Profile
Image of Gold Coast apartments aerial view via Roman Boed/Creative Commons
In 2011, developer Jim Letchinger broke ground on a 250-unit apartment in Old Town, perfect timing to capture the upswing in the rental market. When he sold for $157 million in 2013, he made a handsome profit. That sales marked the beginning of a big growth period in his career, as Crain's revealed in a new profile showing how Letchinger recovered from the recession to build an impressive real estate portfolio.
Proposed 50-Unit Mayne Stage Apartments May Be the Anti-TOD
1313 Morse Avenue may be getting a major upgrade, according to Ald. Joe Moore (49th). The ghost town of a strip mall, once home to a laundromat and video stores, may be turned into a 50-unit apartment building by billionaire Col. Jennifer Pritzker, who owns and developed the Mayne Stage Theater across the street. The proposed eight-story structure, just down the street from the Morse L stop, would have 75 parking spots, mostly for patrons of the theater, making it a bit of an anti-TOD, as Streetsblog noted.
Amtrak's Big Union Station Transformation Moving Ahead
Image of Union Station columns via Shutter Runner/Creative Commons
Union Station was quite the looker in its heyday, and an ongoing expansion plan hopes to bring back the glory days to the nation's third most popular rail station. Amtrak is now accepting bids to fill 25,000 square-feet of retail space, trying to keep up with more developed transport hubs in cities such as Denver and Seattle, according to theTribune. Paul Sanders, Amtrak senior manager of facilities management, hinted that a 'major' grocer has expressed interest. Bars and a hotel have also been discussed as possible new additions to Burnham's Beaux-Arts beauty.
Uber Plans to Hire 10,000 New Drivers for the South and West Sides
Anybody who's paid surge pricing for Uber during peak periods knows the company could use a few more drivers on the road. But according to a recent DNAinfo article, spiking demand isn't just in the neighborhoods many northsiders would expect, such as Logan Square or Lincoln Park. West Side ridership has more than doubled over the last six months, with business on the South Side quickly mushrooming to contribute to the company's more than 2 million monthly rides in the city. It's led to a plan to hire additional drivers in both areas. Uber has long claimed that it delivers quality service to neighborhoods that are often ignored by traditional transportation companies, a portrayal of the fast-growing company that's convenient at a time when it's facing increasing regulatory scrutiny and legal challenges from municipalities across the globe.
Mexican Hotel Chain Planning 82-Story Tower in West Loop
The Mexico City Live Aqua hotel. Mexico's largest hotel group, Grupo Posadas, wants to open a new location of the high-end chain in the West Loop by 2017. Photo via Grupo Posadas.
As part of a large-scale expansion into U.S. markets with large Hispanic populations, Mexican hotel chain Grupo Posadas announced plans for a mammoth, 82-story West Loop tower late last week. While a company spokesman hasn't revealed the exact location of the Chicago expansion, according to Crain's, they did indicate they'll be partnering with Las Vegas-based Bighorn Capital on five locations, including Los Angeles, Miami, Houston and Washington. If the announcement feels sudden, that may be because the chain is in a hurry; they hope to finish by 2017 and start breaking ground this summer. The tower will be shared with another hotel by New York-based chain Dream Hotels, adding even more options to the city'salready booming hotel market. As Chicago Architecture Blog points out, that timeline seems to be defying the laws of Chicago construction and development.
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Rent This Furnished West Loop Timber Loft for $2,300/Month
Want to test out loft life before making the big commitment to buying one? Here's a spacious, fully furnished two bedroom unit in the West Loop that can be rented for $2,300 per month. Located on Monroe Street, the building features a nice courtyard and is just across the street from Skinner Park and a few blocks from the Racine Blue Line station. The landlord is cool with dogs and cats and the unit has also got its own washer and dryer. The only drawback is that there's a laundry list of fees in addition to the $2,300 security deposit.
First Look at Sterling Bay's Plan for the Harpo Studios Campus
Oprah may have packed her bags and left Chicago, but the production studio she built in the West Loop was left behind—sitting vacant since closing for good this past December. The block-sized property waspurchased a year ago for $32 million by Sterling Bay, a local developer that has been making a name for itself by sprucing up run-down properties, transforming them into high-end offices and flipping them for hefty profits. While Sterling Bay hasn't formally revealed their plans for the former Harpo Studios campus, imagery has recently been leaked onto building-watcher forums showing conceptual renderings for a whole new development on that land. From the looks of the design, Sterling Bay might be planning to take a step away from their modus operandi of rehabbing existing structures and demolish the largest building on the lot and completely replace it.
West Loop Salvation Army Freedom Center Complex for Sale
With the Salvation Army building an all new Freedom Center in West Humboldt Park, the nonprofit charity and rehabilitation organization is now seeking a buyer for its century-old complex in the West Loop. The three acre property at 1515 W. Monroe spans nearly a full city block, stretching across Monroe Street from Ashland to Laflin and down Ashland from Monroe to Adams. According to a brochure from Colliers International, the listing includes "three buildings of varied heights with a total of approximately 211,827 square feet of improvements." The listing also suggests that the buildings will be demolished to make way for new residential and retail developments.
Homes in Ukrainian Village, Logan Square & West Loop Are Selling Like Hotcakes
According to the latest sales numbers, homes in the Ukrainian Village,Logan Square and West Loop neighborhoods are flying off the shelf. Utilizing data from Redfin's Real-Time Housing Market Tracker and recent sales figures from the National Association of Realtors, Chicago Agent Magazine has compared and contrasted the city's housing inventory with the length of time it takes for homes to sell and has determined that at this moment, homes in the Ukrainian Village are moving faster than homes in any other neighborhood in Chicago.
Artists Transform Raw West Loop Loft Into Sun-Drenched Live/Work Space
Welcome to House Calls, a feature in which Curbed tours the lovely, offbeat, or otherwise awesome homes of regular Chicagoans. Think your space should be featured next? Drop us a line with a few photos and details about your place.
How do you take a large, open, raw former commercial space and turn it into a warm, welcoming and creative environment? This was the question that West Loop residents and artists Jon and Janet asked themselves when planning the overhaul of their loft space. To assist them in the redesign and renovation of their space, the couple tapped architect Matt Nardella of moss design. Jon and Janet not only wanted a place to call home, but they wanted to ditch their offsite art studio spaces and bring their all of their creative tools and energy all under one roof. The rehab provided some challenges, but the end result is a home made for work and play that is filled with custom made fixturesand natural sunlight. Even the homeowners' cats had a few things to be excited about.
Last night, a developer unveiled a plan at a community meeting in the West Loop that proposes 130 apartments in the form of a large four story development. While West Loopers have a reputation for not liking height, the SPACE Architects-designed project would be comprised of two four-story brick buildings that certainly look very similar to the area's inventory of old industrial buildings. [DNAinfo]SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER
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