Holy Foods: World’s Best Supermarket Breaks Ground in Downtown Chicago
Why are we so excited about a groundbreaking for a new supermarket in downtown Chicago? It’s not like it’s a pre-Kroger Mariano’s. It’s just Whole Foods: the hallmark of pre-recession soccer mom conspicuous consumption that jumped the shark long before it was munched up by Amazon.com in a cloud of Escalade yoga pants and free range kale chip sippy cups. April 2019 rendering of One Chicago (Courtesy of Goettsch...
TIF Tiff Tips With Politics Unusual Greening Lincoln Yards, The 78
Unless you’ve been hiding underground with the daffodils for the last six months, you’re aware that there has been a battle royale going on in the storied corridors of Chicago City Hall. Real estate developers on one side, community groups on another, opportunists mugging for the TV cameras, and politicians both outgoing and incoming taking shots where they can. It’s been like one of those black-and-white cartoon...
Another Hotel+Residential Tower Wants to Squeeze in On Michigan Avenue
It’s been almost two years since we first showed you the renderings someone dropped in our tip line of a potential new skyscraper for 300 North Michigan Avenue. Now it looks like those pictures were the genuine article. March 2019 rendering of 300 North Michigan Avenue 300 NMA will kill an unremarkable brick building kitty-corner from Michigan Plaza. It used to house Chicago’s most depressing Walgreens, and a few offices...
Lincoln Yards Passes Zoning, Finance Is Next
There’s an expression the kids used to use that goes, “Save the drama for your mama.” Chicago City Hall must have been full of mothers today when city council’s Zoning committee voted to approve the $6 billion Lincoln Yards project. Rendering of Lincoln Yards (Via Sterling Bay) The drama bubbled up from the minutiae of parliamentary procedure. The short version is that when 46th Ward Alderman James Cappleman...
Controversial Lincoln Yards Development Hours Away From Zoning Vote
One of the most controversial development projects in recent Chicago history is scheduled to go before city council’s Zoning Committee Thursday. What happens at City Hall could determine if the $6 billion Lincoln Yards project goes from beset to beleaguered. Diagram of the January 2019 Lincoln Yards plan Even before Sterling Bay unveiled its plans to redevelop the industrial zone formerly occupied by the A. Finkl & Sons...
In Spite of Opposition, Lincoln Yards Lands $900M in TIF Money
People trying to stop, slow, or just change the massive Lincoln Yards development on Chicago’s north side lost another battle in City Hall. Rendering of Lincoln Yards (Via Sterling Bay) Chicago’s Community Development Commission voted unanimously to grant developer Sterling Bay $900 million in TIF money to help spur progress on the Goose Island mega project. The $6 billion development includes more than two dozen buildings...
A Done Deal? Lincoln Yards’ Biggest Hurdle Cleared
The biggest obstacle to Sterling Bay’s enormous Lincoln Yards development appears to have been cleared. That obstacle was 2nd Ward Alderman Brian Hopkins. In a message to his constituents, Mr. Hopkins outlined the changes that Sterling Bay made in its plan for the former A. Finkl & Sons steel mill land after his objection to the July and November versions: The soccer stadium is gone, replaced with park space Total park...
Lincoln Yards Plan B Nearly Doubles Park Space
Just days after Second Ward Alderman Brian Hopkins told his constituents that he won’t support Sterling Bay’s vision for the massive Lincoln Yards development, the West Town developer is out with plan B. The main sticking point in the original plan was an entertainment district, anchored by a soccer stadium and a number of live music venues owned by massive global entertainment octopus Live Nation. It’s not that the...
One Small Hole Indicates The Coming of One Chicago Square
All great Chicago skyscrapers start with humble beginnings. And One Chicago Square has humbly begun in the parking lot of Holy Name Cathedral. Gold Coast Spy Tom sent in the photograph above showing soil sampling in the parking lot that will have a 1,045-foot-tall skyscraper in it by 2022. Even though soil sampling crews extract dirt from beneath the surface, we like to think of them as planting the seeds of a skyscraper. They...
What Friends of the Parks Sees for Chicago in 2019
It’s the time of year when everything useful has pretty much wrapped up, and all that’s left to do is balance the books and figure out who to blame for sticking you with rotisserie chicken-flavored candy canes as a Secret Santa present. So looking ahead to next year, we asked a selection of Chicagoans what they expect 2019 to bring. Here are five predictions from Juanita Irizzary, Executive Director of Friends of the...
Recent From Proposals
-
Three-Building River North Project Hits City Hall June 18, 2019 -
-
-
-
