Tall & Urban News

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is looking to expand the City’s Transit Oriented Development (TOD) policy to more than 20 high-ridership bus routes along eight major corridors across Chicago under a proposal introduced to City Council on December 12, 2018.  

“Through infrastructure, public way and transit improvements, Chicago continues working to make this one of the most livable cities in the nation,” said Mayor Emanuel.  

“The city’s Transit Oriented Development model has seen great success along rail stations and we can continue to provide benefits to residents by applying it to our major bus corridors.”  

Chicago’s TOD policy was created in 2013 to foster pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods by enabling new construction projects near rapid transit stations to have higher densities and less parking than is typically allowed by the City’s zoning code. Under the proposal, eight transit corridors would be given the same TOD eligibility as rapid transit stations for projects that are within a quarter-mile, or within a half mile if the development site is located on a Pedestrian-designated street. Announced by Mayor Emanuel in June, Chicago is the first major city to pursue a citywide expansion of transit-oriented development along high ridership, high frequency bus corridors.  

“This proposal will enable more neighborhoods to achieve those benefits.” The incentives would include a potential 100 percent parking reduction, a potential .50 in additional floor-area ratio, and streamlined approval processes. In addition, the ordinance would expand parking reduction incentives to certain higher density, multi-unit residential districts, which are typically found along denser neighborhood thoroughfares and regions adjacent to the central area.  

“Expanding transit-oriented development to bus routes brings neighborhood-scale development potential to often overlooked corridors and provides residents with affordable housing options that can substantially reduce transportation costs,” said Dr. Helene Gayle, President and CEO of The Chicago Community Trust.  

The proposal covers eight corridors, served by the following routes: 55th/Garfield Blvd. (#55), 63rd Street (#63), 79th Street (#79), Ashland Ave. (#9, #X9), Chicago Ave. (#66), North Lake Shore Drive (#134, #135, #136, #143, #146, #147, #148), South Lake Shore Drive (#2, #6, #J14, #26, #28) and Western Ave. (#49, #X49). These corridors represent some of the highest ridership and highest frequency services offered by the CTA, with many of them meeting or exceeding ridership on parts of the Blue, Orange, Green and Pink lines.   

“Communities of color and low-income communities across Chicago are experiencing depopulation triggered by long-term disinvestment, as well as displacement due to gentrification. This ordinance tackles both issues by simultaneously expanding transit-oriented development (TOD) incentives to a diverse set of bus routes and ensuring that anti-displacement measures are in place so TOD can equitably benefit existing residents, small businesses, and other community stakeholders located near transit hubs,” says Roberto Requejo, Program Director for Elevated Chicago.  

“The ordinance’s commitments to racial equity, retention and community engagement have the potential to place Chicago and its communities at the forefront of global cities advancing equitable development,” said Requejo. Since January 2016, more than 144 TODs containing approximately 24,419 residential units have been approved either as Planned Developments, Type 1 zoning amendments or by the Zoning Board of Appeals. 

For more on this story, go to Chicago Gov.  

The 26-story Solomon Cordwell Buenz group’s project at 53rd & Cornell in Hyde Park has topped out.  

Luxury Condo Tower Coming to Oak Brook mall 

Like downtown Chicago condo owners living above or near the high-rise shopping malls on North Michigan Avenue, west suburban residents may soon be able to live in luxury high-rise condos adjacent to the Oakbrook Center mall.  

Oak Brook's village board last week approved developers' plans for The Butler, a 22-story building with 90 condominiums to replace surface parking and lawn immediately northeast of the shopping mall's Nordstrom store.  

Unlike apartments planned for malls in Northbrook and Vernon Hills, these condos wouldn't be within the shopping center's footprint, but right next door, separated only by a narrow stretch of mall parking lot.  

"It's part of what one might call the softer side" of Oakbrook Center, said Jerry Ong, executive vice president at Jupiter Real Estate, which is developing the tower with Fasano Development on a site owned by Franklin Partners. On this side of the shopping center are restaurants including Maggiano's and Mon Ami Gabi and the Mario Tricocci day spa, as well as a "bridge" the mall recently opened: a pair of restaurant buildings, one of them now containing a Shake Shack, on the same large parcel that will include the Butler.  

Farther out from the shopping center, the green buffer lands along the Salt Creek and the low-rise Oak Brook Club condos that neighbor the Butler site "make this the right place for residential," Ong said.  

With McDonald's departure from Oak Brook to return its headquarters to downtown Chicago, the town "is at a pivotal juncture in our history," village trustee Mike Manzo said in a statement. In approving the Butler, "we have just sent a strong message to the residents of Oak Brook that we welcome high-end luxury developments that are consistent with the Oak Brook brand."  

The high-rise, which will be the tallest in Oak Brook and among the tallest in DuPage County, "will have a more urban feel, but adjacency to the things our buyers have lived with in the suburbs," including the shopping center and golf courses, Ong said. The tower was designed by Chicago architect Lucien Lagrange in the Francophile style of his designs for the Waldorf Astoria, 65 E. Goethe, 840 N. Lake Shore Drive and other residential high-rises downtown. 

Prices for the condos will run from around $850,000 to $2.5 million, said Jim Fasano, principal of Fasano Development. They'll range in size from 1,340 square feet (124 square meters) to 3,500 square feet (325 square meters). The start of construction is not yet set, but Fasano said the plan is to start in about a year and have units ready for occupancy 18 months later.   

Because of the building's height, east-facing units above the first several floors will have views of the Chicago skyline about 17 miles east, Fasano said. The developers originally proposed a taller tower, 27 stories, but reduced the height after negative response from the community. The new proposal is also less slender than the original, with space for six condos per floor, from four, Fasano said.   

The Butler and the new restaurant spaces are on parking lots and lawns that came with the five-story office building at 1900 Spring Road, which real estate investment firm Franklin Partners bought in 2016 for $17.5 million. Franklin is retaining the office building.  

This development is immediately north of another part of the mall's environs that is being redeveloped, the McDonald's Plaza office building that the burger chain had occupied since 1971, when it first moved to Oak Brook, and continued to use after developing an 86-acre (35-hectare) corporate in another part of Oak Brook. 

For more on this story, go to Crain’s.