Rendering of Proposed Development Near Halsted & North

The Sun Times is reporting that the proposed retail and housing development slated to go on the land where the New City YMCA used to stand at 1515 N. Halsted is, amazingly, still moving forward. The fact that the development, like so many others like it, has not been shelved is news enough. I found a couple of other bits of the article interesting.

J. Michael Drew, principal of Structured Development LLC is planning to start construction on the half-million square feet of retail space by mid-2009, with one major change: there will not be any condos in the project. Originally the plans called for 480 condos to be sold above and along the enormous retail space. The new plans are scaled back considerably, opting for 280 residential rental units. This new configuration has been enough to keep Commonfund Realty Inc. involved. With Structured Development and Commonfund Realty providing 40% of the equity, banks are willing to stay involved.

[geo_mashup_map height="200" width="550" zoom="15" add_overview_control="false" add_map_type_control="true" map_type="G_HYBRID_MAP"]

The most amazing thing I found in the article is a quote from Drew, “It helps that the stores already in that neighborhood see retail sales at or near the top of their national chains. It has become the prime shopping area of the city, second to Michigan Avenue.” With the number of store fronts looking closed or closing and the number of empty stores I’ve seen while driving past in that stretch of retail, it seems like a sad commentary that it is one of the hottest retail locations nationwide.

All of these plans are subject to approval of a zoning change request.
E-Mail ‘%EMAIL_POST_TITLE%’ To A Friend