Chicago Construction News staff writer
City of Chicago has added two additional office-to-residential conversion proposals to the next stage of the review process as part of the “LaSalle Street Reimagined” initiative.
“As LaSalle Street continues to evolve as one of the most distinguished and storied corridors in the Midwest, these conversions reaffirm the City’s support for innovative projects and improvements that reinforce its economic vitality for all Chicagoans,” Mayor Lightfoot said.
LaSalle Street Reimagined was launched to revitalize the area by repurposing the corridor’s pervasive commercial vacancies as mixed-income housing and neighborhood-oriented retail.
The city selected three adaptive re-use projects for historic buildings this spring, to create more than 1,000 new apartments, including 300 affordable units and opening the LaSalle Central TIF District for additional conversion proposals, provided they adhere to criteria outlined on the City’s LaSalle Street webpage, including 30% affordability.
Celadon Partners and Blackwood Group, a certified minority-owned business enterprise (MBE), are proposing to create 247 apartments within 105 W. Adams St., with 185 units to be made available at affordable rates for a total project cost of $178 million.
Golub & Co. and American General Life Insurance are proposing to build 349 apartments within 30 N. LaSalle St., including 105 units to be made available at affordable rates for a total project cost of $143 million.
All five TIF applications are under review by DPD and DOH and will undergo an extensive underwriting process prior to presentation to and approval by the community development commission and city council.
If approved they would total about $1 billion in corridor investments, the largest office-to-affordable residential conversion effort yet to be announced in the United States.
LaSalle Street Reimagined priorities also include support for projects that revitalize vacant storefronts with neighborhood-serving retail uses.
DPD and the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) will also be initiating a community visioning process to improve the public realm along LaSalle between Wacker Drive and Jackson Boulevard. Intended to create a livelier and more neighborhood-oriented atmosphere that extends beyond the workday, public engagement for the new streetscape improvements, public amenities, and cultural installations is expected to move forward this spring.
