The long-stalled Lincoln Yards megadevelopment could soon find a new owner as Chicago’s JDL Development looks to close a deal to buy a large swath of the North Side site.
The company is assessing the feasibility of buying the 53-acre site’s northern half, which developer Sterling Bay surrendered to lender Bank OZK earlier this year, according to a source familiar with the potential deal.
JDL has stayed mum about the possible sale and what it might do with the empty plot of land along the North Branch of the Chicago River north of Cortland Street. What sort of changes JDL may need from Sterling Bay’s original redevelopment agreement with the city, and any new zoning approvals it may need, are not clear. JDL, founded by CEO Jim Letchinger in 1993, has forged a reputation as a leading residential builder. It developed the Gold Coast’s No. 9 Walton luxury condominium building and more recently completed the 2.2 million square-foot One Chicago in River North. Its work continues nearby on the North Union development, which will have up to 12 buildings and 3.5 million square feet of space.
“JDL really understands that specific submarket, and the type of buildings developed by JDL will fit well within the neighborhood,” said Mike Senner, vice chairman of Colliers, a commercial real estate firm.
Bank OZK confirmed in a statement that it entered into a contract to sell the land earlier this month, but did not confirm the buyer.
The deal marks a turning point for Sterling Bay’s high-profile, almost entirely unrealized decade-long bid to develop the land. The company originally had a sweeping vision for the sprawling parcel: a $6 billion, 14.5 million square foot campus featuring a fleet of buildings towering up to 600 feet, 6,000 new residential units and added commuter infrastructure.
That vision was buttressed by the promise of staggering city subsidies. Emanuel and the City Council approved in 2019 a tax increment financing district, which could have reimbursed Sterling Bay for up to nearly $500 million in road, bridge and riverfront improvements the developer would have needed to pay for up front.
But the big dreams have been backed up by little construction. Six years after the development won City Council approval, only one building has been completed. And a slowdown in the life sciences industry left that eight-story structure with nearly 300,000 square feet of lab space empty since its 2023 completion.
Sterling Bay faced many other obstacles. The pandemic gutted demand for the envisioned office buildings, and rising interest rates scared off potential investors. Company officials also complained the administration of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot slowed down financing approval.
Those troubles forced Sterling Bay to surrender the northern portion of its land in March to its lender, Bank OZK, a transfer made in lieu of foreclosure, Crain’s Chicago Business reported.
A Sterling Bay spokesperson said the company still controls the southern half of Lincoln Yards, and that portion is not part of JDL’s potential deal.
“A sale really isn’t a surprise,” said Jonathan Snyder, executive director of North Branch Works a nonprofit that promotes economic development along the north branch of the Chicago River. “The site’s been empty for years, and there’s been nothing going on. They have no tenants.”
“We genuinely wanted to see the area support job growth,” he added. “At the time, the life sciences building was a good idea: money was allocated by the federal government to fight the COVID pandemic, but once vaccines were created, the funding slowed, and pharmaceutical companies stopped their rapid expansion.”
The sale could be a way to finally kick-start development at the site, once partly occupied by A. Finkl & Sons Steel, a now-demolished steel mill that relocated to the Far South Side in 2014. But progress depends on JDL having the ability to finance and execute a plan.
“That would be huge,” said Dominic Soltero, vice president with CBRE, who has marketed properties near Lincoln Yards. “It would mean it’s getting some fresh love, and we need something to happen over there.”
The sale could force JDL to win new approval from City Hall for its own yet-to-be-revealed plans, placing power to shape the development in the hands of Ald. Scott Waguespack, 32nd, and Mayor Johnson.
Johnson’s administration is signaling that it is time to reimagine the long-anticipated Lincoln Yards plan. Before news of the sale broke, Planning and Development Commissioner Ciere Boatright told the Sun-Times the plans are in need of a “hard reset.”
“Do I think there’s still opportunity for projects to advance on that site? Yes,” Boatright said. “It’s a great site with great opportunity. Do I think it’ll be that much office? Absolutely not. Do I think it’s appropriate to readjust the development plan? Absolutely.”
Waguespack has opposed another Sterling Bay development on land adjacent to the Lincoln Yards property. The company’s $340 million plan to build a pair of 16- and 21-story skyscrapers would be out of scale compared with the surrounding neighborhood, he said in a December statement.
If the sale of Lincoln Yards’ northern half does go through, the surrounding community needs to be involved in planning for what comes next, said Allan Mellis, who has lived in the Wrightwood area near Lincoln Park for more than 50 years.
“The alderman would need to call a community meeting because things have changed a lot,” he said. “It would be a whole new ballgame.”
