The Chicago Plan Commission unanimously approved on Thursday the construction of several apartment towers, including a 37-story skyscraper for the Clybourn Corridor shopping district on the Near North Side.
Neighborhood residents at a December community meeting held by Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, voiced concerns that wedging a 396-unit building into the narrow site at 1565 N. Clybourn Ave. could cause traffic headaches. The developer, New York City-based Georgetown Co., eventually won Hopkins’ support.
“Current traffic conditions are difficult, to say the least,” Hopkins’ zoning adviser Brian Pelrine told the commission members, with delivery drivers often clogging the busy three-way intersection of North Avenue, Clybourn Avenue and Halsted Street.
But Georgetown came up with a design that preserves Clybourn’s dedicated bike lane and keeps delivery and Uber drivers away from the major thoroughfares.
“That really makes a difference,” said Tom Carney, plan commission member and commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation.
And with a CTA Red Line station and several bus routes nearby, nearly two-thirds of the new tower’s residents won’t drive to work, according to Luay Aboona, president of KLOA, a traffic consultant advising the developer. Residents will also use an existing four-story parking garage, reducing the traffic now coming from the site.
“It’s really not going to be perceived by the drivers in the area,” Aboona said.
The project still needs approvals from the City Council’s Zoning Committee and the full City Council.
Georgetown bought the site, which includes the garage, a small vacant bank building on Clybourn and a retail building at 755 W. North Ave., for $64 million in 2015, according to Costar.
The surrounding blocks have attracted other developers. Structured Development completed early this year its Wendelin Park development, formerly known as Big Deahl, including a new public park and the Foundry, a 27-story, 327-unit apartment tower at 1475 N. Kingsbury St. And the Chicago Plan Commission recently approved Sterling Bay’s proposal for a pair of apartment towers at 1840 N. Marcey St. one block west of Clybourn.
If City Council green lights Georgetown’s $175 million proposal, the developer will construct the tower on the plot now occupied by the former bank. Plan commission members praised the company and its designer bKL Architecture for fitting so many units into such a small area.
“I commend you on solving this from an architectural standpoint,” said member Andre Brumfield.
Twenty percent of the units will be affordable and set aside for families earning an average of 60% of the area median income, an obligation under the city’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance.
“If I had to find an adjective to describe it, I’d say sleek,” said Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, a commission member.
The commission also approved the construction of an apartment complex in Fulton Market. A team led by developer LG Group proposes two towers, totaling 667 units and designed by bKL Architecture, between Randolph Street and the CTA Green Line along Lake Street.
The first, a 287-unit building at 170 N. May St., will be pedestrian-friendly and blend with its neighbors, said Angela Spadoni, a principal with bKL Architecture. The 315-foot tower will be stepped back from Randolph, reducing the scale, with a neighborhood grocery store occupying a small masonry section at the base.
“We absolutely know that along Randolph we need to be using brick,” she said.
The $300 million development’s second tower, located just west at 175 N. Racine Ave., will also include step backs, and provide 380 units. Twenty percent of the total units will be set aside as affordable.
The development team will reclaim the angled parking slots along Randolph for pedestrians, including space for cafes, and install curb bump-outs on all corners, said Matthew Strange, a landscape architect with Aurora-based Confluence.
“We want to make this as pedestrian-friendly as possible,” he said.