Phase 1C of the Southbridge development in the Near South Side by The Community Builders and McCaffery Interests is now underway at 2305 South State Street. A foundation permit for the 12-story tower was issued in October of last year, but crews have held off for the arrival of meteorological spring to get construction started.
Step out of the Green Line station and you’re home. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
SE corner of State and 23rd Streets. Photo by Daniel Schell
A Green Line train passes an excavator, march 21, 2026. Photo by Daniel Schell
The Cermak-McCormick Place Green Line platform is in the background. Photo by Daniel Schell
The construction site, located on the southeast corner of South State and East 23rd Streets, was surrounded by fencing last week, and potholing is underway now to ensure there are no obstructions beneath the surface before caissons start. Those will then be drilled and filled to support the weight of the building. Once caissons are done, in the midst of foundation work, a tower crane will be planted, having been permitted by the city on March 12. We’re still waiting on the full building permit, which has been pending in the Chicago Data Portal since November 26.
Looking south down down State Street toward the skyline. Photo by Daniel Schell
Potholing prevents the caisson drill from hitting things like this. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
The 12-story, 140-foot tower will contain 80 rental apartments expected to consist of 20 studios, 50 one-bedroom units, and 10 two-bedroom units. The Chicago Housing Authority will reserve 29 units, and another 44 will be designated as affordable apartments. Designed by Gensler and Nia Architects, the building will include a shared rooftop deck, a community room, a dog-wash station, and a bike room. There will be 1,500 square feet of retail space on the first floor fronting 23rd and State. There is no parking included with Phase 1C.
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
2310 South State Street, part of Southbridge’s initial phase, in the background. Photo by Daniel Schell
Rendering of Southbridge phase 1C by Gensler and Nia Architects
Rendering of Southbridge phase 1C by Gensler and Nia Architects
2344 South State Street, Phase 1B of Southbridge
2310 South State Street, Phase 1A of Southbridge
The new tower will rise across the street from Phase 1A and Phase 1B of the Southbridge development. Permits were issued on October 28, 2019 for 2310 and 2344 South State Street. Each is a six-story, 103-unit apartment building, and both were completed in 2022.
McHugh Construction is the general contractor, and as the concrete contractor, McHugh Concrete will operate the tower crane. No timeline has been announced for opening, but for a project of this size, late 2027 or early 2028 seems like a fair estimate.
Local transit options, via Google Maps
The Southbridge Tower will be right outside the south entrance for the Cermak-McCormick Place Green Line platform, a peak-TOD location. The CTA’s Route 29 bus stops both northbound and southbound next to the Green Line entrance on State Street. One block north are stops for the east-west #21 Cermak bus. A two-block walk east to Michigan Avenue leads to stops for Routes 1 and 4. The Cermak-Chinatown Red Line platform is about three blocks northwest near Cermak Road and Wentworth Avenue.
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The big question is whether this multi-year long experiment replacing the CHA complexes of old will evolve differently or if we will be right back where we were 50 years from now?
It they truly end up mixed income and mixed ethnicity, that would be a wonderful outcome. But I’m just not so sure…….
The mix , 29 CHA tenants, out of 80 total units, seems high. Understood, a lot of CHA tenants were displaced when projects were torn down and CHA still has a lot of people to place. But I think for this to work the percentage of very low income needs to be reduced This income mix seems to be working on the near north side
Let me add-CHA tenant/affordable housing/and market rate apartment mix will not and never will work. Why not?-Can that even be discussed here??
It actually has worked in a number of places. Both buildings with a mix within the same building and buildings that are 100% section 8 in higher income areas. I personally managed the latter
I was part-owner and resident manager, many moons ago, of a building in Chicago mixing Section 8 tenants and market tenants. Worked out fine.
[I did one day fail to pay off an inspector for the Section 8 program, because being young and innocent I didn’t understand why he was making sad faces about utterly-trivial stuff like the width of a closet shelf. My elder siblings still laugh at that story. But the Section 8 tenants, no problems at all.]
Your highness, what would you propose? Should we house all the ultra-low income people (who need homes) into large, vertical towers separated from other people and classes? We could construct these in massive packages, we could even call them “Projects” perhaps. I see no problems with this idea!
Dude, your biases are showing. It’s been proven to work time and time again to increase opportunities.
Why will it never work? Please explain. (It’s worked on numerous other projects all over the country and the world)
I live in a building like this in South Loop (Sky55). The building is doing just fine.
Enforce the rules, maintain the community, and even very low income residents would be good neighbors.
Ever see how rich people trash a parking lot/park/stadium after a concert/parade/sporting event?
It doesn’t matter who tf the client is, enable a culture of bad manners, respect for property declines.
When the projects stopped getting taken care of BECAUSE they basically took away the entire maintenance budget, no kidding they fell into disrepair. Was it a bad business model? I’d say. They were designed to fail on the thin string of public trust. Any disruption to their original model, a breeding ground of shady behavior would follow, and we all witnessed that play out.
If you don’t want to live in a mix-income development, don’t. Easy, end of story. To pretend these structures have no precedent is ignorant. If you don’t want your tax money going to low-income housing in general, that’s a different story, and I recommend not living in a city that provides social services. Definitely call out inefficiencies and corruption, but you are strawmanning a completely separate issue.
When did 22nd and State, only blocks from McCormick Place and the lakefront, as far East as you can go, become the”Near West Side”?
Typo. It’s referred to as Near South Side in the first line of the article.
Tupper and Steve are absolutely right i say if you can’t afford it you shouldn’t be living there in the first place just keeping it real i luv black people
The studios and one-bedrooms will be taken by young singles and couples. Only the 10 two-bedrooms would work for poor families. THAT is the issue here…what to do with poor households with children. THEY are the most vulnerable and marginalized people in Chicago. They aren’t going to live in studios or small one-bedrooms. Those who fear the ‘ghettoization’ of this project are misguided. Housing is an issue for many today, not just poor households with children.