An anticipated groundbreaking date has been announced for the first phase of the Bronzeville Lakefront megadevelopment in Bronzeville. Located on the massive former Michael Reese Hospital site, the multi-phase project is the first in the nation to have a 50 percent Black development team. That team is operating under the name GRIT Chicago LLC and comprises Farpoint Development, Loop Capital, Draper & Kramer, Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives, McLaurin Development and the Bronzeville Community Development Partnership.
Aerial View of Bronzeville Lakefront Development Site. Diagram by GRIT Chicago
View of Bronzeville Lakefront Development Site. Diagram by GRIT Chicago
After a two year delay work is set to begin on the 48-acre site bound by S Martin Luther King Drive to the west, E 26th Street in the north, and E 31st Street to the south, but not without controversy. News recently broke of another developer suing the city for thwarting their plans for a data center on an adjacent site, hoping that they’d sell the land to the mega-development instead. However GRIT is moving forward after multiple pre-bid events recently with a new expected groundbreaking date of March 29 announced according to Block Club.
Street Network for Bronzeville Lakefront Development. Rendering by GRIT Chicago
Bronzeville Lakefront Development. Rendering by GRIT Chicago
This date will kick off infrastructure work across the site funded with $60 million from the city as they look to fully sell the site to the developer in portions over the next 14 years. Once completed the site will have a majority of its gridded street layout restored, with the continuation and straightening of Vernon Avenue, Cottage Grove Avenue, and Lake Park Avenue along with smaller side streets. Overall around five miles of public roads and utilities will be built which will set up the rest of the development to be constructed around it.
Phase 1 of Bronzeville Lakefront Development. Rendering by GRIT Chicago
ARC Innovation Center at Bronzeville Lakefront Development Site. Rendering by GRIT Chicago
Once completed the first phase of vertical construction can begin which is expected this fall according to CBS News, consisting of two-main structures designed by SOM as well as redeveloping the existing Singer Pavilion. The new 500,000-square-foot, 178-foot-tall ARC Innovation Center will anchor the site and contain the new Bronzeville welcome center, Sheba Medical Center, a community center, and plenty of retail space. These will be held in two low slung buildings connected by a multi-story bridge structure which will hold laboratories and office space for life-sciences tenants.
View of ARC Innovation Center at Bronzeville Lakefront Development Site. Rendering by GRIT Chicago
Streetscape of Bronzeville Lakefront Development. Rendering by GRIT Chicago
Overall the first-phase will contain over 1 million square feet in total including over 300 senior housing units, artist spaces, and new public plazas surrounding the buildings, with an estimated cost of $600 million in 2021. Subsequent phases which can stretch out over 10 to 20 years will build out the rest of the site with over six million square feet of space with a data center, hotel, more parks, office space, healthcare offices, and various residential buildings. The $3.8 billion mega-development will join four others in the city vying for tenants and funding to keep going.
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good…
Good but…10-20 years for full buildout. I won’t hold my breath
Just musing here…but I bet if they just built the new street grid and parceled off the land to multiple developers we wouldn’t have to wait for a 20 year build out.
What he said.
While I’m all for developing this land, I agree that it sounds pie-in-the-sky. Burnham said make no little plans, but Burnham was also a realist, i.e. the 1909 Plan of Chicago. Idealistic, but it spurred some great ideas.
Can we bet at the (coming) casino on the odds of this being completed? Cause I got 20 says this doesn’t get to the end of phase 3.
10 to 20 years? Can you say casino? Data center lawsuit? What are the odds that there will be more litigation as time makes this pivotal project less and less relevant moving forward?