TRIB’S BUILDING BLUEPRINT
Redevelopment plan unveiled for site that could be in Amazon mix, but fate of printing facility presents complication
Tribune Media wants to redevelop 30 acres of riverfront property, transforming a significant swath of the River West area into a new neighborhood it’s calling the River District.
The development plans, submitted to the city Wednesday, call for more than 9 million square feet of mixed- use space with nearly 6,000 residential units.
The site is bounded by Grand Avenue to the south, Chicago Avenue to the north, Halsted to the west and the Chicago River to the east.
“Our goal is to create the same in- demand dynamic neighborhood seen in tech centers such as San Francisco and Seattle,” said Murray McQueen, president of Tribune Real Estate Holdings, a subsidiary of Tribune Media.
Also in the mix is Amazon, the online marketplace seeking a site for a second world headquarters. Chicago is widely considered a contender for that prize, which would bring up to 50,000 jobs, and the Tribune Media site is among the possible locations.
Wednesday’s proposal, designed by architecture firm SCB, calls for about 15 towers, from 20 to 50 stories tall, spread across the entire 30- acre site. However, a significant northern chunk of those 30 acres is currently under a lease that could last for decades.
The spoken- for acreage houses the Freedom Center, a printing and distribution facility Tribune Media leases to the publishing unit it spun off three yeas ago. The publishing unit — rebranded for the digital age as Tronc — is the parent company of the Chicago Tribune. The Chicago Sun- Times also has a printing- and- distribution contract with Tronc.
Tronc’s Freedom Center lease extends through 2023; Tronc can exercise two 10- year options, so future development of that part of the property hinges on Tronc’s decision to either stay or vacate — at a price.
“The plans do not impact Tronc at all,” Tronc spokeswoman Marisa Kollias said. “The company has no plans to relocate the printing operation.”
With this in mind, plans call for the first phase of construction to begin on what Tribune Media describes as 18 “shovel ready” acres on the southern portion of the property.
Plans call for the development, at 777 W. Chicago Ave., to be about 25 percent green space, including 5.1 acres of riverfront, a public park, and landscaping. It also will have a pedestrian path along the river, according to a Tribune Media news release.
The city has asked interested parties to step forward with possible Amazon sites. Ald. Brian Hopkins ( 2nd) said he’s heard the city plans to submit up to six sites and let Amazon choose.
Hopkins identified those sites as the same ones the Chicago Sun- Times has highlighted: the old main Post Office straddling Congress Parkway; two in the North Branch Industrial Corridor, which would include the Tribune Media land; the Michael Reese Hospital site; the 62- acre site in the South Loop once owned by convicted felon Tony Rezko; and a site at Roosevelt and Ogden avenues that is in the Illinois Medical Center District.
Hopkins called the multiplesite strategy a mistake that will only make Amazon’s job more difficult and, ultimately, weaken the city’s chances.
“We should look at which of the six potential sites really has the most to offer based on the criteria they have stated are priorities for them, then put all of our eggs in that basket and present a proposal to Amazon that focuses on the best that we have,” Hopkins said.
Pressed to identify that best possible site, Hopkins cited the other River North Corridor property: a prime riverfront parcel at 1685 N. Throop currently occupied by the city’s fleet maintenance facility that developer Sterling Bay has agreed to purchase from the city for $ 104.7 million or $ 133.53- per- square- foot.
Sterling Bay has targeted Amazon as the anchor tenant for a $ 10 billion mixed- use, riverfront development on land it’s assembling in Lincoln Park and Bucktown that includes the old Finkl Steel plant.
Hopkins said the Finkl site on one side of the river could be combined with the fleet maintenance property on the other side.
Billions would be needed, but details of financing were not available for the nascent project, which Tribune Media hopes to begin construction on as soon as 2020.
A Tribune Media spokesman confirmed that the company asked city officials to include the development plans as part of its Amazon courtship proposal.