Related Midwest plots West Loop push
By Alby Gallun on February 4, 2015
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via Curbed http://chicago.curbed.com/archives/2015/02/04/is-this-west-loop-apartment-tower-back-from-the-dead.php
But the West Loop, a popular area with developers before the condo crash, has exploded again with new residential projects the past few years amid buzz over the arrival of technology firms like Google, which plans to open a big new Fulton Market office next year. Most developers are building apartments in the neighborhood, with 645 under construction there and another 2,169 in the planning phase, according to a report from Appraisal Research Counselors, a Chicago-based consulting firm.
CLOSE TO UIC, RUSH
With Streeterville and the South Loop well-covered, residential developer Related Midwest is venturing into the West Loop.
Related Midwest is quietly moving forward with an apartment tower at 1035 W. Van Buren St. and is talking with a potential development partner about building some 100 condominiums at 723-729 W. Randolph St., according to people familiar with its plans.
The Chicago firm is arguably the busiest residential developer in the city but so far has focused on places like Streeterville, where it plans a 67-story apartment/condo tower, and the South Loop, where the company is finishing sales on three condo projects that went bust after the crash.
That’s what Related Midwest plans at 1035 W. Van Buren, which runs along the north side of Eisenhower Expressway just west of Morgan Street. It’s unclear how many apartments the developer would build there—the company declined to comment—but a rendering shows a roughly 23-story high-rise atop a parking garage on the site.
Because of its proximity to the University of Illinois at Chicago and Rush University Medical Center across the highway, the project has a good base of potential tenants, said Darren Sloniger, president at Naperville-based developer Marquette Cos., who looked at the property. And it’s close enough to the restaurants and nightlife several blocks north on Randolph Street to appeal to renters who want to go there, he said.