Trammell Crow Company, a Dallas-based developer, is planning to build a 410 foot tall office tower and a 359 foot tall apartment complex along Carroll Avenue between May and Aberdeen Streets. This will be its largest project to date in the former meatpacking corridor.
An article in Crain's Chicago Business states that a zoning application was filed for both a 26-story office and retail building on one side of the 1100 block of Carroll Avenue and a 33-story apartment building on the other side.
Trammell Crow's plans call for the following:
- Raze a low-slung industrial property at 315 N. May Street along the southern edge of the block
- Develop a building on the site with 650,000 square feet of offices and 15,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space
- Construct a residential building at 1112 W. Carroll Avenue with 378 apartments, 96 parking spaces
- Ground floor retail or restaurant space overlooking open space along Aberdeen and Carroll
- Large park that wraps around the block on Carroll and Aberdeen
The projects would mark the firm's third and fourth major developments in a neighborhood that appears to have regained the momentum it had before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trammell Crow has led Fulton Market's charge into the life sciences sector by converting part of an office building at 1375 W. Fulton Street into lab space for pharmaceutical and biotech research and developing Fulton Labs. This will be a 425,000 square foot life sciences-focused building that will open early next year at 400 N. Aberdeen Street, just north of the Carroll Avenue sites.
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City and state officials have prioritized the development of such properties to help Chicago retain biosciences companies that are born at local universities but typically move to more mature life sciences markets when they grow. Chicago developer Mark Goodman is also planning a 500,000 square foot life sciences lab building at 400 N. Elizabeth Street.
Trammell Crow's residential building would be developed on what is now a Ryder truck rental lot. The properties the developer is targeting are owned by ventures of Thomas Comforte, whose family has cashed out on many of its longtime Fulton Market properties since the neighborhood began to change into a corporate destination and a hub of upscale restaurants and hotels.
For decades the Comforte family ran heating and air conditioning firm Climatemp out of the May Street building before moving it to west suburban Broadview. The May Street property was put up for sale by the family in 2013 after Google announced that it was moving its Chicago office to Fulton Market.
According to the zoning application, in order to meet its affordable-housing obligation for the residential project, Trammel Crow would include 33 affordable units in the new building and commit to developing another 38 units off-site.
Urbanize Chicago reports that Minneapolis-based ESG Architects is behind the design of the buildings. The office building has seven fewer floors than the apartment tower, but rises considerably higher due to its taller floor-to-ceiling heights.
Trammell Crow was not the first company to consider redeveloping this property. In 2019, TechNexus and Ocean Tomo proposed an 18-story, 300 foot combination office, tech incubator and hotel project called the City Technology Center at the 1101 W. Carroll Avenue site.
Trammell Crow would double the company's developments in the Fulton Market neighborhood if the approval from the neighbors, the alderman, the Plan Commission and City Council goes through.
DataBid is currently reporting on this project - Carroll Avenue Mixed Use Development Fulton Market District - Chicago (0031052621)
