Chicago-based Shapack Partners has filed with the City Council to build more than 2,200 apartments and a hotel on a series of sites between the former meatpacking room and the land that could soon house a Bally's casino.
Crain's Chicago Business states that the developer wants to transform a property along Grand Avenue between DesPlaines Street and Union Avenue with a 1,110 unit apartment building rising 600 feet and a 141-room hotel. A Shapack venture paid $25 million last month for the site, which is home to a shuttered Salvation Army family store and donation center.
Separately, Shapack proposes to redevelop a trio of sites southwest of the Salvation Army property near the intersection of Milwaukee and Union Avenues and Hubbard Street, according to the other zoning application. This proposal would include:
- Three buildings on three parcels totaling 1,159 residential units
- Ground floor retail space
- Small amount of office space
All these projects which require City Council approval will amount to one of the most ambitious bets on a downtown apartment market. This shows that the market has roared back from the early pandemic devastation.
All this is on top of a mix of huge apartment projects near the Chicago Tribune's Freedom Center, which is poised to be redeveloped into a $1.7 billion Bally's casino, hotel and entertainment venue if the gambling giant can win final approval from the Illinois Gaming Board and the Chicago Plan Commission for the project. Canadian developer Onni Group recently won City Council approval to build almost 2,700 apartments just north of the casino site on the southern tip of Goose Island. Onni is also finalizing a deal to buy another big development site along the casino property's northern border with plans to develop what could be well over 1,000 more residential units.
Villas in Florence reports that a source familiar with the new Shapack plan said the hotel would be developed before the apartment buildings.
The new combined proposals include plans for 454 affordable units in apartment buildings to comply with the city's ordinance governing affordable housing in residential projects.
The three projects between Milwaukee and Hubbard and another site between Milwaukee and Union and also a third site just east of Union will consist of:
- A 337 unit apartment building rising 300 feet
- A 317 unit apartment building rising 350 feet
- A 505 unit apartment building rising 490 feet
Plans show that these three projects would be coordinated with open-air walkways crossing the ground floors, similar to the concept of "mews" developed by Chapack at 167 N. Green St., which should continue on the other side from the street to a large new development his company has planned at 170 N. Green St.
According to Tech4u, Shapack is known for developing a number of high-profile constructions, hotels and apartments in the Fulton market over the past decade. His most notable projects include the following:
- A 750,000 square foot construction at 167 N. Green St.
- The Hoxton Hotel
- The Soho House Private Hotel and Club
- The Parker Fulton Market apartment building
If Shapack's projects were combined as planned, it would further identify the domain between Fulton Market and the north arm of the Chicago River as a booming new downtown neighborhood.
