Structured gets OK for 197 apartments, 150K of retail near North and Clybourn

Structured Development won a key city OK to build 197 apartments and 150,000 square feet of retail and office space near the three-year-old New City complex it developed on the Near North Side.

The Chicago Plan Commission on Thursday gave the Chicago-based firm the go-ahead for its $56 million proposal for The Shops at Big Deahl, a 3-acre complex set to be anchored by a Planet Granite climbing gym at the corner of Dayton Avenue and Blackhawk Street.

Minutes later, the commission approved Structured Development’s proposal for a seven-story residential building on the 55,600-square-foot current site of the Menomenee Club, kitty-corner from the Shops at Big Deahl.

The nonprofit club turned over its property at 1505 North Dayton Avenue to the developer in exchange for a new 50,000-square-foot facility to be built next door to the retail complex. Structured Development also donated to an endowment club for the fund, and plans to build a 18,000-square-foot park between the retail mall and the new club.

The new residential building on the current club site will include one-bedroom, two-bedroom and duplex apartments ranging from 833 to 1,253 square feet. An amenity deck will include a “dog spa” and “dog run,” according to the developer’s presentation.

Structured Development will include five affordable units and pay about $1.9 million into the city’s low-income housing trust fund, in accordance with the city’s 2015 affordability ordinance. The property falls inside the city’s Near North pilot zone, which mandates 20 percent affordable units, but it did not need to meet the higher mandate because an earlier version of the planned development was approved before the new rules went into effect.

The developer plans to begin construction on the club next spring, aiming to complete the entire array of buildings by 2022.

New City was built on the former grounds of the Cabrini-Green public housing community, which was demolished between 1995 and 2011. The new complex includes 199 apartments and 360,000 square feet of retail anchored by a Mariano’s grocery store and an ArcLight movie theater.

Earlier this year, Bucksbaum Retail Management signed Strive Logistics to a 20,000-square-foot lease at New City.