Ride-hailing company Lyft is picking up more space in Chicago with a new lease of a Shapack Partners warehouse on the Near North Side.
The San Francisco-based ride-hailing company will use the 23,000-square-foot building at 1020 North Elston Avenue for a new operations and driver service center, according to Crain’s.
Lyft currently operates out of a 5,500-square-foot property in Old Irving Park, and it’s unclear if it will keep that site in light of the new lease.
Shapack, best known for helping to jump start the Fulton Market redevelopment frenzy, bought the 1.3-acre former taxi garage for $6.9 million early last year, according to Crain’s.
The property sits in a historically industrial corridor along the North Branch of the Chicago River that’s poised to undergo dramatic redevelopment. Farther north, Sterling Bay is transforming a large swath of riverfront property into the Lincoln Yards mega-development, while just to the southeast Tribune Media is planning its own major project called the “River District.”
And in the shadow of the new Lyft site, developers including Onni Group are eyeing potential new uses for the heavily industrial Goose Island. [Crain’s] — John O’Brien