Wanted: Developer to save Union Power House

Preservation group makes last-ditch effort to prevent Amtrak from razing the riverfront property

Union Power House (Credit: Google Maps)
Union Power House (Credit: Google Maps)

A Chicago preservation group is scrambling to find a developer to save an industrial 1930s building from the wrecking ball. But so far there are no takers.

The group, aptly named Preservation Chicago, contends that Union Power House — which sits along the Chicago River at 301 West Taylor St. and is owned by Amtrak — could be repurposed as a service utility center for now. But eventually, the group believes it could stimulate a rethinking of the riverfront more broadly, according to the group’s website.

The boxy tan Art Deco-style structure, which is topped with large black smokestacks, was once a national center for cross-country industrial freight and passenger rail. But it’s been out of use since 2011. And, Amtrak eventually plans to raze it and turn it into a parking lot at a cost of $13 million, according to the Sun-Times. A decision on the building’s final fate is expected in the next couple of months.

Amtrak’s Marc Magliari said the national train service provider has already tried — unsuccessfully — to find a developer to take on the project. He told the Sun-Times that Amtrak solicited proposals for redevelopment last year, but received nothing.

If a developer does step in at the 11th hour, it would not be the first to refurbish a building from that period.

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In April, Cedar Street Companies, the micro apartment developer, snapped up the 1920s-era Bridgeview Bank.

But that building did not have the same issues and had more traditional aesthetic appeal.

Ward Miller of Preservation Chicago told the Sun-Times that preserving Union Power House would not be an easy feat.

“There’s probably asbestos and coal particles,” Miller told the paper. “We understand this undertaking is a Herculean task.” [Sun Times]Kelsey Neubauer