Related Midwest and 548 Development win Chicago Invest South/West bid

Chicago picked a venture between Related Midwest and 548 Development for a $38 million project in North Lawndale.

The 300,000-square-foot industrial complex will also include a two-building North Lawndale Innovation Center with retail and office uses, as well as a park, according to Crain’s. The project is Related Midwest’s first industrial development.

The site was previously home to a Copenhagen chewing tobacco plant and other industrial companies before being cleared in the 1980s and 1990s.

The proposal, subject to City Council approval, is part of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Invest South/West initiative, a 2019 program to invest $750 million in public funds into 10 designated South and West Side neighborhoods that have suffered from disinvestment, according to Crain’s. The 21-acre site is located at 4300 W. Roosevelt Road and is bisected by CSX’s Altenheim rail line.

The development will have two solar-powered, 150,000-square-foot warehouses on either side of the rail line. The developers don’t have tenants and are eyeing last-mile product distribution, cold storage and light manufacturing, a spokeswoman for Related told Crain’s. Chicago’s industrial market could be in the midst of a record-setting quarter.

While this is Related’s first Invest South/West project, 548 was previously chosen as part of a joint venture to develop a residential complex called “Lawndale Redefined” in North Lawndale.

Related and 548’s proposal won out over seven other bids, including one from the Chicago Cubs and Pritzker Realty Group, which wanted to build an industrial building and a Cubs Urban Youth Academy campus with playing fields on another part of the site.

The city will sell the land to the developers for $1 if the project is approved, according to a statement from the planning department cited by Crain’s.

[Crain’s]