Chicago narrows choices for LaSalle Street incentives

Chicago officials are inching closer to finalizing its list of projects that could qualify for subsidies from the city’s LaSalle Street renovation project.

The city’s Department of Planning and Development is now evaluating six projects as part of the “LaSalle Street Reimagined” program, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The proposals represent more than $1 billion in private investment and more than 2,000 residential units.

The program was designed to help encourage residential development in the central Loop to break up the office “monoculture.” With record office vacancies and a crowded sublease market, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and other city officials are hoping the new program will spur more office-to-residential conversions.

Projects built using the program’s incentives will have to make at least 30 percent of new housing affordable, but developers will get TIF funding and other city financing in exchange.

City officials have eliminated three of the nine proposals that came in before the late-December deadline. The plan is to select up to three of the projects by the end of March.

One of the proposals, by developer Urban Resolve, was disqualified due to the location being located outside of the LaSalle Central TIF district. Another was withdrawn by the developer and the other had an incomplete application.

While some developers have balked at the idea of including so much more affordable housing, the city says the number of proposals it received shows the program is working.

“This was an invitation to apply. No one is being forced to do this,” Deputy Planning Commissioner Cindy Roubik told the outlet. “We’re very pleased with the level of interest.”

New York-based AmTrust along with longtime Chicago developers John O’Donnell and Mike Reschke were parts of separate teams that pitched two Loop properties for office-to-residential conversions in response to the program.

 — Victoria Pruitt