Plans ramp up for 800 W Lake

A revamped plan and new development team is in place for a long-awaited mixed-use project at 800 West Lake Street in Fulton Market — with apartments now being eyed instead of a hotel.

Development firms Ascend Real Estate and Intercontinental Real Estate Group are joining forces with GREC Architects for a taller plan than the original proposal for the site made in 2020, reported Chicago YIMBY.

It’s unclear what prompted the new development team to enter the revised plan after the firms behind the initial pitch, North Park Ventures and MF Development, pursued a 476-room hotel on the site.

Now, the property is slated to become at least 349 apartments and rise 33 stories, an increase of a dozen floors from the previous hotel plan.

It’s at least the second Fulton Market project to pivot in recent months from a hotel plan to a purely residential apartment tower, as uncertainty continues to plague hotel markets in large northern cities where the sector is more dependent on business travel than leisure. In September, New York-based developers Mill Hill Capital and Azur Cos. switched up the plans for 1234 West Randolph Street from a hotel to a residential project poised to rise 470 feet and 42 stories high.

Ascend’s and Intercontinental’s building will measure 390 feet tall, which is 125 feet taller than the original rendering. It will have a five-story podium as the base, set back enough from the sidewalk for a small plaza on Halsted Street.

The ground floor will consist of 3,500 square feet of retail space, a residential lobby, and access to the 106-vehicle parking garage. The seventh floor will feature various amenities and a spacious outdoor deck to cap off the podium where the thinner part of the structure will begin its rise.

The remaining 26 floors will contain the 349 residential units. Floorplans are expected to range from studio to 2-bedroom options.

The building at 800 W. Lake will be the newest addition to the many high rises that have sprouted in the rapidly-growing Fulton Market. Among them, Miami-based developer Crescent Heights is pursuing a 600-foot-tall apartment tower on a 1.7-acre site at 420 North May Street.

– Quinn Donoghue