Domus Hits Setback with Controversial Fulton Market Tower

Chicago’s City Council delayed consideration of a 29-story, 347-unit residential building at 215 North Racine Avenue because developer Domus Group hasn’t completed the purchase of land earmarked for a public park.

The roughly $150 million project, headed up by Phillip and Steven Ciaccio’s Chicago-based firm Domus, was pitched with a far more intense zoning designation than Fulton Market normally uses. The publicly accessible green space at 1240 West Carroll Avenue was a key reason why the Chicago Plan Commission overrode the recommendations of the city’s zoning administrator to nix the plan, to instead bring the development to a council vote. Domus’s attorney told the council the developer had secured the land, but according to Crain’s, the proposal was held up after it was revealed Domus hadn’t completed the park land purchase.

It’s unclear why the transaction hasn’t yet closed, or when it could. Thomas Raines, Domus’s zoning attorney and Tom Comforte, the site’s owner, declined to comment to the outlet. Domus didn’t immediately provide a comment.

Controversy around the project centers on its rare zoning designation for the area, and whether it would set a precedent for developments to come. Fulton Market developments have taken flak for years for not including more parking and public green space, and Domus getting a zoning designation traditionally reserved for downtown skyscrapers could make the problem worse, some locals fear.

However, the Domus project is being pushed through by Alderman Walter “Red” Burnett because it helps with a local housing shortage, and could encourage more development in the former meatpacking district. Burnett also considered the part of the proposal that rendered the park open to the public, and not a private amenity for building tenants, though it’s considered a necessary aspect of the plan.

Though Fulton Market is somewhat insulated from market forces adversely affecting office space across the city, it has several development sites where builders once toyed with office space now up for sale as owners play up their potential for residential use.

For now, the controversial Domus proposal will be put on the city’s backburner for at least another month.

— Hunter Cooke