Foundry Park Clears First Approval for Megaproject

Jim Letchinger is inching closer to redeveloping one of Chicago’s most infamous stalled megasites.

City planning officials on Thursday unanimously approved Foundry Park, the JDL Development-led proposal to build thousands of apartments and mixed-use buildings on the former Lincoln Yards property along the North Branch of the Chicago River. The vote by the Chicago Plan Commission gives Chicago-based JDL — Letchinger’s firm — and Boca Raton-based Kayne Anderson Real Estate their first major city approval for the roughly $3 billion, 6 million-square-foot-plus project, Crain’s reported. The plan would remake 34 acres between Lincoln Park and Bucktown with more than 3,200 apartments, high-rises topping 450 feet, new retail, offices, hotels and a web of parks and riverwalk.

Foundry Park still needs approval from the City Council’s zoning committee and the full City Council, and unresolved questions about infrastructure — and who pays for it — hover over the project. According to the outlet, that issue helped sink Sterling Bay’s much larger Lincoln Yards vision, which collapsed under the weight of financing challenges tied to roads, bridges and other public works.

Under the 2019 redevelopment agreement for Lincoln Yards, Sterling Bay was supposed to front hundreds of millions of dollars for infrastructure, later reimbursed through tax-increment financing. That structure proved unworkable, and Sterling Bay ultimately lost most of the land to its lender. JDL and Kayne Anderson bought the bulk of the site last fall from Bank OZK after the lender seized it.

City planning commissioner Ciere Boatright said during the meeting that the city and the developers are in “early-ish” talks about incentives to help address infrastructure needs, but emphasized those discussions fall outside the Plan Commission’s scope. Any new redevelopment agreement would go before the city’s Community Development Commission, which is scheduled to meet next month.

Some elected officials aren’t satisfied. Alderman Brian Hopkins warned that infrastructure promises made during the Lincoln Yards debate — including redesigned intersections and new river bridges — can’t simply disappear.

Supporters argued that Foundry Park’s lower density reduces the burden. Plans include new stretches of Dominick Street and Southport Avenue, roughly 3,000 feet of riverwalk and a future bridge connection to the 606 trail. The first phase alone would cost about $800 million and include roughly 750 homes, retail and a hotel, anchored by a 39-story tower.

— Eric Weilbacher