Vigore Magazine: “The Wolf Point Development Will Add To The City’s Congestion and Further Diminish Chicago’s Skyline”

May 10, 2013
Source: Vigore Magazine – May issue 

According to the May issue of Vigore Magazine, the planned construction of three massive skyscrapers at Wolf Point will “add to the city’s congestion and further diminish Chicago’s skyline.”

They describe the need for Wolf Point to have a “better plan, one that will enhance the area with intelligent development, improved quality of life for it’s residence  and preserve Chicago as the ‘jewel of the Midwest.’”

Their beautifully illustrated, two-page article, LOST FOREVER CHICAGO: City of Views is pictured below and can be read in its entirely by CLICKING HERE.

 

 

Wolf Point Construction to Start July 31

May 8, 2013
Source:  Loop North News
Story by Steven Dahlman

The first of three towers at Chicago’s Wolf Point will start to take shape on July 31, according to the building’s architects.

Thomas Kerwin of bKL Architecture says plans for a groundbreaking ceremony have not been announced. bKL designed the 525-foot, 510-unit residential tower that will be the first building constructed – which should take about 22 months, according to Kerwin.

James McHugh Construction Company and Clark Construction Group, both of Chicago, will be working together as general contractors.

Pictured above is a photograph of an architectural model of the 525-foot residential tower that will be the first of three buildings constructed at Wolf Point near Merchandise Mart. Photo obtained from bKL Architecture, the Chicago firm commissioned to design the tower. 

On February 26, the Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards approved a zoning reclassification that will let developers build the tower on the west side of Wolf Point. The tower will cost $175 million and create 400 construction jobs, according to Jack George, an attorney for Houston-based Hines Interests L.P., developer of the 3.85-acre site on land owned by the Kennedy family.

The project will eventually include a 950-foot south tower and a 750-foot east tower that will both contain a mix of office, retail, and residential space.

Friends of Wolf Point, a vocal critic of the project that was concerned that the increase in traffic would overwhelm their neighborhood, appears to have moved on.  The group’s website was recently taken down although the domain name they registered last year does not expire until 2015.  (Note from Friends of Wolf Point: This last statement is inaccurate.  There were some technical difficulties requiring the website to go down for a few days.  The website is now up and running and will continue as before). 

The City Council’s Zoning Committee Likes the Wolf Point Development So Much, They Approved it Twice!

by Ben Joravsky
From The Chicago Reader
February 27, 2013

The City Council’s zoning committee likes the Wolf Point development so much, they approved it twice!

On Tuesday, the City Council’s zoning committee unanimously recommended approval of the zoning change needed to begin construction on the massive Wolf Point project.

No big surprise there. Mayor Emanuel wanted the deal done, so everybody fell in line, as they usually do in Chicago.

Guess we’re just a fall-in-line kind of town.

The only curiosity is why it keeps taking so long, as once again the approval process was delayed.

If you recall, the plan commission—an advisory board appointed by the mayor—was all set to OK the project at its meeting on November 27, 2012.

But then, on November 26—as in, the day before the meeting—residents happened to discover, while sifting through legal documents, that the developers were seeking approval to construct up to 1,800 hotel units on the site, which sits on the banks of the Chicago River near the Kinzie Street bridge.

That’s 1,800 more hotel units than the developers said they wanted to build there. Somehow the developers managed to go through months of meeting with the locals—many of whom didn’t want the project—without mentioning that the project would have any hotel units.

Must have slipped their minds.

The locals rose up angry. Alderman Brendan Reilly—who looked foolish for having passionately endorsed the project without apparently knowing anything about the 1,800 hotel units—asked the plan commission to take the project off its agenda.

Thus giving the developers time for another community meeting.

When all was said and done, the developers agreed to build only up to 450 units. Which is exactly 450 more than they’d originally called for. So you could say they compromised or you could say they got away with bloody murder.

You make the call.

On January 24, the plan commission approved the project, sending it to the zoning committee, which approved it on Monday, February 11.

Surprisingly, no residents showed up for that February 11 meeting even though dozens of them vociferously oppose the project for all the usual reasons having to do with density and traffic.

And why didn’t they show up to the zoning meeting?

“Because we didn’t know the project was on the agenda,” says Ellen Barry, a member of Friends of Wolf Point, which opposes the project. “I got a call from someone asking, ‘Where were you?’ I said, ‘What do you mean, where was I?’ And they say, ‘The zoning committee just approved Wolf Point.’”

Barry says that she and her neighbors looked on the committee’s agenda two days before the meeting and Wolf Point wasn’t there. Even though City Council rules say items must be on the agenda a full 48 hours before they’re voted on.

We know about this 48-hour rule because it was a big issue last July in the elected-school-board battle.

That’s when ten aldermen wanted the council’s human relations committee to have a referendum in their wards, asking voters if they want to move from a mayor-appointed school board to an elected one.

But in that case, Alderman Joe Moore, chairman of that committee, wouldn’t allow the matter to be heard because its aldermanic sponsors fell a few minutes short of meeting the 48-hour agenda-posting deadline. Thus Moore managed to piss off pretty much every school activist from Roseland to Rogers Park, while winning the everlasting appreciation of Mayor Emanuel.

Again proving that one mayor is worth more than at least 10,000 ordinary citizens.

But back to Wolf Point . . .

The city says they were late getting the item on the agenda because they had to fix a typo in one of its legal documents.

Barry and her allies filed a motion demanding that the zoning committee have another meeting on the matter on the grounds that they’d violated the sacred 48-hour rule.

The committee had no choice but to go along with Barry’s request, if only to avoid looking like total hypocrites.

And so it was that on Tuesday the zoning committee approved the Wolf Point project again. The only suspense was which alderman would praise Mayor Emanuel the most.

As always, there were many contenders.

Alderman James Cappleman lauded the “expert feedback from our city departments.”

Alderman Danny Solis declared that “in my tenure as being chairman of this committee, I’ve never seen a more comprehensive effort.”

And Alderman Reilly said, “It’s been a lengthy process that really worked.”

Just so you know, the aldermanic suck-up competition over Wolf Point is not over. The zoning change now moves to the full council, where such heavyweight mayoral apple polishers as aldermen Ed Burke and Patrick O’Connor will get to do their thing. 

They ought to sell tickets to that one.

Procedural Error Stalls Wolf Point Development

February 13, 2013 — Source: Chicago Real Estate Daily

The Wolf Point project has hit another bump in the road. 

Chicago’s City Council was unable to vote today on a plan to allow a three-tower development on the riverside property because its zoning committee’s public notice gave the incorrect date to consider the controversial proposal. 

The committee mistakenly listed March 11 instead of Feb. 11 as the date it would convene following a late-January Plan Commission vote approving the Wolf Point plans, a city spokesman said. 

The mistake wasn’t corrected within 48 hours of Monday’s meeting, the minimum amount of time required to provide notice about public hearings, the spokesman said. That rendered void the zoning committee’s unanimous vote on Monday to approve the Wolf Point plan. 

A final City Council vote on Wolf Point was expected today. Ald. Daniel Solis (25th), the chairman of the committee, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. 

For Wolf Point’s developers, a venture between Houston-based Hines Interests L.P. and the Kennedy family, it’s another delay in an approval process that stretches back at least to last May, when the group unveiled plans for the site, a property southwest of the Merchandise Mart that juts out into the Chicago River. 

The project was on track for approval by November, but then Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) twice delayed a plan commission vote on the deal, criticizing what he said were changes to the project that weren’t vetted by the public. He later swung to full support of Wolf Point after the developers revised their proposal. 

The zoning committee is expected to re-hear the Wolf Point plan at its meeting on Feb. 26, the city spokesman said.

The full City Council isn’t scheduled to meet again until March 13. 

A Hines executive declined to comment. 

 

Wolf Point neighbors ask city council to delay approval

February 13, 2012 – Source: Marina City Online

Dozens of neighbors living near Wolf Point signed a petition asking the City Council to defer consideration of the development plan. Residents “have been denied due process” because of the lack of public notice, the petition said.

Property owners and residents near Wolf Point have asked the Chicago City Council to postpone final approval of a proposed three-tower development.

The project is divided into three phases, the first being a 525-foot, 510-unit residential tower on the west side of the 3.85-acre site near Merchandise Mart. On land owned by the Kennedy family, Houston-based Hines Interests L.P. wants to eventually build a 950-foot south tower and a 750-foot east tower that would both contain a mix of office, retail, and residential space.

According to a motion submitted to the council on Wednesday by Friends of Wolf Point, “many citizens of Chicago” are opposed to the plan.

After being approved by the Chicago Plan Commission on January 24, the project passed the city council’s committee on zoning, landmarks, and building standards on February 11 – but says the group, the project was not on any official agenda.

They say it is “a clear violation” of city rules concerning public meetings.

“Many persons affected by the proposed amendment have been denied due process in connection with this proposed legislation,” reads the motion, “in violation of their rights under the United States and State of Illinois constitutions and Illinois statutes.”

Friends of Wolf Point wants the council to defer its decision until “correct and valid public notice” is given.

Read the motion

Plan Commission Gives Wolf Point Project the Go-Ahead

January 26, 2012 — Chicago Tribune

It’s official!  Despite some push-back and criticism from area residents, the Chicago Plan Commission voted unanimously to approve Phase 1 of the three-tower Wolf Point project.

Ald. Brendan Reilly, whose stance was uncertain leading up the vote, ultimately came out in support of the $1 billion proposal.

But before any ground can be broken, developer Hines Interests still needs to secure additional approvals from the Zoning Committee and City Council.

The commission’s decision paves the way for construction of the 525-foot West Tower, a 510-unit rental building designed by BKL Architecture, and installation of the first 400 feet of new riverwalk.

Related stories:
City panel approves Wolf Point development plan [Crain's]
Complete Wolf Point Coverage [Curbed Chicago]

Chicago Plan Commission Meeting on Wolf Point scheduled for January 24; Letters of Protest Written To City Officials

January 15, 2013 – The decision about the Wolf Point development project was deferred by the Chicago Plan Commission (CPC) in December.

This was done after Friends of Wolf Point uncovered previously undisclosed proposal details.

The CPC review has now been scheduled for January 24, 2013 at 1:00 p.m. in City Council Chambers, City Hall 2nd Floor, 121 N. LaSalle Street, Chicago.

The Friends of Wolf Point have written the following letters to protect Wolf Point, the last open space on the downtown riverfront. They are attached below.

Zoning Letter PD98 — click here
Zoning Letter 30′ Setback – click here
WP Letter  JGeorge – click here
WP PScudiero Request Staff Letter – click here
Riverbank Erosion Zoning IDNR Letter – click here
Zoning & IDNR Letter Erosion – click here

This project should not be permitted to move forward without additional community review and input. This is because the community concerns have not been adequately addressed. They include:

-extremely high density
-poor infrastructure
-heavy traffic congestion
-dangers to personal safety from limited site ingress and egress

City officials should delay this CPC hearing to allow more community input. You should plan plan to attend the above meeting at City Hall on January 24, 2013.

You can also help by e-mailing, calling, or sending letters to:

Alderman Brendan Reilly
42nd Ward Office
325 W Huron St., Suite 510
Chicago, Ill 60654
312 642-4242
alderman@ward42chicago.com 

Wolf Point Developers Present Case To Skeptical Neighbors

 450 Hotel Rooms May Be Built But
Not Until Phase Two

Source: North Loop News – December 20, 2012

Prospective developers of Chicago’s historic Wolf Point were marching more in step with 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly at their third community meeting Thursday evening.

Representatives of nearby neighborhood associations, however, were still sore about what they say was an attempt by Houston-based Hines Interests L.P. to sneak 1,800 hotel rooms into the proposal at the last minute.

“Your actions unequivocally undermine our confidence and trust in your communications and your intent,” scolded Mike Riordan, president of River North Residents Association, which co-hosted the meeting. “Shame on us, we thought we knew what you were building. Shame on you, you failed in being a frank and forthcoming partner with us.”

Reilly, too, says he was surprised by the number of hotel rooms, which is why on December 6 he asked the Chicago Plan Commission to remove Wolf Point from its December 20 agenda.

Hines attorney Jack George explained the confusion on a “conversion table” that turns, for example, office space estimates into hotel space.

“There was never any intent to deceive anybody,” George told Loop North News. “I’ve been doing this for 45 years. I’ve got my reputation on the line. Everyone in here knows me, they know that’s not the way I operate.”

George says they wanted to make sure everyone understood the proposal. “When it appeared there was confusion…we didn’t try to push it forward.”

The plan now is to build no more than 450 hotel rooms, no more than 900 residential units, and reduce the number of parking spaces to 1,285. And they will take the project one phase at a time.

On the 3.85-acre site, just one of the three towers will be built, to start with, the 525-foot west tower with 510 residential units. The Riverwalk will be built only around the west side of Wolf Point, 400 feet to the southern tip. A narrow sidewalk will continue around to the east, passing a large but landscaped parking lot.

Phase two – a 950-foot south tower – and phase three, a 750-foot east tower, will require new traffic studies and additional trips to the Chicago Plan Commission. The second and third towers could contain a mix of office, retail, and residential space. If a hotel is built, it will be in the south tower.

Following their 50-minute presentation, developers took questions for more than an hour from prospective neighbors of the proposed complex, some of whom were not convinced, despite a traffic study revised five times and approved by Chicago Department of Transportation on Tuesday, that their neighborhood can handle the additional traffic.

“This is not a done deal,” Reilly assured the audience. “I can tell you I put a lot of time, and my staff and the city departments have, to hold these guys to the fire to get this right.”

Documents discussed during the meeting, says Reilly, will be available Friday morning on his website at www.ward42chicago.com.

Source: North Loop News. 

Tensions High at Third Wolf Point
Community Meeting

Source: DNA Info Chicago – December 20, 2012 

CHICAGO — Plans for a scaled-down $1 billion development on untouched land along Chicago’s riverfront continued to rankle neighbors, as Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) played mediator between residents and the developer Thursday night at the third community meeting on the Wolf Point development.

The meeting was called amid panic from River North and Fulton River District residents after developers unveiled a proposal with a maximum of 1,800 allowed hotel rooms hours before the case was set to be heard by the Chicago Planning Commission.

But new plans say the project will not top 950 feet, and will not contain more than 1,410 residential units and 450 hotel rooms.

Reilly deferred the issue from the Nov. 27 hearing and called for more dialogue to set a lower figure, amid fears it would flood the surrounding neighborhood with congestion. Hines reps later described the 1,800 rooms as place-holders “to allow for future changes in market conditions,” rather than the actual intended capacity.

Before the floor was opened for questions, River North Residents Association President Mike Riordan scolded the panel for the miscommunication.

Riordan said the RNRA was “very concerned” about the Nov. 27 proposal, which “detailed programming by hotels and resident volumes that surprised us, and that had never been discussed or sanctioned and properly vetted.

“Your actions unequivocally undermined our confidence and trust in your communication and intent,” Riordan said toRepresentatives from Hines Interests LP, consulting firm KLOA, bKL Architecture and Wolff Landscape Architecture.”Shame on us, we thought we knew what you were building. Shame on you, you’ve failed in being a frank, forthcoming partner with us.”

Changes outlined at the meeting include new occupancy standards for each of three towers: “West Tower,” “South Tower” and “East Tower,” which will be built in three phases.

The all-residential West Tower, which will be built first, can not exceed 525 feet or contain more than 510 units and 200 parking stalls. The 950-foot South Tower is a mixed use space allotted 885 parking stalls.

The East Tower, also a mixed use space at 750 feet, can house any combination of office space, retail space, residential units and hotel space and has 200 parking stalls. It’s the last to pop up.

Each construction phase will be preceded by new traffic and impact assessments.

Following a walk-through of amendments to the plan that also included altering the landscaping design, adding left turn lanes on Kinzie Street and Wells Street and eliminating the possibility of ballroom or convention space, residents raised issues ranging from encroachment on the river to the possibility of a casino being added to the property.

While the floor was open for questions, a statement was read on behalf of John Carpenter, senior vice president of public policy at the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. He voiced strong support for the development in its current iteration,praising the $1 billion “investment in Chicago,” the opportunity to create up 2,000 jobs and asserting that construction “can’t be delayed.”

The meeting drew a crowd of more than 80 to the the conference center on th second floor of UBS Tower despite warnings of severe weather. Pelli Clark Pelli Architects, also part of the development team, was not represented on the panel.

Source: DNA Info Chicago

 

Wolf Point Developers Agree
To New Limits 

Source: Crain’s Chicago Business – December 21, 2012. 

The developers that want to build three towers on Wolf Point made their case for the $1 billion project at another meeting Thursday evening, hoping to overcome neighborhood opposition by agreeing to an expanded review process and new limits on what they can build there.

Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) called Thursday’s session — the third community meeting since spring — after postponing a Plan Commission vote on the project twice in recent weeks. He balked at what he said were last-minute changes by the property’s developer, a venture led by Houston-based Hines Interests L.P. and the Kennedy family, which owns the 3.9-acre parcel at the confluence of the north and south branches of the Chicago River.

Mr. Reilly said he won’t decide whether to support the developers’ new plan until residents have considered it and given him additional feedback.

“We wouldn’t be doing these community meetings if this were a done deal,” he told an audience of about 70 people in the auditorium of a West Loop office building. “I wouldn’t be wasting your time.”

After a backlash against a proposal to allow as many as 1,800 hotel rooms on Wolf Point, the development team has agreed to limit the number to 450. Residential units will be capped at 900 in the latter two buildings, said Jack George, a zoning lawyer who represents the developers.

The very first development plan for Wolf Point envisioned 600 residential units in one of the later-stage towers, and a to-be-determined number in the other, he said. The Wolf Point developers hope to break ground next year on a 510-unit rental tower on the west side of the site.

The caps give “some flexibility to the development and what will go on the development but at the same time lock in what the maximums are,” Mr. George told the crowd.

Future phases of construction on the site after the first apartment tower also would undergo a full review by various city agencies, the Plan Commission and the area’s alderman, he said.

Ellen Barry, president of Friends of Wolf Point, a group that opposes the project, said the developers shouldn’t get permission to construct anything beyond the initial 510-unit apartment building.

“If you’re not going to build phase two and phase three now, why put it in this (plan)?” she said.

Other residents raised concerns about traffic congestion crowding neighborhood streets, questioning whether a traffic study commissioned by the developers was sufficiently measuring the project’s impact.

Representatives from Hines-Kennedy team promised they’d pay for additional infrastructure improvements in the area around Wolf Point, including new traffic lights at key intersections and timers for pedestrians.

Michael Riordan, president of the River North Residents Association, said the additional review opportunities for the latter phases of the project would serve as a “safety valve” for neighbors, allowing them and the city to re-examine how the project was fitting into the area.

Yet Mr. Riordan also criticized the development team, saying it hadn’t been frank with neighbors by seeking approval for a plan earlier this fall that hadn’t been fully vetted.

“Let’s not have these surprises again,” he said during the meeting.

Source: Crain’s Chicago Business.

Community Meeting To Discuss Wolf Point Project Has Been Scheduled For Thursday, December 20, 5:30 PM…

Where:

The Conference Center at UBS Tower
One North Wacker Drive
(NE Corner of Wacker & Madison)
2nd Floor — Michigan Ballroom

Letter From Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) 

Dear Neighbor:

I am writing to provide you with another update regarding the Wolf Point Proposal. As you know, last week I had this project removed from the Chicago Plan Commission’s November 27th Agenda. I made this decision after previously undisclosed details were revealed by the Developer just one day before the November 27th public hearing. To make matters worse, the Filing did not include the long list of previously negotiated changes and improvements to the proposal.

Since deferring this item from the November Plan Commission Agenda, I have spent the past week meeting with the City of Chicago’s planning and infrastructure departments as well as representatives from the River North and Fulton River District neighborhood associations to evaluate the new details recently released by the Developer that call for a hotel use and the potential for additional residential units on the site.

Although Hines/Kennedy have been aggressively lobbying for a process that would allow them to secure all necessary city approvals by the end of 2012, in light of the recent events, I have informed the development team that their preferred timeline is simply no longer feasible. As a result, I have again requested that the Chicago Plan Commission defer this item from its December 20th Agenda, for the purpose of vetting new information related to the Bulk Table for the site and to allow for a much-needed sixth revision to KLOA’s traffic study.

We expect to receive an updated traffic study from KLOA next week, at which time I will dissect that study with the traffic engineers at CDOT to ensure the proper data and methodology were used to provide us with a realistic forecast of the revised traffic impacts associated with the details contained in the Bulk Table.

Please click here to review a copy of the most recent draft of the Bulk Table, which reflects the past week’s negotiations with the Developer.

When reviewing the revised Bulk Table, you will note that we have dramatically reduced the maximum allowable hotel rooms on the site from the 1,800 rooms the Developer attempted to incorporate into their plans last week – down to a maximum potential number of hotel keys on the site to no more than 450 rooms.

It is important to note that we are also requiring the Developer to memorialize a commitment that any potential hotel on the site will be a Limited Service Hotel (not a full service hotel) that does not include any conference or ballroom space. This is quite significant because a Limited Service Hotel has far less impact on parking needs and traffic circulation than a full service hotel does.

In the interest of providing full transparency, I will also be co-hosting a third public meeting in conjunction with the River North and Fulton River District associations on the date the Developer had otherwise hoped this project would be approved by the Chicago Plan Commission: Thursday, December 20th.

Based upon the piecemeal manner in which information and important project details have been shared with the City of Chicago, my office and the constituents I represent – I have determined that this third public meeting is absolutely necessary to ensure all parties have a chance to better understand the Bulk Table and resulting traffic impacts. It is important to me that you have adequate time for review and comment on the revised proposal.

I want to also inform you of the additional, extraordinary layers of process that I will require of the Developer for Phase II and III of the project, moving forward. Phase II and Phase III will now require an additional trip to the Chicago Plan Commission for a public hearing (with opportunity for testimony and public comment) at which time members of the Plan Commission and infrastructure departments will review the specific details associated with the construction phase and make suggestions and revisions to the plans to reflect the infrastructure realities that exist in real-time when the towers are to be built.

Requiring these additional hearings before the Chicago Plan Commission is uncharacteristic of how we process all other planned developments downtown and throughout the City of Chicago. Phased developments are usually only required to submit plans for a Site Plan Approval which is processed administratively by city staff and is entirely hidden from public process. I have directed the Developer to memorialize those mandatory trips to the Plan Commission in their revised planned development documents.

I have also insisted upon an additional layer of transparency and review that is not typically required in phased developments. We are requiring that the Site Plan Approval documents must also include an updated traffic study based on data that reflects present day conditions at the time of construction for Phase II and Phase III of the project. This will ensure consideration of new or unanticipated development in the area that exists at the time of Site Plan Review.

These additional requirements are not common for the approval of phased developments in Chicago. The City does not require a new traffic study to be conducted as part of their official Site Plan Approval process. However, based upon the uniqueness of this site, the complexity of this proposal and the track record of the Development consultants, I feel obliged to require these additional layers of accountability on behalf of the constituents I was elected to represent.

By deferring this item from the December 20th Plan Commission Agenda, you will have more than a month to react to the revised Bulk Table and to review and digest the sixth revised traffic study that contemplates the “worst case scenario” of potential uses on the site for Phase II and Phase III. As soon as we have a vetted traffic study that passes muster with CDOT, I will distribute it broadly.

Once we have secured a meeting room and a start time for our third community meeting to be held on the evening of December 20th, I will share those details with you directly. Please “Save the Date” for this December 20th meeting. I hope you will consider joining us for another public review of the Wolf Point proposal.

Sincerely,

Brendan Reilly
Alderman, 42nd Ward

Wolf Point: A development in sheep’s clothing

The three-tower project at Wolf Point looks like the latest big real estate deal shepherded through City Hall

by Ben Jarovsky
Chicago Reader
December 5, 2012 

If you want to know how to make 1,800 hotel units magically disapper, I urge you to study the mysterious case of the Wolf Point Development, the three-tower project planned along the Chicago River near Kinzie.

This project has all the trappings of one of those fast-track deals that zip through the City Hall approval process, if only because everyone from the mayor on down is in utter awe of the people proposing it.

In this case, the developer, Hines Interests LP, has already shown a mastery of how to operate in Chicago by convincing Mayor Emanuel to fork over $30 million in TIF funds to build River Point, an office skyscraper across the river at 444 W. Lake, in a decidedly unblighted corner of one of Chicago’s hottest real estate markets.

Hines’ lawyer is Jack George, one of the most successful zoning attorneys in town—in no small part because he was smart enough to partner with Michael Daley, who was smart enough to know that he was the previous mayor’s younger brother.

Why couldn’t I have been that smart?

Finally, the land’s owned by the Kennedy family, which is—actually, I think even our youngest readers know who the Kennedys are.

On May 29, the developers unveiled their project at a meeting hosted by 42nd Ward alderman Brendan Reilly. They said it consisted of three towers—including one 950 feet tall—on the undeveloped spit of land just south of the Apparel Center (which, coincidentally, I call the Mothership, since it’s where the Sun-Times and the Reader are headquartered).

The total project would be about 3.8 million square feet—as large as the Sears Tower. It would include hundreds of rental and office units as well as some commercial space, such as bars and restaurants. But the developers made no mention of hotels.

Repeat—no mention of hotels.

Over the summer, the developers worked with Reilly to accommodate concerns about traffic and congestion. At no time in any of those hours of negotiations with Reilly and the residents did the developer talk about hotel units.

By November, Reilly had agreed to back the project, as did two other community groups in the area, the River North Residents Association and the Fulton River District Association.

There was one source of objection—Friends of Wolf Point, an ad hoc group of local residents. They worried that the towers would overwhelm River North with traffic and congestion. “We love this neighborhood and we’re not against development,” says Ellen Barry, the group’s president. “But a billion-dollar development on a small tract of land with limited egress and ingress and big implications on traffic and quality of life for the neighborhood? That’s something else.”

But in a letter to Barry, Alderman Reilly dismissed the group’s concerns, noting that “nearly every aspect of the initial proposal has been significantly revised as a result of your feedback” and “we have secured unprecedented public benefits commitments from the developer.”

The proposal was backed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and put on the agenda for the November 27 meeting of the Plan Commission, the body of mayoral appointees that approves zoning deals. It was also put on the agenda of the November 29 meeting of the City Council zoning committee—thus strongly sending the message that the mayor wanted the deal done fast. There would be no reason for the zoning committee to hear the matter if it hadn’t already been approved by the Plan Commission.

By that time, Friends of Wolf Point had hired a lawyer, Reuben Hedlund, to represent them at the Plan Commission meeting. And he’d been pestering the developers and the city for every relevant document.

On Monday, November 26—the day before the Plan Commission meeting—the developer sent six e-mails full of records. Hedlund forwarded them to Barry, who sent them to another member of her group, who downloaded them and started plowing through the material, only to discover—drumroll, please—that approval would enable the developer to put up 1,800 units on the site.

Again, this was the first time they’d heard about any hotel units coming to the complex, let alone 1,800 of them.

As Barry points out, the hotel units change the scope of the project. Instead of a largely residential complex with office space that’s used during the workday, it becomes a 24/7 beehive of activity, which means more cabs and cars and buses and conference rooms and meeting rooms.

Barry contacted Larry Gage, president of the Fulton River District Association. “We were shocked and outraged,” says Gage. “We wasted six to eight months in planning and then this happens.”

Gage contacted the alderman’s office. And Reilly asked the plan commission to take the matter off the agenda, on the grounds that he hadn’t heard about the hotel units before this point either. As the alderman put it in a press statement: “Unfortunately, the final documents submitted yesterday did not accurately reflect what was negotiated.”

One of the great understatements of recent times.

In short, it doesn’t speak well of official oversight of big-time projects in Chicago. “If it wasn’t for Reuben Hedlund sending us those documents, we wouldn’t know about the hotels,” says Barry.

Keep in mind, if the city approves this deal, it’s Christmas come early for the Kennedys, for the obvious reason that land zoned for three towers and all those hotel units is worth a lot more than land that isn’t.

Now everyone in the community wants know to know why the developers weren’t more up front about the hotel units.

I called, texted, and e-mailed Alderman Reilly, but he didn’t get back to me. But he did tell David Roeder of the Sun-Times: “In the interest of transparency this has to go back to the neighbors.” Don’t worry, alderman—I’m only a little bit hurt you talked to Roeder and not me.

I had better luck with Jack George. When I reached him on the phone, he told me he was busy moving into a new office and that he would call me back when he had some time.

So far no call back.

Now that I think of it, I got a similar response from Derrick Smith, the former and future state rep—the one who allegedly got caught taking a bribe—when I called to ask about his reelection campaign. He told me it was too noisy in the building but he’d call me back in two minutes. Still haven’t heard from him either.

You know, it’s a good thing I’m such a happy-go-lucky kind of guy. Otherwise, I’d have a complex.

As for the developers, their spokesman, Bill Griffin, says that just because they claim the right to build 1,800 hotel units doesn’t mean they will. “The 1,800 figure comes from taking the full square footage of the development and putting that into the city’s formulas that allow other uses. Because of the size of this development it could hypothetically build 1,800 rooms. But that’s never been the plan.”

So how many hotel rooms does Hines intend to build?

“I don’t know,” says Griffin.

The matter’s on the agenda for the December 20 Plan Commission meeting. Which gives everyone a few more weeks to figure out what face-saving spin they can put on this sucker.

It ought to be interesting.

Ald. Reilly Defers Approval of Wolf Point Redevelopment Plans

December 5, 2012 – Source: Chicago Skyline – Article by Igor Studenkov

It seemed like a done deal. After several contentious community meetings, Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) announced that Wolf Point’s developers made enough changes to their plan for the prominent piece of property to satisfy community concerns, allowing the plan to move forward to the Chicago Plan Commission. It was set up to be approved by the city council.

But right before the commission’s Nov. 27 meeting, Reilly withdrew the proposal. In an emailed statement to his constituents, he explained that the plan that developers submitted didn’t reflect the changes he asked for.

Now, Wolf Point’s developers are back in limbo, as they scramble to make the put changes negotiated with Reilly in writing before their next hearing before the Plan Commission.

In an emailed statement, Hines defended itself, stating that the proposal’s language was unintentionally misleading and that they would work to clarify it.

Reilly himself emphasized that the withdrawal is temporary. If negotiations are successful, the plan will be considered at the next Plan Commission meeting, which will take place on Dec. 20.

The Wolf Point developers’ proposal has been contentious from the beginning. The original plan called for three towers — two commercial and one made up of 500 luxury apartments — to replace what is currently a large parking lot. When the proposal was unveiled at a neighborhood meeting in May, residents complained that the development was too dense and expressed concern that it offered little in the way of green space and could adversely affect traffic in the surrounding area.

After months-long negations with Ald. Reilly, the Fulton River District Association and the River North Residents Association, the developers altered the design by expanding the riverwalk, adding more green space and offering additional infrastructure improvements to help ease traffic congestion. But the buildings themselves remained essentially the same.

While many area residents continued to complain about design and density, Reilly felt that the new changes were enough to address the community concerns and agreed to let it move forward.

But the plans that were submitted differed from what was previously negotiated. Most notably, it called for 1,800 hotel rooms and 900 apartments spread out along the three towers. According to the Plan Commission’s original Nov. 27 meeting agenda, the proposal was supposed to call for 1,100 residential units overall and 3.3 million square feet of office space.

The changes caused Reilly to pull the proposal from the agenda. In an official statement to the constituents, he said that, while he believed in the proposal overall, he couldn’t let it be considered without addressing the discrepancy.

“I believe the proposal we have negotiated, to date, is far superior to the original submission,” said Reilly. “Unfortunately, the ‘final’ documents submitted to my office yesterday afternoon did not accurately reflect all of the many changes made to the proposal and also introduced a particular blend of uses never previously discussed with my office or local neighborhood groups. As such, it was clear to me these last important details must be properly vetted before approving this very important, prominent and complex development proposal.”

In a statement sent to Skyline, Wolf Point spokesman Bill Griffin insisted that the discrepancy was an honest misunderstanding. The developer wanted the flexibility to turn offices into hotel rooms and apartments if market conditions called for it. The numbers, Griffin insisted, represented all hotel rooms plus offices that could potentially be converted into hotel rooms, not all the hotel rooms they actually intended to build.

“The development team has always envisioned that the second and third buildings at Wolf Point would be developed as commercial office space but have provided for other uses […] including hotel and residential, to allow for future changes in market conditions,” he said. “The initial methodology created an allowable use of 1,800 hotel rooms as well as 900 apartment units in the south and east towers. The Developer never intended for 1,800 hotel rooms to be built at Wolf Point and has committed to a significantly lower number of rooms.”

The statement didn’t give any details on how many rooms the developer was actually committed to, nor did it explain what might trigger the future changes that would make the number a reality.

Griffin said the developers would continue working with Reilly and community organizations to “refine the language” and make it more acceptable to the city and the community. He expressed confidence that the changes would be worked out before the next Plan Commission meeting.

In his statement, Reilly expressed similar confidence in the speedy resolution.

“I look forward to working with the River North and Fulton River District neighborhood associations to resolve this last point of contention and then move forward with the best development possible for Wolf Point and River North,” he said.

But to the project’s most vocal opponents, none of this is good enough.

Friends of Wolf Point, a new community group that was formed in response to the original proposal, said the subsequent changes do little to ease their concerns.

“While we believe the concessions made by the developer were a good first step, we don’t believe these changes addressed the primary concerns of community residents regarding density, traffic congestion, aging infrastructure and planned encroachment of the Chicago River,” said Ellen Barry, the group’s president.

The new proposal raised even further concerns. Barry pointed out that prospect of using a hotel was never publicly discussed before, and that having a hotel in the area would bring in even more traffic than what has been previously assumed.

Reilly, Barry insisted, owed the community some answers.

“The alderman and developers need to meet with the community to explain why the residents were told that this would be a ‘mixed use development’ yet never told that a hotel would likely be included,” she said. “In addition, the alderman, Department of Transportation and Department of Housing and Economic Development must require that the developer produce a new traffic study that demonstrates the effect of hotel traffic in this congested area, as well as a light and shadow study prior to this development progressing any further in the entitlement process.”

Wolf Point Vote Put On Hold After Plan For 1800 Hotel Rooms Inserted At Last Minute  

November 27, 2012 – Source: Chicago Sun Times. 

A city agency’s vote on a three-tower development plan for Wolf Point was deferred Tuesday after a downtown alderman complained that the project’s investors introduced last-minute details.

Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) said the developers submitted documents to the city in which they asked for plans to put up to 1,800 hotel rooms on the site. The request did not reflect terms negotiated with Reilly and neighborhood groups that called for the buildings to contain a mix of residential, office and hotel uses.

The Wolf Point project was due for a hearing today before the Chicago Plan Commission, which reviews major developments. The commission deferred action at Reilly’s request and the matter could be heard Dec. 20.

Reilly, frustrated over the turn of events, said the developers’ “lack of clarity and introduction of all those hotel keys” require him to bring the proposal back to neighbors for review.

The alderman said he suspects the developers inserted 1,800 rooms as a theoretical maximum for hotel rooms and do not intend to build that many. “But in the interest of transparency, this has to go back to the neighbors,” said Reilly, who has presided at two community hearings on the project.

The developers includes Chicago’s Kennedy family and Hines Interests LP. They could not immediately be reached for comment. The Wolf Point site is just west of the Merchandise Mart and where the Chicago River divides into two branches.

Source: Chicago Sun-Times

Alderman Pulls Wolf Point Proposal

Source: Chicago Tribune
A controversial plan to build three towers on historic Wolf Point ran into an unexpected snag Tuesday when Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, pulled the proposal from the agenda of the Chicago Plan Commission.

Reilly indicated he had been blindsided by last-minute modifications to plans that had been presented to the public during spirited community meetings in May and October.

“Unfortunately, the ‘final’ documents sent to my office yesterday afternoon did not accurately reflect all of the many changes made to the proposal and also introduced a particular blend of uses never previously discussed with my office or community groups,” Reilly said in a statement from his office.

One of the issues appears to be that the project, pitched as a mix of commercial, residential and hotel space, could include up to 1,800 hotel rooms. A spokesman for project’s developers denied that the documents presented to the commission included any last-minute changes and said there are no plans to include that many hotel units.

“There was never an attempt to blindside Ald. Reilly,” said Bill Griffin, spokesman for a group of developers that includes Christopher Kennedy, whose grandfather Joseph Kennedy bought the site at the junction of the three branches of the Chicago River in the 1940s.

According to Griffin, the figure of 1,800 hotel rooms is simply a calculation of the number of hotel units that could be built on the property under current zoning regulations. He said he did not know who made that calculation.

Griffin said the developer’s office started getting phone calls this week from neighborhood residents and community groups as they became aware of the 1,800 number. Among objections to the project raised at community meetings was the potential for overcrowding in the dense River North neighborhood.

A spokesman for the alderman declined to respond to Griffin’s statements.

The project’s design team, from Pelli Clarke Pelli architects of New Haven, Conn., returned east after the proposal was pulled and could not be reached for comment.

Documents Not Ready, Plan Commission defers discussion of Wolf Point

Source: Marine City Online
The Chicago Plan Commission will not consider, at least for today, the proposed development of Wolf Point in the northwest corner of the Loop. Concerned they may not have current information, 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly asked the commission to remove the proposal from today’s agenda.

In a news release on Tuesday, Reilly says documents submitted on Monday to the city do “not accurately reflect the significant changes to the proposal” that Reilly negotiated on behalf of constituents in neighborhoods near Wolf Point.

Most of the issues, says Reilly, are resolved and the proposal is “nearly completed.” The last issue to address, he says, “is clarifying exactly how the three towers will be programmed with residential units, hotel rooms, or commercial space.”

Reilly says the documents he received on Monday “also introduced a particular blend of uses never previously discussed with my office or local neighborhood groups,” though he did not elaborate.

Developers want to turn Chicago’s historic Wolf Point into a complex of three office and residential towers. Following a community meeting on May 29, Reilly worked with developers to make about 50 changes. On October 29, a decidedly more landscaped version was presented to prospective neighbors at a meeting at the Holiday Inn that overlooks Wolf Point.

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