A long-awaited $450 million plan to remake Michigan Avenue just north of the bridge–with a Nordstrom department store as the centerpiece–sailed through the Chicago Plan Commission on Monday after months of negotiations with city planners and a protracted battle with preservationists over an Art Deco landmark.
The planned complex of hotels, retail shops and entertainment venues will be a key component in the emerging transformation of the Magnificent Mile’s southern end into a fun-oriented hub sandwiched between the bars, restaurants and hangouts of River North and the tourist mecca of Navy Pier.
But that additional excitement will mean more crowds in an already congested area, which is why the city’s Department of Planning and Development is requiring the developer, John Buck Co., to form a “transportation management association” with other area developers.
Such not-for-profit associations have already existed in the suburbs for at least a decade and are designed to make it easier for developers in the same area to come up with ways to ease traffic. In the Michigan Avenue case, the Buck Co. and others will pool their resources and explore such options as shuttling crowds from remote parking lots.
“We’re very concerned about the massive increase in development that is proposed along the Ohio-Grand corridor,” said Greg Longhini, spokesman for the city Planning Department. “The transportation system will have a hard time servicing the area without further investment.”
The five-square-block plan–bounded by Michigan Avenue and State, Illinois and Ohio Streets–is the latest in a series of major developments unveiled in the last four months totaling more than $1.2 billion in the greater North Michigan Avenue area alone.
And already City Hall has expressed serious concerns about potential gridlock created by the largest project–the $750 million River East plan to build high-rises and hotels near Navy Pier–and is pushing for fewer residential units and more green space.
The Buck project, approved by the Plan Commission in a 7-1 vote, will now go to the City Council’s Zoning Committee and then the full council for a final vote later this month.
If it passes, as expected, construction will begin on some of the projects immediately, developer John Buck said, and Nordstrom is on line to open by September 2000.
As part of the plan, renovation has already begun on a well-known eyesore, the Buck Co.-owned Chicago Marriott Downtown Hotel at 540 N. Michigan Ave. The white concrete facade will be replaced with granite and glass. The hotel will house new stores as well, including a Virgin Entertainment Megastore vending pop music and videos and related clothing.
Behind the Marriott, a 90,000-square-foot DisneyQuest “urban theme park” will be constructed between Rush Street and Wabash Avenue, according to the plan, and a 278-room hotel and office and retail space will be built nearby.
However, the key element of the project, which has been the subject of more than two years of complicated battles and negotiations, is the Nordstrom store and its Michigan Avenue entrance.
The planned 260,000-square-foot, four-level Nordstrom specialty store would occupy the block bounded by Rush and Illinois Streets and Wabash and Grand Avenues, but it would have a grand entrance on Michigan Avenue between 520 N. Michigan Ave. and the Marriott on a new deck over Grand Avenue.
The plan also includes three new hotels with a total of 890 rooms. One would be a 13-floor, 315-room luxury inn in the rebuilt upper part of the landmark Art Deco-style McGraw-Hill building at 520 N. Michigan Ave. A 357-room midrange Hilton Garden Inn is planned for the corner of State Street and Grand Avenue.
The interior of the McGraw-Hill structure would be torn out, but the exterior would be carefully pulled down and then reconstructed to preserve its historic and artistic facade.
