GARFIELD RIDGE — Plans have been nixed to add a five-story parking garage to a vacant lot in the 5300 block of South Keating Avenue.
The project, which was in preliminary stages, was led by PreFlight Airport Parking, which provides off-site parking near airports, including O'Hare.
Ald. Michael Zalewski (23rd) said he was "open to the idea" of building the parking garage, but the project faced several obstacles: The garage would have competed with Midway Airport's parking, a traffic signal would have had to be installed and the Federal Aviation Administration would need to be involved due to the building's height and proximity to Midway, he said.
There were too many complications and PreFlight is no longer pursuing the project, said Jesse Nunez, PreFlight's general manager at O'Hare.
This isn't the first time the lot has seen big plans quashed: The lot formerly housed a bank, but after it closed the building fell into "real bad disarray and disrepair," Zalewski said.
Developers planned to build a hotel on the site but they walked away due to the "tanking economy," and the alderman's office had to go through the court system to have the building knocked down, Zalewski said.
Zalewski said the "big piece of property" has sat vacant for years.
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