SOUTH CHICAGO — Plans for one mega-development on the 430 vacant acres of U.S. Steel South Works land in South Chicago are officially dead, and Ald. Greg Mitchell (7th) said the property will be broken up into smaller parcels.
Mitchell announced in his newsletter Saturday that the U.S. Steel land once slated for the Lakeside Development will now be split up into at least four parcels.
Sam Cholke with the latest on proposed development on the old U.S. Steel site.
“After several discussions, meeting, and tours with representatives from US Steel and the City of Chicago Department of Planning, it has been agreed that the best way to serve the 7th ward and surrounding communities is to take the massive 430-acre lakefront property and divide it into smaller parcels,” Mitchell said in the newsletter.
“This will relieve the pressure on one developer in taking on a huge project all at once, reducing the barriers of entry and allowing a more diverse group of developers access, and reducing the length of total project completion.”
The project is being rebranded as 8080 Lakeshore and Cushman and Wakefield have come in as the brokers. The group is marketing the land as close to Hyde Park and the future Barack Obama presidential library and the historic Pullman neighborhood, and are casting a wide net in search of industrial, research, entertainment, residential and mixed use projects.
Larry Goldwasser of Cushman and Wakefield said resorts, manufacturing, data centers and others have shown initial interest in a portion of the lakefront site.
"We've had developers say its' the nicest site for an industrial park in the country," Goldwasser said.
He said the biggest change is that U.S. Steel is now outright selling the property and will not be involved as an investor or partner on the development.
The site was previously being developed by a team lead by McCaffery Interests and was expected to bring in $4 billion in new development.
One of the proposed developments for the U.S. Steel Site. (Skidmore, Owings and Merrill)
The developers split with partner U.S. Steel in February in what was called an amicable break by both sides as questions arose about whether U.S. Steel still had the equity needed to complete a large-scale real estate development.
The new division of the land creates three properties east of the Lake Shore Drive extension ranging in size from 56 to 135 acres. A fourth parcel west of Lake Shore Drive is 111 acres and is closer to neighboring South Chicago, but has no access to the three miles of lakeshore on the site.
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