MEDICAL DISTRICT — A group of developers is planning to build 500 new apartments and rehab 400 existing apartments on the Near West Side.
Under the $111 million deal, two 12-story towers will be built and 410 existing apartments in the Medical District Apartments development will be rehabbed. The 5.65-acre site along Ashland Avenue between Polk and Taylor streets is near the Medical District and University of Illinois at Chicago campus.
The two towers would be built where two existing two-story garage decks now sit.
KIG brokered the deal and Guggenheim Real Estate, Atlantic Realty Partners and Focus Development are partners in the joint venture.
Steps from Rush University Medical Center, the existing Medical District Apartments will be updated under a renovation that includes new floors and upgraded kitchens and baths. The apartments, which are 94 percent occupied, were built in 1972, a KIG spokesman said.
The renovation of the existing residential towers is scheduled to begin in the fall.
The site is less than a quarter-mile from the CTA's Polk Pink Line station and within walking distance of the Blue Line.
Susan Tjarksen, principal and managing broker at KIG, said the deal allows the partners to capitalize on continued demand for rental housing near the Medical District, "where high-quality jobs and public transportation are easily accessible."
"Ongoing investment on the Near West Side, including the proposed redevelopment of the Cook County Hospital, will only raise the profile of the neighborhood — and underlying real estate values — in the months and years ahead," Tjarksen said.
The developers will seek a zoning change.
A $700 million plan to redevelop the old Cook County Hospital site into a hotel, apartments, shops, restaurants and parking was approved in May.
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