170 N. Green – Second Presentation (Bridgford Foods Site)

Development Proposal

On Monday, January 9, 2017, Richard Bridgford of Bridgford Food Corporation property owner, attorney Richard Klawiter of DLA Piper, and architect Megan Zack of Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture presented a revised proposal for a structure on the site of the Bridgford Foods, which sits within the “Lake Street Business and Service” area of the Fulton Market Innovation District Plan.   This presentation reflects the second revision to plans for the property at 170 N. Green St. (the plans for 171 N. Green remain the same as last presented).

The structure proposed for 170 N. Green at one time required a zoning change from C1-1 (Neighborhood Commercial District) and C3-1 (Commercial, Manufacturing and Employment District) with a 1.2 FAR to C1-5, Residential-Business Planned Development with 5.0 FAR.  This second revision now requires a DX-5 .

The 2nd round of revisions to the original proposal includes:

  • Increased height from 153 ft. to 202 ft. tall
  • Increased the total number of stories from 13 to 17 stories
  • Increased the total number of rental units from 314 to 322 units
  • Increased ground floor retail from 35,000 sq. ft. to 41,172 sq. ft.

Committee Feedback

Disconcerting to the community present, as well as to the NoWL Development Committee; it appears that Bridgford family and developers have disregarded the community’s suggestion (liked by Alderman Burnett) that the square footage of the office building at 171 N. Green St. be replaced with an additional floor in the mixed-use building at 170 N. Green St.  The community suggested that a slightly (by one story) taller building at 170 N. Green St. would be well tolerated in light of gaining a public park at 171 N. Green St.  Rather, it appears that the building height increased (not by just one story but by four stories) and yet, no public park.

Most troubling of all was the news that this proposal is slated to be presented to the city Planning Commission on January 19, 2017 without benefit of another Community Meeting to review this second set of revisions.

The community would like for the building height not to exceed 150 feet (the approximate height of the building at 1000 W. Fulton -a.k.a. The Google Building).

Next Steps

The NoWL Development Committee and community will appeal to Alderman Burnett to postpone the January 19th presentation to Planning & Development until after the community has had chance to review the latest set of revisions at another Community Meeting.  of this proposal will work with the developer, Bridgford family, and Ald. Burnett to see if a new park can be provided at 171 N. Green.  After that and the other remaining issues are resolved, the committee will provide a position letter to Ald. Burnett based on feedback gained from the committee and the community during this meeting.

Date:  Tuesday, January 17, 2017

By:  Lena Elias-Bluett