801 W. Lake – Shapack Partners

Development Proposal

On Monday, August 8, 2016, Jeff Shapack from Shapack Partners and Tim Anderson from Focus Development presented a proposed 20-story (240 ft) extended-stay hotel on the southwest corner of Lake and Halsted (178 N. Halsted/801 W. Lake). The site sits within the “Lake Street Business and Service” area of the Fulton Market Innovation District Plan.

Shapack Partners has several projects in the West Loop, including WeWork, The Parker, and the planned Hoxton Hotel.

The proposed site, currently a gravel parking area, measures 150 ft x 100 ft. The developer is proposing to have 9,000 sq ft of retail on the ground floor, with entry on the east side near the alley and loading on the southwest part of the property (from the alley). No curb cut will be provided on Halsted due to a planned bus stop on Halsted. The sidewalks around the building would be 6 ft wide. With a building set back of 3 ft from the property line, there will be 9 ft of space between the street and building.

There would be a total of 50 parking spaces on the second and third floors. The extended stay hotel concept (245 rooms) would go from the 4th floor upward. The developer is looking for a unique hotel brand to occupy the space. There will be green space on the fourth floor (above the El) and on the top floor (50% green roof). The developer is seeking LEED certification for this project.

These proposed site would require a zoning change from C3-1 (Commercial, Manufacturing and Employment District)/DX-5 with a 1.2/5.0 FAR to DX-7 Planned Development. In addition, the developer plans to use the Neighborhood Opportunity Bonus to increase the FAR to 11.5 (pre-bonus FAR of 7.0). This would require a $1.5M payment for the bonus.

The developer expects that construction would take up one parking lane along Halsted and Lake.

A traffic study will be prepared as part of the project and made available to NoWL.

Committee Feedback

  • Future use – The committee acknowledged that the Planned Development designation would restrict the building to residential use, however there was concern that the property might be converted to rental units in the future. We would like to see wording included in the zoning change that the building cannot be converted to apartments.
  • Height – The group agreed that the proposed height (11.5 FAR) is very high and should be reduced.
  • Construction impacts – The committee expressed concern about the removal of parking lanes during construction in an area that is already short on available parking – especially considering that this development would remove a surface parking lot.

Next Steps

A community meeting will be scheduled for this proposed development in in the fall. The NoWL Development Committee will issue a position letter based on resident feedback collected before and at the community meeting.

Date: Sunday, September 18, 2016

By: NOWL Development Committee Chair, Matt Letourneau

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