Winner picked for Pershing Road project; plans would reinvent an industrial colossus

For years, not much has happened besides neglect and decay in Chicago’s historic Central Manufacturing District along Pershing Road.

But there’s finally a winning plan for part of the district. Or at least, it’s a proposal the city has designated as a winner, the favorite of three responses it got to a challenge issued to real estate developers.

Give us your best ideas, the city said last year, for property it owns at 1717-69 W. Pershing. If the plan can be realized, the hope is the McKinley Park neighborhood will be winners, too.

Last week, the Department of Planning and Development said it will work with Chicago-based IBT Group on its proposal for a $121 million makeover of the sites, which include a vacant 571,000-square-foot warehouse. Built in 1918 for the U.S. Army, the building has vast floors with scores of pillars to hold bygone loads. It figures in the district’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places, so wrecking it is strongly frowned upon.

IBT would carve out a midsection of the building to create connected structures while preserving the historic facades. One part would be for housing and the other a hub for offices and technology firms. They would share a courtyard that lets in sunshine.

A small building east of the warehouse is currently a city maintenance facility. It would be converted to a 50,000-square-foot grocery store, a natural for a site that already has 130 parking spaces.

The developers want to top off everything with a park on the roof, perhaps extending the greenery to neighboring industrial giants the city also owns. But that could be a ways off.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

For now, IBT founder Gary Pachucki has to look for financial backing. “We started this more than a year ago, and it was a different world then,” he said, noting the rise in interest rates, inflation and a general sour feeling some investors have about Chicago.

Pachucki said he hopes that sentiment is improving, but concerns about property taxes and crime rates are still top of mind.

“It’ll take a year to get [zoning] entitlements. You hope interest rates will level off, and hopefully, you get more capital interest in Chicago,” he said.

His proposal calls for $25 million in city subsidies via tax-increment financing, which are diverted property taxes. It’s a large request, but Pachucki said it’s essential for a project of such scope. Construction should take at least two more years, he said. Financial terms must go before the City Council.

Many in the neighborhood think the wait will be worth it. In community focus groups, the IBT plan got better reviews than two competing submissions, both of which called for using the sites for video production.

“We’re really excited about this proposal,” said Kate Eakin, president of the McKinley Park Development Council. She said the neighborhood needs the housing and the grocery store. The developers would abide by a city ordinance and set aside 20% of the planned 120 units as affordable.

Eakin said the plan stood out from other submissions “that were beholden to a single industry.” Another factor, she said, was the winning developer team during site walk-throughs was “the only guys who asked questions about what the neighbors wanted.”

The neighborhood has fought with the nearby MAT Asphalt over air pollution, but Eakin said that should not be an issue for the development.

Partners in the IBT team are Epstein, APMonarch, dbHMS, Site Design Group, Englewood Construction and Arco Murray. Epstein is an engineering and architectural firm that years ago started in the district’s iconic Clock Tower Building at Pershing Road and Damen Avenue.

“The Pershing Road project is an example of how innovative thinking and design can breathe new life into our historic spaces, while expanding affordable housing opportunities for Chicagoans,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a news release.

Planning Commissioner Maurice Cox authorized the pick, although he’s on his way out the door. An appointee of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Cox has announced his resignation but is wrapping up business through mid-September.

“This is an ambitious plan that will completely revitalize one of the country’s most substantial vacant buildings while also creating a community anchor that fosters additional neighborhood investment,” Cox said.

Financing aside, there’s another problem, though. The 1769 building, the massive warehouse, is said to be in bad shape.

“We have not been allowed in that building,” Pachucki said. “You never know what you find until you get in there.”

With the challenges awaiting him, Pachucki said he at least hopes for a speedy route through the city bureaucracy, which will include stops at the Community Development Commission and the Chicago Plan Commission.

“Time,” he said, “kills all deals.”

IBT Group