McCaffery Gets Approval for Chicago Lakeside Development Master Plan

April 21, 2010
By Allison Landa, News Editor

Courtesy Flickr Creative Commons user urbanwoodswalker

Chicago-based development and management firm McCaffery Interests said Wednesday that it has received the go-ahead from the Chicago Plan Commission for the Chicago Lakeside Development Master Plan as well as the enactment of a Planned Development Ordinance that provides the site’s Phase I with the required land use entitlements. The green light has been given to McCaffery’s affiliated development firm, Chicago Lakeside Development, LLC, a public-private partnership between U.S. Steel Corporation and McCaffery Interests.

The plan refers to a 369-acre parcel located 10 miles south of downtown Chicago. It is a former U.S. Steel South Works plant site adjacent to the city’s South Shore area. In its entirety, the plan entails $450 million in new public infrastructure, 125 acres of public land, lakefront access, new bike paths, and commuter rail and bus service surrounded by 13,575 new homes, 17.5 million square feet of retail and other commercial space, a new high school, and a 1,500-slip marina. Touted as one of the largest public-private development projects ever in Chicago, the project was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in conjunction with Sasaki Associates and Antunovich Associates. It is slated to be completed in six different phases over 25-45 years at a cost of more than $4 billion in public and private funds.

Phase I includes a mixed-use shopping and residential district known as The Market Common. It is slated for a 76-acre parcel on the site’s northwest area. It will encompass 800,000 square feet of retail, restaurants, entertainment venues and residential units, with construction to begin in 2012.

“The Market Common brings together the best ideas in land use and planning to create an entirely new, environmentally-friendly, accessible and diverse urban experience,” McCaffery said in a fact sheet describing the project.