Breaking news: See Y. Wong to revitalize Wilson Yard redevelopment with new towers

Wabash Properties CEO See Y. Wong may be the luckiest man on the Near South Side, but will his brand of building magic work in Uptown?

Wong, the developer of such successes as the 1349 South Wabash Private Residences tower in the South Loop and the Grand Imperial Hotel in Chinatown, announced today that he will replace Holsten Development as the developer of the embattled Wilson Yard project, located near Montrose Avenue and Broadway in Uptown.

“Consider Wilson Yard fixed,” Wong said in a brief interview this morning. “Uptown is ready to resolve the problems it’s faced with this development, and I’ll walk from one Chinatown to another to make sure that happens.”

Although most of Wilson Yard’s retail component, anchored by an 180,000 square-foot Target department store, will remain intact, Wong says he plans to “spice up” the site with several developmental revisions, including the addition of two 40-story residential high-rises, tentatively named One Shiller Tower and One Shiller Tower West.

Wong envisions one tower comprising luxury condominiums, rental apartments, and hotel suites, and one tower devoted entirely to public housing.

“Opponents of the old Wilson Yard say it was built on a ‘failed housing model’ that focused solely on low-income homes. A luxury condo tower next door surely will bring balance to those concerns,” he says.

In a sign of gratitude toward the buildings’ namesake, he plans to offer Ald. Helen Shiller her choice of either of the buildings’ top-floor penthouses, “from which she can look down on her ward as its humble guardian.”

Wong has enlisted the help of veteran architects George Pappageorge and Larry Booth to design the high-rises. Citing a mutual admiration and a desire to put their stamp on what is
certain to be Uptown’s signature destination, Pappageorge and Booth issued their own joint statement promising “something special” for the neighborhood. Renderings of the buildings will be unveiled at a public meeting next week.

The normally subdued Pappageorge hinted at the team’s goals in the final sentence of its memo with the following exclamation: “If you thought Chicago architecture reached its peak with the South Loop, then you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”

When asked how he could afford to move forward with such large-scale changes to the Wilson Yard plans in such a stingy lending climate, Wong just laughed. “That’s what TIF is for, right?”

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