Belgravia Group and Sandz Development, the team behind the 530 N. Lake Shore Drive highrise, plan to bring homebuyers two more rare chances to live in a new lakefront building.
In the minds of most Chicagoans, Lake Shore Drive is fully developed, lined with some of the city’s most prestigious highrises, without room for a hotdog stand much less another tower. But a grassy parcel just north of 530 Lake Shore has been owned by the Alter Group for years, and prospective developments there by Atlantis and Bejco never came to pass.
Belgravia and Sandz plan to build two new highrises on this site, at 600 N. Lake Shore Drive, between their 530 Lake Shore building and the W Hotel. Belgravia’s planned North Building, at the corner of Lake Shore and Ontario, would be 39 stories, and the South Building, a street’s width away, at Lake Shore and Ohio, would be 40 stories. The first building would have 155 condos and the second 240. Both were designed by architects Pappageorge Haymes with eight-story bases that contain parking.
“This is probably the last built piece anywhere north on the Drive,” said Alan Lev, of Belgravia Group. “It’s been attempted once or twice and for various reasons never got off ground.”
There’s a certain cachet to a Lake Shore Drive address, but the most tangible benefit is the views. “Everything will have views of the lake,” Lev says. “Because of the setup, each unit has a lake view, and each building has two east-facing units.”
Belgravia and Sandz have stayed within the bounds of the planned-unit development zoning that already exists for the site, but the developers will need approval for the specifics of their project. That hasn’t always been easy in Streeterville, where some vocal residents have been wary of adding density and allowing buildings that might obscure neighboring views. But Lev says a recent meeting with the Streeterville Organization of Active Residents went well and that Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd) has not opposed the project.
“We had a nice meeting with SOAR,” Lev said. “They asked to tweak a few things, but they seemed to really like it. (Ald.) Natarus seems inclined to like it. He wants us to meet with neighborhood groups.”
Lev acknowledges that the views of some nearby residents may be affected, but he says that having a new “jewel along the lake” will more than compensate. Lev says that “jewel” will nod to Mies van der Rohe’s famous 860-880 N. Lake Shore Drive buildings, which are heavy on steel and glass and express their frames in exemplary Modernist fashion. The designs for 600 N. Lake Shore have not been finalized but will be heavy on glass and include sculpture gardens on both the ground level and above the parking garage.
Tentative pricing calls for one-bedrooms starting in the mid-$300s, two-bedrooms in the low $500s and three-bedrooms from the low $900s. If the buildings are approved, Belgravia plans to start construction on the North Building in spring of 2005 with completion in winter of 2007. Construction on the South Building would start in summer of 2007. A sales center is slated to open in a ground-floor retail space at 540 N. Lake Shore Drive (entrance on Ohio) in late summer of 2004.