Loft developers are actively scouting industrial parcels south, west and north of downtown as the supply of developable buildings dries up in traditional loft neighborhoods such as the South Loop and the West Loop. Where are they headed? Developers such as Tandem Developers, Dubin Residential and FitzGerald Associates Architects (which designs and develops lofts) have the smart money on a number of South Side locations. On the heels of projects like the sold-out Union Lofts, The Lofts at Bridgeport Place and McKinley Park Lofts, developers are eyeing warehouses in the Bubbly Creek area, a section of the south fork of the South Branch of the Chicago River that was once a dumping ground for the refuse from the old Bridgeport stockyards. The area has already seen some development in the form of the new-construction development of single-family homes, Bridgeport Village.
As manufacturers scout locations closer to interstate highways, sections of the river will become available, says architect and developer Pat FitzGerald. Another South Side hot spot is the row of warehouses that make up the former central manufacturing district along Pershing Road, as we’ve said previously. As a developer, FitzGerald thinks the city is “silly” to resist efforts to redevelop some of Chicago’s planned manufacturing districts as mixed-used residential / industrial / retail projects. He thinks the old Finkl site in the Clybourn corridor, which has a new owner, is ripe for such a conversion.