This week’s Crain’s Chicago Business (subscription required) reports on a major development for a troubled parcel of land (red area in above image) just north of McCormick Place:
An Arizona developer aims to jump-start a massive hotel, retail and entertainment project next to McCormick Place and turn the nearby Motor Row area into a nightlife hot spot.
Winners Development LLC agreed to invest $40.2 million in a parcel on East Cermak Road, directly north of the McCormick Place West Building, according to a recent court filing in a bankruptcy case involving the property’s owner. The first phase of construction would include a convention hotel with 900 rooms, although the 4.9-acre property is zoned for nearly 2,600.
If the Scottsdale-based developer can pull it off—still a big if—the project will be the first of its size on the Near South Side since the real estate collapse derailed the frenzied residential development that transformed the area in the 2000s.
You can read some of the background to this story in a June 2011 opinion (PDF) from the Bankruptcy Court.
I can’t spend much time on Winners Development’s website without gagging on what strikes me as a mound of undistilled BS. I’ll just move on to jump-starting Chicago’s 2020 Olympics bid and my plans to turn Englewood into Winnetka.