Like Alice when she took a bite of cake, an embattled Chicago condominium project has been growing smaller and smaller. Finally, it appears ready to enter the wonderland of the Gold Coast.
After a three-year imbroglio that involved some of Chicago’s heaviest hitters, the project was approved unanimously Thursday by the Chicago Plan Commission–at about one-fourth the size at which it had originally been proposed.
Along the way the project evoked such an outcry that it was a crucial factor in triggering a city ordinance that drastically limited the height of most new buildings in the elite, historic area on the Near North Side.
The plan that got the OK at last is an eight-story stone building at 65 E. Goethe St. with a metal mansard roof designed to evoke the style of vintage Parisian residences, and 20 to 28 units ranging in price from $1.8 million to $5 million.
Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd), a Plan Commission member and sponsor of the height-limit ordinance, called it “a very sensitive building” that will become “one of the grandest buildings in Chicago.”
In addition, several neighborhood residents and community leaders spoke in support of the project.
Three years ago, Fordham Development proposed a 32-story condo building on the site adjacent to Goudy Park in the heart of the Gold Coast and was met by howls of protest from wealthy and powerful neighbors.
Fordham Chairman Christopher Carley said he first lowered the plan to 24 stories, then found the parcel downzoned to allow only 18 stories.
While he was working on that plan, the height-limit ordinance was passed after pressure from residents, including one former head of the Plan Commission. That took the height down to 12 stories, but further city action reduced it to the final eight stories, Carley said.
Only a booming economy in which wealthy buyers are paying stratospheric prices for real estate enabled him to do the project in its final form, Carley added.
“If the market had not gained the strength it had, this project would have been dead two years ago,” he said. “But the grace of God and a good market saved the day. Otherwise the economics wouldn’t have worked and I couldn’t have gotten financing.”
Carley said about half the units have been reserved by buyers, including a senior partner in a large law firm, a bank chairman, a “nationally renowned” physician and the retired chairman of an international advertising firm.
Even so, he won’t make the money he was originally expecting to with a 32-story building, Carley said. “The good news is that we’re really excited about the building, and the neighbors are too,” he added.
The plan includes six townhouses ranging up to 8,300 square feet in size and, above them, 14 to 22 condos, the largest of which could be 6,250 square feet. There will also be a 48-car underground garage.
The design by Chicago architecture firm Lucien Lagrange and Associates includes an arched doorway, bay windows, turrets and balconies to emphasize the Parisian flavor.
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Another developer involved in the Gold Coast development battle, Draper & Kramer, is suing the city for barring its plan to build a 40-story residential building not far away on Lake Shore Drive. Both that company and Fordham originally noted that the Gold Coast already includes many high-rises.
The development process has “been a long route,” Carley said. “If it doesn’t work, we’ve been stubborn and stupid. If it works, we’ve been bright and tenacious. I’m hoping we’ve been bright and tenacious.”