* 6/9/26 - Foundry Park In Line For $200 Million In Public Funding At Former Lincoln Yards Site.....................
Buzz Sawyer
"The Department of Planning and Development was granted permission Tuesday by the city’s
Under broad terms approved by the commission at a Tuesday meeting, the associated infrastructure
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https://blockclubchicago.org/2026/06/09/foundry-park-in-line-for-200-million-in-public-funding-at-former-lincoln-yards-site/
Foundry Park In Line For $200 Million In Public
The sprawling development is set to bring more than 3,000 housing units, a riverwalk and parks to the site in Lincoln Park and Bucktown.
by Quinn Myers June 9, 2026
LINCOLN PARK — Foundry Park, the megadevelopment set to bring more than 3,000 housing units plus office space, retail and other amenities to the northern section of the former Lincoln Yards site, could receive more than $200 million in public funding to support the construction of roads, parks and other infrastructure.
The Department of Planning and Development was granted permission Tuesday by the city’s Community Development Commission to negotiate a redevelopment agreement with JDL Development and Kayne Anderson Real Estate, the companies behind the sprawling mixed-use campus that received zoning approval earlier this year.
Under broad terms approved by the commission at a Tuesday meeting, the associated infrastructure costs for roads, parks and other public projects would total almost $235 million. JDL and Kayne Anderson would be on the hook for about $33 million, while almost $202 million would be reimbursed to the developers through tax increment financing dollars, according to a planning department staff report.
Some $71 million in tax increment financing money would pay for roads in the project, with additional funds going toward public parks and a potential extension of the 606’s Bloomingdale Trail over the Chicago River.
A final, detailed redevelopment agreement between the city and the Foundry Park developers will still need approval from the full City Council.
“The infrastructure is a means to an end. We need the infrastructure in order to be able to create the private development,” JDL CEO Jim Letchinger said on Tuesday.
Foundry Park represents the first sign of life for the fallow Lincoln Yards site in years. Situated between Bucktown and Lincoln Park, developer Sterling Bay struggled during and after the COVID-19 pandemic to finance its plans for the megadevelopment, which was approved by the City Council in 2019. The project was originally slated to receive up to $1.3 billion in public funding.
Sterling Bay only constructed one building on the site, a life sciences center that never found a tenant and was put up for sale last summer.
In July, JDL and Kayne Anderson announced an agreement to take over the northern section of Lincoln Yards, which Sterling Bay surrendered to a lender in March 2025.
The southern section west and south of the Chicago River was recently purchased by Novak Construction, which has not yet made its plans for the site public.
A spending breakdown for infrastructure costs related to the Foundry Park megadevelopment in Lincoln Park and Bucktown. Credit: ProvidedWhile still a large and complicated development, Foundry Park is significantly scaled down from the original Lincoln Yards plan and features far less office space with an emphasis on housing and retail.
Plans for the project call for up to 3,737 dwelling units to be built across apartments and condos, as well as a small number of single-family homes and townhouses.
Southport Avenue would be extended south to the Chicago River through the development and serve as its main commercial corridor. Foundry Park would also include several parks and a new riverwalk along with a re-naturalization of the river’s edge to include plants and trees.
Plans also call for the possible extension of the 606’s Bloomingdale Trail, although a city-backed plan to extend it to Elston Avenue from its current eastern terminus would first need to be completed.
The first phase of Foundry Park would include four buildings in a triangle-shaped section between Southport Avenue, Kingsbury Street and Cortland Street.
The tallest of the four buildings would rise to 39 stories at the corner of Kingsbury and Cortland and feature office space, residential and retail, according to plans. A boutique hotel and two residential buildings would surround a large “central square” that could host farmers markets, winter ice skating and other events.
The section would also have an underground parking garage with spots available to residents as well as over 300 spaces for shoppers or visitors to the area, Letchinger told the Chicago Plan Commission in January.
For the first phase of Foundry Park, JDL plans to earmark 95 of the 709 total housing units as affordable, while building five affordable units offsite. The developer would also make an payment of over $7 million to a city housing fund to avoid building an additionally required 42 affordable units, according to materials previously submitted to the city.
A rendering of the Foundry Park development’s “Central Square” park, which will be open to the public. Credit: Provided
The site plan for the Foundry Park development, which is taking over the northern section of the former Lincoln Yards site. Credit: ProvidedAld. Scott Waguespack (32nd), whose ward encompasses the Foundry Park site, was not present at Tuesday’s development commission meeting but has been a vocal supporter of Foundry Park — as has Mayor Brandon Johnson and his administration.
But while the overall project has generally been received favorably, concerns have been raised over the loss of some of the promised infrastructure projects that were once part of the larger Lincoln Yards plan.
That includes an overhaul of the intersection at Ashland, Armitage and Elston avenues, and the construction of several bridges over the Chicago River.
Critics of the infrastructure plans include Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd), who previously represented the Lincoln Yards area until 2023. Hopkins on Tuesday said he isn’t against the development as a whole, but that the surrounding neighborhood is being “short-changed” by the city under its current tax increment financing proposal.
“Most of the $200 million [in tax increment financing] that is being allocated now supports the development. It’s more internal roads and the open space that they’re required to provide. I’m not saying that it isn’t an essential part of the developer’s program. It is, but the most essential part is missing,” Hopkins said. “Where’s the bridges? Where’s the redesign of Elston/Ashland/Armitage intersection, that people were promised? Where’s the additional public transit dollars for this?”
After Tuesday’s meeting, Letchinger defended Foundry Park as a way to kickstart the funding of larger infrastructure needs in the area by boosting property tax revenue — and therefore tax increment financing dollars — at the currently vacant development site.
“We need to build in order to create revenue, get the TIF [district] funded, so that the city has the money to do something with the Metra, to do Elston Avenue, to add other bridges,” he said. “We have to start the process somewhere. That’s why we also took such an aggressive position on our first phase to get it started.”
Letchinger said he hopes to break ground on the first phase of Foundry Park before the “end of October.” Construction for the full project is expected to last until 2034.