* 2/18/26 - Foundry Park plan clears City Council — but infrastructure question lingers
Buzz Sawyer
— but infrastructure question lingers
A $3 billion megaproject that would reshape a swath of the North Side with thousands of apartments and other uses hit a key milestone today by winning the City Council's approval, a sign-off that came despite lingering concerns about new infrastructure to support it.
City legislators today green-lit plans for Foundry Park, a 6 million-square-foot-plus mixed-use district proposed for 34 acres along the Chicago River between Lincoln Park and Bucktown. The project from a joint venture of Chicago-based JDL Development and Boca Raton, Fla.-based Kayne Anderson Real Estate is slated to bring more than 3,200 residential units to the northern slice of the Lincoln Yards campus that never materialized after the City Council approved that sprawling vision from developer Sterling Bay in 2019.
The approval for Foundry Park moves JDL and Kayne Anderson closer to their planned groundbreaking on its initial phase this fall, a potentially powerful signal of progress for a broader commercial real estate industry that has gone cold on Chicago over the past few years.
Yet the proposal still has a thorny obstacle in its way. While the council signed off on zoning for the project, it still must approve plans for new roads, utilities and other public infrastructure serving the historically industrial property — which is notoriously plagued by traffic congestion — and how those will be funded.
Under a controversial redevelopment agreement, or RDA, struck for Lincoln Yards in 2019, Sterling Bay was slated to pay for major infrastructure projects on the site. Up to $490 million in tax-increment financing money — new property tax revenue created by the neighborhood — would later be used to reimburse the developer only when certain projects were completed.
Financing those new roads and bridges played a key role in sinking the project, ultimately forcing Sterling Bay last year to surrender to its lender or sell almost all of the Lincoln Yards property.
The City Council's thumbs-up today came despite a vote against the rezoning by Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, whose ward included the Lincoln Yards site before a 2023 redistricting. Hopkins today repeated his call for infrastructure solutions to be made clear before Foundry Park moves forward.
Infrastructure projects sought for Lincoln Yards included a redesign of the Elston-Ashland-Armitage intersection nearby and two new bridges over the river, among other priorities.
While praising the project itself as "arguably better" than Lincoln Yards, Hopkins told his fellow aldermen that the city had not adequately addressed the needs that were promised for Lincoln Yards in 2019 — and are already needed today in the neighborhood.
"All those things that were promised to the neighborhood as a contingent for their support of Lincoln Yards. And as of now, we're walking away from it," Hopkins said on the floor of the City Council chamber. "For that reason, I vote no, and I hope that we can eventually correct this problem."
With far less density than the original 14 million-square-foot proposal for Lincoln Yards, it's likely Foundry Park may need less robust new infrastructure to support it. Plans presented to the Plan Commission last month showed newly built portions of streets including Dominick Street and Southport Avenue — which would serve as the main thoroughfare of the project — as well as 3,000 linear feet of new riverwalk.
JDL CEO Jim Letchinger said yesterday during a presentation to the City Council's Zoning Committee that his group has worked with the Chicago Department of Transportation and other city officials "to incorporate the streets to fit our site," but did not detail major infrastructure projects or how they would be financed.
Letchinger told Crain's last month that conversations with the city around infrastructure are "still evolving" and lauded city planning officials for "understanding that they're not looking for us to commit to public projects that we can't control."
A rendering of Foundry Park. (JDL Development/Kayne Anderson Real Estate)Letchinger did not immediately provide a comment today on the City Council's approval. A spokesman for the Department of Planning & Development declined to comment, though DPD Commissioner Ciere Boatright said during the Plan Commission meeting last month that her team and the developers are in "early-ish" conversations about "incentives that may be available to help address some infrastructure needs for the site."
One complicating factor is that the Lincoln Yards RDA addressed infrastructure projects for that project's entire 53-acre site. The city needs to untangle that to address only the Foundry Park proposal, which is separate from the southern swath of the Lincoln Yards land that was recently sold to a venture of Chicago-based Novak Construction.
Ald. Scott Waguespack, 32nd, whose ward includes the Foundry Park site, said during the City Council meeting today that the area near the property has "significant transportation challenges" that he and the developers will work with the Chicago Department of Transportation and DPD to address "as this project moves forward."
"It sends a great message, I think, to the development community for our city that Chicago is still open for business, that we can move forward with fantastic projects like this," Waguespack said on the council floor. "Despite the seven-year hiccup (with Lincoln Yards), we're moving in the right direction."
The Foundry Park proposal includes as many as 3,737 dwelling units mixed among single-family homes, townhomes, rental units and condos, though the developer said they intend to build 3,207 residential units. That total would be split between 305 owner-occupied homes and 2,902 rental units, according to a zoning application submitted to the City Council last month.
The plan also calls for as much 350,000 square feet dedicated to a combination of traditional and medical office space, 420,000 square feet of retail and commercial space and 250,000 square feet of hospitality space.
The first phase of development would cost an estimated $800 million and total about 1.6 million square feet, including roughly 750 residential units alongside retail and hotel uses. Most of that would be on a triangular parcel bounded by Southport, Cortland and Kingsbury Street.
That site would include what would be the tallest building at the site, a 39-story apartment and condo building that Letchinger has called the "monument" of the entire project.
At full buildout, Foundry Park would include about 10 acres of open space through a network of parks, according to JDL. The full plan also requires the creation of 641 rental units affordable to households earning an average of 60% of the area's median income.
Letchinger said last month the project would also include a bridge connecting the property to the 606 trail just west of the site, but that would be built only after the trail is extended to the Foundry Park property.
JDL and Kayne Anderson bought most of the land for Foundry Park in September from Little Rock, Ark.-based lender Bank OZK, which seized the property from Sterling Bay to resolve an outstanding loan. Much of the site was previously home to the A. Finkl & Sons steel mill that operated around the intersection of Cortland and Southport from 1902 until 2014.
The Foundry Park proposal also includes parcels near the site's southeast corner that the developers recently acquired from a venture of the family that owned and operated the General Iron Industries scrap metal recycling plant that was shuttered in 2020.
Justin Laurence contributed.