LINCOLN PARK — A New York-based developer wants to build a slim, 37-story apartment tower along the busy Clybourn Corridor in Lincoln Park, a project that has the local alderman concerned about traffic congestion.
The Georgetown Company presented plans for the tower during a community meeting Monday hosted by the office of Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd). The tower would replace the former Bank of America branch at the corner of North and Clybourn avenues while keeping an adjacent two-story retail building and four-story parking garage on the site.
Some neighbors, including Hopkins, said they thought the project would bring too much congestion to the neighborhood.
The developers have hired engineering firm KLOA to conduct a traffic study for the project, which will be reviewed by the Chicago Department of Transportation.
“We need to take a much deeper dive into the traffic impact and then continue to have some more community review,” Hopkins said.
The tower proposed for 1565 N. Clybourn Ave. would 396 apartments — a mix of efficiency studios, convertibles, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms, said Angela Spadoni, an architect with bKL, which designed the project.
Seventy-nine of the apartments will be “affordable,” or rented out at or below 60 percent of the area median income, said Paul Shadle, a lawyer for Georgetown.
The ground floor of the building will line Clybourn Avenue with 2,500 square feet of retail space, Spadoni said. The residential entry to the building will face a private drive accessible from Weed Street or North Avenue.
The private drive will be used for loading and drop-off access to mitigate the building’s traffic impact, Spadoni said.
The building is near the North/Clybourn Red Line station and the #8 Halsted bus, so it qualifies as a transit-oriented development, which allows for fewer parking spaces than would typically be required, Spadoni said.
Of the site’s 158 parking spaces, 70 will be available to the tower’s tenants, while 73 will be available for retail parking and 15 for employees, Spadoni said. The tower will also have 396 bike parking spaces on the third floor, which will serve as an amenity area.
The project requires a zoning change to move forward. If the overall project is approved, construction could begin in early 2025, developers said. The development still needs approval from Hopkins, the Chicago Plan Commission, the Committee on Zoning and the full City Council.
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