The John Buck Company and Lendlease can start building a block-sized complex that will include 590 apartments and ground-floor retail space in the West Loop.
Crews were seen unloading equipment on Monday at the 2.5-acre former site of the H2O Plus bath products factory — at the intersection of Madison and Halsted streets — which was demolished in January, according to Curbed.
Plans from GREC Architects show a pair of towers with a staggered building-block design, rising 15 and 17 stories. Together, they would add to the burgeoning West Loop. Fifield Companies and F&F Realty topped out their 45-story tower at 727 West Madison Street earlier this year.
The joint John Buck and Lendlease development was approved before the city’s new affordable housing “pilot zones” measure took effect, allowing the development to require renting just 10 percent of its units below market rate. Today, a residential project proposed on that same site would be required to make at least 20 percent of its units affordable.
The towers will rise a few blocks west of Union Station, where Riverside Investment & Development was approved last month to build a 400-key hotel and a 1.5-million-square-foot office tower.
The John Buck Company is fresh off a shakeup that saw its eponymous founder return as CEO this year, followed by the departure of two top executives.
Shortly after Buck’s return, the company signed Facebook to a 263,000-square-foot lease at its newly-built CNA Center, 151 North Franklin Street, in the Loop. [Curbed] — Alex Nitkin