Sterling Bay Plans 600 Apartments Near Chicago’s Lincoln Yards

Sterling Bay wants to tear down a warehouse on Chicago’s North Side and replace it with two residential towers holding more than 600 apartments.

The Chicago-based developer will file plans next week to build a 27-story tower and a 16-story highrise at 1840 North Marcey Street, near the Ranch Triangle area, CoStar News reported. They would replace a 78,600-square-foot warehouse.

The proposal comes as Sterling Bay races to find investors to rescue its nearby $6 billion Lincoln Yards megadevelopment, a 53-acre urban village set to include up to 6,000 homes, offices and retail along the North Branch of the Chicago River.

Its plan to redevelop the warehouse property on North Marcey Street is slated to be formally introduced to the Chicago City Council next week.

Sterling Bay bought the 2.2-acre site in 2019 for $17 million. The seller was logistics firm C.H. Robinson Worldwide, which moved into a building that Sterling Bay developed on what is now the northern edge of Lincoln Yards.

Plans call for a 27-story, 315-unit tower and a 16-story, 294-unit highrise next door, according to plans filed with the city.

Sterling Bay’s plan to redevelop Marcey Street follows two similar proposals to build hundreds of apartments just outside the Lincoln Yards. They include a mass timber building at 2100 North Southport Avenue and a standard tower at 2031-2033 North Kingsbury Street.

The proposed housing projects come as the developer scrambles to jumpstart its 14.5-million-square-foot Lincoln Yards, a formerly industrial swath of Chicago riverfront to unite Lincoln Park and Bucktown.

The Lincoln Yards project, which broke ground in 2021, has completed a life sciences building at 1229 West Concord Place, which has yet to land any tenants, according to CoStar.

Sterling Bay has since turned to the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund to seek hundreds of millions of dollars to pick up the pace, as initial investors and lenders, including J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Lone Star Funds, look to exit the project.

As it lines up nearby apartment projects, it’s not clear when Sterling Bay might build any of the 6,000 homes approved for development within Lincoln Yards.

— Dana Bartholomew