A hotel proposal is popping up amid a wave of development interest around the forthcoming Barack Obama Presidential Center.
Plans for a 28-story, 250-key hotel were submitted to the City of Chicago by Aquinnah Investment Trust, a little-known investment group, Urbanize Chicago reported.
The building, designed by Stantec, is proposed for 6402 South Stony Island, a vacant lot near the Obama center on Chicago’s South Side.
The proposal includes retail, office, a 5th floor pool deck and a 13th floor amenity deck. To move forward, approvals will be needed from the Chicago Plan Commission, Committee on Zoning, and City Council.
The area has seen an influx of interest from developers and real estate investors ahead of the presidential center’s planned spring 2026 completion. It has also stoked fears of gentrification in the surrounding Woodlawn Neighborhood.
Neighborhood leaders have proposed various anti-gentrification efforts in the area, including the Woodlawn Housing Preservation Ordinance. The ordinance established affordability requirements on all rental and for-sale housing developed on city-owned residential land and gave tenants the right of first refusal when a rental property is sold.
The right of first refusal is meant to prevent the area’s naturally occurring affordable housing — particularly two- to four-flats — from being replaced with pricey residential developments. The provision requires landlords to notify tenants when they intend to sell and give them time to match the bid of a third-party buyer.
Chicago’s hotel development pipeline has fallen to the lowest level in recent years as construction lending froze up, with fewer than 1,500 rooms under construction in the fourth quarter, CoStar reported.