A prolific developer in Chicago’s River North is proposing an apartment tower wedged between two loft office buildings it owns near the Chicago River, potentially shifting focus from a long-planned hotel development on the site.
In documents filed with the city ahead of Wednesday’s City Council meeting, Friedman Properties is seeking a zoning change that would allow a 386-foot-tall apartment building at 322 N. Clark St.
The requested zoning amendment comes almost seven years after Friedman introduced plans for the hotel-focused plan on the site alongside the historic Reid Murdoch Center loft office building.
The developer said in an email to CoStar News on Tuesday that the zoning amendment was filed “to provide the site with more flexibility over the long term,” but no decision has been made on the timing of the project or whether its ultimate focus will be multifamily or hospitality.
“There are no immediate plans to develop a hotel or multifamily on 322 N. Clark St.,” the statement said.
The potential change in direction comes amid a Chicago-area apartment market that remains steady relative to some other property types, including hotels and offices.
Nationally, apartment rent growth fell from 11% in 2021 to 2.8% last year, according to CoStar data. The biggest pullbacks were in fast-growing Sun Belt markets.
The Chicago-area apartment market has been steady by comparison, with 5.5% overall vacancy near its lowest level in two-plus decades and rent growth steady at 4.3% over the past 12 months, according to CoStar data.
There are thousands of apartments planned in Chicago’s Fulton Market district in the years to come, potentially testing overall demand in the city, and real estate projects throughout the country remain challenged by rising interest rates, inflation and worries of a recession.
Since 2016, Friedman has been planning a hotel tower on the Clark Street site. In that plan, floors two through seven would contain new office space directly connected to the existing Reid Murdoch offices, with the hotel on higher floors.
The parcel runs along the east side of the Reid Murdoch building, an eight-story Chicago landmark at 325 N. LaSalle St. that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The site is just south of the 10-story vintage office building Friedman owns at 350 N. Clark St., which is called the Thompson Building.
Friedman Properties’ CEO and chairman, Al Friedman, is often referred to as the “Mayor of River North” because of the decades he has spent buying and developing properties on several blocks of the once-seedy, now-in-demand area north of the Loop.
The firm’s other ongoing projects include putting a temporary casino in the historic Medinah Temple at 600 N. Wabash Ave. while the city’s first permanent casino is planned and eventually built on the Freedom Center site along the river to the north.
Last year, Friedman also bought the site of a former Midas auto shop at 158 W. Grand Ave., which is adjacent to the 156-room Moxy hotel that Friedman developed. Friedman’s plans for the Midas site are unknown.
Friedman also owns the former Ruth’s Chris Steak House building at 431 N. Dearborn St., where New York-based The Group plans to bring French restaurant La Grande Boucherie and two other concepts.