A Canadian developer that already planned thousands of apartments along the Chicago River is doubling down on its big bet near the future home of Chicago’s first casino.
Onni Group is seeking zoning approval for a massive residential project that would create 2,451 units built over three phases, with towers rising as high as 650 feet tall, according to documents filed with the city.
Vancouver-based Onni’s plans are the latest sign that major changes are coming along a small stretch of the river between the Loop business district and densely populated North Side residential neighborhoods.
The project would replace a former Chicago Tribune warehouse at 700 W. Chicago Ave., which Onni bought last year for $45.25 million.
That site is directly across the river from Onni’s Halsted Pointe project, where the company is set to start building 2,650 apartments in towers as tall as 55 stories.
The new proposal, if approved, means Onni alone could develop more than 5,000 apartments in a riverfront stretch that long has been known for low-rise industrial operations.
Several thousand more apartments are proposed in the immediate area along the river, including as many as 4,800 expected in later phases of Bally’s more than $1.7 billion casino project just south of the Onni projects. Construction of the casino is expected to begin next year.
Also in the area, Chicago developer Shapack Partners plans a project with 2,269 apartments and a 141-room hotel.
Even without other plans emerging, those projects by Onni, Shapack and Bally’s would, if they’re all built, create more than 12,000 new apartments in an area of the city where there already are concerns about traffic congestion and other challenges that could come with a building boom.
Onni’s Halsted Pointe is at the southern tip of Goose Island, a human-made, long industrial island of 160 acres that hasn’t had a single resident in decades. Onni recently demolished a former Greyhound bus maintenance facility on the 8-acre site at 901 N. Halsted St.
Onni planned its ambitious Goose Island project before then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot chose Bally’s plan for the 30-acre Freedom Center site for the city’s first casino. That plan gained full City Council approval in late 2022.
The developer already had an agreement to buy the 7.1-acre site at Halsted and Chicago Avenue when the Freedom Center, a printing facility for the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers, was officially selected by Lightfoot.
The sellers of 700 W. Chicago were Irving, Texas-based broadcast company Nexstar and Chicago developer Riverside Investment & Development.
They previously planned to develop offices and apartments on the site where a 120,000-square-foot industrial building now stands, before backing off those plans after the onset of COVID-19.
Onni’s request for a change from industrial zoning to accommodate the project was recently introduced to Chicago’s City Council, as previously reported by Urbanize Chicago.
The 700 W. Chicago project, which would include 1,950 car parking spaces, is planned for three phases, starting with towers of 56 and 44 stories combining for 1,230 units. The final, largest phase would have towers of 51 and 57 stories atop one podium, with a combined 1,221 units.
CoStar News reached out to Onni for comment but did not immediately hear back.
Patient Investor
Onni’s latest big plan in Chicago comes after more than a year of rising interest rates, recession worries and other economic factors that have made property sales and developments more difficult to finance.
But Onni is known as a patient investor that doesn’t rely on investment partners to finance big new projects. The firm also is developing large projects not far from Goose Island on Chicago’s Near North Side and in the fast-growing Fulton Market district.
Onni, which also develops properties in cities including Vancouver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Toronto and Seattle, often buys development sites years ahead of zoning approvals or finalized plans so it can maintain a big pipeline of future projects.
The firm is owned by De Cotiis family, which has kept all the U.S. properties that Onni has bought and developed over several decades.
The company name is an anagram of founder Innocenzo “Inno” De Cotiis, who is said to have arrived penniless in Canada from his native Italy in 1959. He worked as a manual laborer with his father and brothers before forming a landscaping business and eventually creating a sprawling real estate empire.
Inno De Cotiis died in 2020 at age 82, and the firm is now run by one of his sons, Rossano.