The blog A-Ville Daily got its hands on a mailer from developer Waveland Partners, which is seeking to tear down the Edgewater Medical Center at Ashland and Hollywood to build a large rental apartment building. "We have squeezed project economics to the very edge of financial viability, significantly reducing the size the building and removing several hundred apartments from the project," says the letter. "The result is a building consisting of 297 apartments with first floor retail, 16 single family homes and a neighborhood park." The park in question is of course the small (81' x 108') plot on the northwest corner of the plot. Neighborhood residents, who have been clamoring for more green space, probably won't be satisfied with the pocket park, which Waveland addresses in the letter:
"[W]e are trying to do everything we can to give this project a chance to work; so we have developed an option to permit still more open space beyond that already included in our plan; we will grant a one-year option to an established purchaser (e.g., Open Lands) to buy all or part of the Edgewater Medical Center site to for an even larger park than the one we propose, provided that the rezoning and entitlement process for our planned development proceeds without further delay. If the established purchaser exercises the option, the planned development would be adjusted accordingly."The group Friends of West Edgewater Park, which has been advocating for a park on that site, announced in late April that they had been meeting with Open lands and the Trust For Public Lands to discuss the possible acquisition of the site, but aside from the news that Skidmore, Owings and Merrill would be working on park sketches, we haven't heard anything since then. · Waveland Partners Begins Campaign to Build 297 Apartments [A-Ville Daily]
· Waveland Partners Unveils Plans for Edgewater Medical Center [Curbed Chicago]