Development Watch

Daniel McCaffery is entering into a new partnership for a vacant northerly portion of his Roosevelt Collection property that could benefit the development and the neighborhood: strike a deal with the private and very popular British School of Chicago to locate a second campus in the South Loop. The British School's Lincoln Park campus is overcrowded, and McCaffery's land would accommodate a 90,000-square-foot school with a gym, auditorium, and athletic fields#&8212; perks they're presently lacking. Negotiations involve the Chicago Park District, Ald. Robert Fioretti, and neighborhood groups, so will be anything but easy. And, not everyone is plussed. Tina Feldstein, president of the Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance sees the school's presence as icing, not a foundation: "It's not that we have anything against the British School. There are people who would be thrilled to have that closer. But our battle cry for the neighborhood is quality public schools. We absolutely must have a quality high school. That issue is going to get louder and louder, because two or three years from now the South Loop is going to be saturated with high school students." Scary thought. [Crain's, by subscription]