Paperwork recently filed with the City of Chicago provides an early glimpse of Sterling Bay’s 200,000-square-foot office facility headed to a vacant riverfront lot in Lincoln Park. Formerly home of the Gutmann Leather Tannery, the four-acre parcel was acquired by the Chicago-based developer in August of 2015 for $21.3 million. Sterling Bay announced a 15-year tenant agreement with C.H. Robinson in October and will build the new facility specifically to suit the transportation company’s requirements.
Designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill, the 79-foot-tall building is rectangular in layout and will be wrapped in minimalist glass curtain wall. The zoning application also calls for a riverfront terrace and a huge 25,000-square-foot green roof. Despite land values along the Chicago River’s north branch soaring in recent years, the southern portion of the property will be redeveloped into a landscaped parking lot containing 147 of the site’s total 197 parking spaces. The document outlines onsite parking for 217 bicycles.
Unlike Sterling Bay’s rumored plans of the sprawling former Finkl Steel site to the south, the redevelopment of the former Gutmann parcel will work entirely within the confines of the existing Planned Manufacturing District (PMD) zoning designation. According to C.H. Robinson, the new building will house roughly 1,000 employees when it is ready for occupancy in late 2018.
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- C.H. Robinson Inks Deal to Lease New Building at Former Gutmann Leather Site [Curbed Chicago]
- Lease propels developer's plans for Lincoln Park project [Crain's]
- Lincoln Park archives [Curbed Chicago]
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