27-story Uptown apartment tower scores full construction permit

The North Side’s next lakefront high-rise has been cleared to keep climbing towards its 27-story final height. Known as Eight Eleven Uptown, the development landed a full, $45 million construction permit yesterday. In the works for many years to replace the 3.4-acre vacant site of the old Cuneo Hospital—later home to Maryville Academy—at the corner of Montrose and Clarendon, the project received its first foundation permit back in February of this year.

Eight Eleven Uptown is being developed by JDL and was drawn up by the designers at Chicago-based Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture (HPA). When complete, the mixed-use high-rise complex will contain 373 luxury rental apartments, nearly 30,000 square feet of ground floor retail space (rumored to be anchored by a new grocery store), and parking for 278 vehicles.

Expected to cost $125 million, the project received nearly $16 million in TIF assistance from the City of Chicago. While such subsidies are fairly common, the move was controversial due to JDL opting out of the mandated ten percent affordable units required by Chicago’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance (ARO). The developer is instead offering three percent affordable housing on-site and paying into the Affordable Housing Opportunity Fund for the remainder.

• New construction permit at 811 W. Agatite Avenue [Chicago Cityscape]
• Uptown’s Maryville buildings are being cleared for planned high-rise [Curbed Chicago]
• Uptown archives [Curbed Chicago]