Developer planning 500 more apartment units for West Loop’s western edge

The western edge of Chicago’s Fulton Market District could welcome another 500 rental units, according to zoning applications recently submitted to the Chicago City Clerk by Naperville-based developer Marquette Companies.

The largest building would rise 21 stories at the former site of the BellyQ and Urbanbelly restaurants at 1400 W. Randolph Street. The transit-oriented structure includes 252 apartments, 67 parking spaces, and ground floor retail and tops out at roughly 223 feet.

Marquette also has its sights on redeveloping a low-rise warehouse building and parking lot at 1440 W. Randolph Street, across from Union Park. Here, the developer wants to construct two six- and eight-story apartment buildings containing a combined 260 rental units and 52 parking spaces.

Due to their location in the city’s special affordable housing pilot zone, the proposed Randolph Street developments are subject to higher affordable housing requirements: 20 percent versus the standard 10 percent. Instead of spreading the units across all three buildings, Marquette plans to concentrate 85 affordable apartments in the six-story structure, reports Crain’s.

Chicago City Clerk

Chicago City Clerk

The design of all three buildings comes from Chicago-based architecture firm Brininstool + Lynch. The designer most recently partnered with Marquette on a 263-unit apartment development known as The Mason, located at nearby 180 N. Ada Street.

If approved by the city, the Randolph projects would add to a growing number of developments spreading the West Loop’s unprecedented development boom westward. They would join the 14-story West End on Fulton office project under construction at 1375 W. Fulton Market and a 23-story hotel proposal next to City Winery at 1234 W. Randolph Street.

West of Ashland, city planners are also considering opening up the Kinzie Industrial Corridor for non-industrial use. A new CTA Green Line station at Lake and Damen will likely make the area even more attractive to developers when it opens in 2021.