City OKs Old Main Post Office Redevelopment
By Miriam Cintron
The Old Main Post Office, that massive building straddling the Eisenhower Expressway where it turns into Congress Parkway and where scenes from the latest installment of the Batman series recently were filmed, is closer to having a new purpose after sitting vacant for nearly a decade.
In April the Chicago Plan Commission, which is charged with reviewing proposals to acquire or modify property, approved redevelopment plans for the former post office. Developer Walton Street Capital LLC plans to convert the 2.5 million square foot building into 300 residential units, a 240-room hotel, and about 455,000 feet of office space.
The post office’s location at 401 W. Van Buren St. puts it in the Canal-Congress Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Redevelopment Project Area. The City’s Community Development Commission, which reviews and recommends TIF proposals for private redevelopment projects, helped Walton’s plan along by approving $51 million in TIF money for the project at its May meeting. Those millions of dollars in property taxes represent about 17% of expected redevelopment costs. The project’s next step is approval from the City Council.
Walton has been planning the post office’s redevelopment since 1999 and is in talks with several banks for construction financing, said Raphael Dawson, a principal at the firm. Asbestos removal would be one of the first tasks if the City Council approves the plans.
The City approved the redevelopment plan and TIF assistance because “the property has been vacant and this is a good re-use of an important building in Chicago,” said Constance Buscemi, a spokesperson for the City’s Department of Planning and Development.
Putting the uninhabited building to use again and back on the tax rolls will benefit the public, Dawson explained.
The art deco building, which was built in 1921 and expanded in 1933, has stood vacant since 1996 when the Main Post Office moved to a more modern facility nearby at 433 W. Harrison St. Since then ideas for the property, including an auto mall, a movie theater, a casino, and even a water park, were discussed but no plan for the massive building ever materialized until now.
The new plan includes improving the building’s riverfront side and making it accessible to the public as well as building a rooftop garden and 400 parking spaces. It also calls for demolishing about 800,000 square feet from the building’s center. Dawson believes the new plans will make the building more aesthetically pleasing.
“Some people have called it an eyesore,” Dawson said. “It’s going to look an awful lot better.”
Others disagree and regret that any part of the historic building would be altered.
“The only piece of disappointment is that the west elevation will be demolished,” said David Bahlman, president of Landmarks Illinois, a preservation group. Nevertheless, Bahlman said that, given the size of the building, it makes sense to reduce its size to make it more usable.
Bahlman added the plan provides some good preservation aspects such as retaining the original 1921 post office building on the east and the 34-foot main lobby on the building’s north side.
