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Speculators Losing Ground Along Kennedy

CHICAGO-A 53-acre area along the Kennedy Expressway, south of Addison Street, will have its current manufacturing zoning set in stone with a designation from the city, discouraging retail developers.

By Mark Ruda | Updated on December 01, 2005

CHICAGO-Although manufacturing zoning would seem to be a significant obstacle, speculators have continued to have visions of retail or other uses in a 53-acre area along the Kennedy Expressway, south of Addison Street. City officials are responding by designating the area a planned manufacturing district, effectively declaring it off limits to developers looking to bring anything but industrial uses.

The proposed planned manufacturing district has won the support of 22 of the 34 businesses operating in it, according to Nora Curry of the Department of Planning and Development, with seven objecting. The 34 businesses employ 900, according to the department, which notes jobs created by industrial users pay “living wages.”

Those supporting the measure at two public meetings said in addition to more traffic from retail development, the city’s North Side already lacks modern industrial buildings. Land costs are relatively high on the North Side, Curry notes, and the vacancy rate in the proposed district is a “very low” 6%.

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