By Don DeBat

31-Jan-25 – Though open to compromise, 2nd Ward Alderman Brian Hopkins says he is not supporting the most recent proposal by Fern Hill Company to build a 44-story, 500-unit apartment tower in Old Town.

Old Town Canvas was proposed for the north side of North Avenue between Wells Street and LaSalle Drive. “My office is currently awaiting a possible compromise proposal from the developer, which is expected very soon,” wrote Hopkins (left) in his January 24 newsletter.

Growing opposition from neighbors of the proposed tower swayed Hopkins. Specifically, concerns over the tower’s height and density, and the increased traffic that neighbors said the tower would attract.

Hundreds of exasperated Old Town residents who oppose the development attended by Zoom a January 9 meeting at The Moody Church. They heard Fern Hill CEO Nick Anderson continue his smooth, smoke-and-mirrors attempt to gloss over the crushing impact of the high-rise on neighborhood traffic and the quality of life in historic Old Town.

At one point, Anderson (right) said: “The site of the proposed high-rise actually sits in the city’s Lakefront District, not in Old Town.” According to City of Chicago data, however, 1610 North LaSalle Drive is in the Old Town neighborhood.

Critics predict the proposed project would generate a daily traffic nightmare like the Old Town Art Fair, which typically attracts 30,000-plus attendees in the neighborhood.

Trying to mitigate Old Town residents’ concern about a massive traffic gridlock developing on the corner of North Avenue & LaSalle Drive, Anderson provided new information on how the development would reduce neighborhood traffic. He said the long-range plan of The Moody Church, located at 1635 North LaSalle Drive, is to raze the BP gas station at Clark Street & LaSalle Drive and a second gas station at North Avenue & LaSalle Drive for future expansion of the church.

(Left) Google Street View of the BP gas station at 1647 North LaSalle Drive, next door to The Moody Church.

Critics say now is the time to redirect the focus and blame for this massive high-rise plan and the ensuing traffic and neighborhood disruption on the true gluttonous protagonist in this drama – the ever-expanding Moody Church.

In 2024, Moody, a non-denomination evangelical Christian church, celebrated its 100th anniversary on the block-long site at LaSalle Drive between North Avenue and Clark Street. The non-pillared, two-level auditorium has permanent seating for 3,740 worshipers. Because The Moody Church is a religious institution, it pays no real estate taxes. In addition, there will be lost sales taxes if the two gas stations are razed.

(Right) Nave of The Moody Church, from the church’s website.

Automobile parking for parishioners currently is provided on a flat lot that Moody owns on the northwest corner of LaSalle & North. Expanded parking for the church is the spark that ignited the controversy over the 44-story Fern Hill high-rise that would contain 150 dedicated parking spaces for Moody’s worshipers.

Critics ask why the church did not simply build a five-story garage at 1610 North LaSalle Drive to provide the parking it needs. This parking alternative might have created some additional traffic during Sunday morning services but would have added much-needed neighborhood parking during the week.

“Moody Church has strayed into the garden and been tempted by the serpent, Fern Hill, with poison fruit. They have much to eagerly bite into for profit,” said long-time Old Town resident Joe Collins about The Moody Church’s interest in the Fern Hill project. “More than 20 years of Christian education taught me about dancing with the devil and laying down with dogs, and the end does not justify the means.”

During a blessing at one Fern Hill meeting, Collins recalled: “Moody Church’s pastor had the audacity to say their organization has no financial interest in this deal. Not true. Moody, you are the backbone of this deal, and your neighbors recognize it.”

When Nick Anderson entered the game with his 44-story high-rise plan a couple of years ago, veteran real estate watchers recognized that Moody Church parking spots were on the bottom of the list of Fern Hill’s expansive rezoning and development plans.

Anderson, who hails from Boston, founded Fern Hill Company in February 2018. During the previous nine years, he worked for Related Companies, mostly as a project manager, not a lead developer.

A new 2024 high-rise zoning application calls for much more than rezoning of a proposed 44-story apartment tower for a vacant Moody Church parking lot through a new entity, Old Town Triangle Partners I LLC. The partnership also includes The Moody Church and Walgreens, which is planning a new store on the northeast corner of North Avenue & Wells Street.

The plan further includes the Piper’s Alley tract, now owned by Old Town Development Associates, LLC, a partnership headed by politically-connected Thomas M. Tully (left), who served as Cook County Assessor from 1974 through 1978.

Insiders say Fern Hill is planning – through various partnerships – to stretch the “land canvas” for at least two additional towers along North Avenue west of Wells Street.

In play in this rezoning chess game is the Piper’s Alley complex, including LA Fitness (formerly XSport Fitness), Starbucks, The Second City, and more than a dozen commercial properties that ring the northwest corner of North & Wells (below) running west to North Park Avenue.

Zoning experts say the rezoning of the 84,078 square foot Piper’s Alley site to allow a floor area ratio (FAR) of 420,390 square feet could eventually pave the way for two additional high-rise towers on the north side of North Avenue between Wells Street and North Park Avenue.

As proposed, the sweeping zoning changes under Fern Hill’s planned development could result in up to 1,400 new units for 4,000 to 5,000 people along a two-block stretch of North Avenue between LaSalle Drive and North Park Avenue.

Although Fern Hill’s rezoning application does not immediately allow residential units on the Piper’s Alley commercial site, that may happen in the future.

The rezoning application also provides that the 392 parking spaces in the deteriorating Piper’s Alley garage could be removed at the time of that parcel’s “site plan approval,” resulting in a sharp reduction in the area’s much-needed parking.

At the January 9 meeting, Anderson said Piper’s Alley owners just signed a new long-term lease for The Second City and have “assured him that they have no future plans for high-rises.”

“If another development proposal for Piper’s Alley comes along, it will be judged on its own merits,” said Alderman Hopkins at the meeting.

Piper’s Alley is a stone’s throw from the Old Town Triangle historic district. A survey by the Old Town Triangle Association shows that 80 percent of its members are opposed to Fern Hill’s massive high-rise development because of its impact on neighborhood traffic.

Affordable housing advocates say the proposed 44-story building would provide 100 affordable housing units. They report housing in Lincoln Park and Old Town is the least affordable in the city.

“Old Town is being treated differently than other neighborhoods such as River North,” said Anderson.

Cabrini-Green impact?

Curiously, there was no mention at the January 9 meeting about the Chicago Housing Authority’s plan to rebuild 4,080 new affordable units on vacant land at Cabrini-Green, only two blocks south of North & Wells.

The affordable housing units are not all proposed as low-rise buildings and row houses. Notorious high-rises and mid-rises are also part of the plan. Most are affordable residences, and likely will include hundreds of Section 8 public housing units. Critics say it is doubtful that few, if any, of the CHA residents will attend services at the elitist Moody Church.

Despite the overall failure of Cabrini-Green, and the eventual razing of the property nearly two decades ago, CHA appears to be determined to repeat its mistake.