10-May-16 – River North residents got a first glimpse of a 31-story building Friedman Properties wants to construct behind their seven-story landmarked Reid Murdoch Center.

The building on North Clark Street would have 85,000 square feet of office space on six floors. A restaurant would be located on the ground floor along with retail space. The rest would be a hotel, not yet named or branded, the operator of which has not been announced, either.

Located on 19 of the building’s floors, the hotel would offer 500 guestrooms and 14,000 square feet of meeting space. The design, preliminary and likely to evolve, shows a restaurant, hotel entry, and office entry at street level, office space on floors 2-7, hotel lobby and restaurant/bar on the 8th floor, meeting space on floors 9-10, spa and fitness facility on the 11th floor, guestrooms on floors 12-30, and a roof terrace.

If it seems like River North already has enough hotels, Friedman Properties founder Albert Friedman says this one will be different. “Everything in life is how you look at it,” says Friedman (left). “There are a lot of retail stores but not all of them have succeeded because they don’t offer the customer what they want.”

His son, Jason Friedman, president of the real estate company, says they are aware there is a high supply of hotel rooms but “the product that we’re thinking of doing will differentiate itself enough in the market that will add a lot of demand and value to it.”

(Above) East side of building on North Clark Street, looking southwest toward Reid Murdoch Center, visible at far left. (Below) Another angle, looking northwest.

The 395-foot-tall building would fit between Reid Murdoch Center and another office building – at 350 North Clark Street – that is among the more than 50 buildings in River North that Friedman Properties owns.

Glass will transition between the new building and the 102-year-old Reid Murdoch Center, explained architect Eddie Abeyta, a principal of HKS Architects, Inc., during a presentation on Monday evening to about 100 people at River Roast, a restaurant at Reid Murdoch Center. “We don’t want to compete with the existing historic structure,” said Abeyta (left). “We want to complement it.”

(Above) From the eighth floor of the hotel, guests will be able to walk to a bar on the roof of Reid Murdoch Center.

Condo residents concerned about traffic

Approaching the hotel on North Clark Street, vehicles would drop off in an elevated driveway between the new building and Reid Murdoch Center. Valets would then drive vehicles west between the buildings, turn right onto North LaSalle Street, right onto West Kinzie Street, and park at Greenway Self Park, another Friedman property.

(Above) Site plan showing valet traffic up a one-way street connecting North Clark Street and North LaSalle Street.

In the middle of this path is The Sterling, a 50-story condominium, residents of which say the pattern would make traffic in their neighborhood even worse. Robert Gottfred, president of The Sterling’s condo board, says traffic is most congested on Friday and Saturday nights. Another resident says from midnight to 3 a.m., “it’s a zoo down there.”

Developers told the residents that only 15 percent of hotel guests arrive by driving a car to the hotel. Most will arrive by taxi, public transportation, or by walking.

42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly, who co-hosted the meeting with River North Residents Association, says many details still need to be negotiated.

“I’ve heard a lot tonight about a hotel rooftop amenity deck – news to me. There are a number of details related to this programming that will be negotiated and vetted. I have yet to see a project proposed in the 42nd Ward over the last nine years that has not changed from what was initially presented and I suspect that’ll be the same with this one, too.”

Among the hurdles the proposal will have to clear is the Commission on Chicago Landmarks, which will have to approve modifications to Reid Murdoch Center.