Structured Pushes Again on $230M New City

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CHICAGO-If Structured Development is one thing, it’s persistent. The company has revived a 5-year-old postponed plan for a $230 million retail and multifamily project called New City at North and Clybourn, signing up partner John Bucksbaum, former CEO of General Growth Properties.

The New City project was introduced five years ago to include 490 residential condos, but the market collapsed and lender Anglo failed. In late 2008, Structured brought in Wilton, CT-based Commonfund Realty Inc. as an equity partner and changed the residential to 280 apartments, including mixed-income units.

However, Commonfund withdrew from active real estate development, Structured partner Michael Drew tells GlobeSt.com. “The commercial real estate market went into the tank for some time,” he says. “But we’ve now brought in Bucksbaum Retail Properties, and gained financing through JPMorgan.”

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The one constant, Drew says, is that the property is a great retail and residential location. Retailers such as Apple, Whole Foods, REI and Target have all signed leases in the area, and the supermarket Roundy’s is supposed to provide an 80,000-square-foot Mariano’s Fresh Market to anchor the New City project. Drew says he’s picking up formerly suspended talks with tenants, and expects to break ground by the end of the year. “We’re looking at delivery by 2014,” he says. “We are finally at the point where we have the end in sight.”