City Council approves long-delayed 1840 N. Marcey development

The Chicago City Council has approved Sterling Bay’s long-delayed plans for a two-tower development at 1840 N. Marcey.

Located near Lincoln Yards, now in the process of a rebirth as Foundry Park, the project site is a long, rectangular site bound by N. Clifton Ave to the north, N. Kingsbury St to the west, N. Marcey St to the east, and W. Wisconsin St to the south. Sterling Bay received approval from the Chicago Plan Commission for the project back in June 2024.

After the Chicago Plan Commission approval, the project stalled as Alderman Waguespack stood in opposition of the project. In December 2024, the project endured procedural drama as it was initially deferred by the Committee on Zoning in its meeting but was then brought back up and rejected. The next day in the City Council, the item was left off the Committee on Zoning report, going against the traditional process to avoid the rejection being codified by the City Council. 

Since then, Sterling Bay has come back with a slightly scaled back proposal that has won over Alderman Waguespack. The revised plan has scaled back the towers to 19 and 16 stories tall with 590 units, down from 615, and 147 parking spaces, down from 275. The revised plan will have 124 affordable units to meet the ARO requirements.

With Alderman Waguespack on board, the $350 million development was approved by the Committee on Zoning on Tuesday and approved by the full City Council yesterday. Sterling Bay will still need approval to designate the site as a “low-affordability community” which will grant them tax breaks for providing the 20% required affordable units on the site, a provision commonly used after the passage of the Affordable Illinois state law. A timeline for construction has not been announced.