“The lender that seized a River North development site after the years-long saga of a failed high-rise project there has listed the property for sale, potentially teeing it up for a new redevelopment plan.
“New York-based Madison Realty Capital has hired brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle to seek a buyer for the 12,428-square-foot site at 42-46 E. Superior St., according to marketing materials.
“The listing comes more than a year after Madison took control of the property in a foreclosure auction in January 2024. Plans from would-be developers Jeffrey Laytin and Jason Wei Ding for a 60-story hotel and condominium tower on the site, which they unveiled in 2017, never came to fruition.
“The project faced an uphill battle from the start. Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, whose district included the site prior to the wards being redrawn, rejected the proposal, which also faced opposition from preservation advocates and business owners who are tenants in the historic buildings on the site.
“The buildings on the site, which date back to the 1870s and 1880s and were constructed shortly after the Great Chicago Fire, are part of a Chicago Landmark District, so their facades can’t be demolished. That means any new development on the site would have to rise behind them or on the vacant lot at the corner of Avenue and Superior Street.
“I think the site is so tight that it really does lend itself to something very small-scale or to work with what’s there, ideally,” said Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago.
An adjacent development site at 50 E. Superior St. that includes a vacant, seven-story office building also is up for sale.” (Herzog, Crain’s Chicago Business, 5/1/25)
Preservation Chicago strongly opposed the demolition of the three orange rated row-houses at 42, 44 and 46 E. Superior dating from the 1870’s and 1880’s. We supported the effort to delay demolition until a building permit was issued. We also supported the effort in 2020 to create the Near North Side Multiple Property District that protected 15 Near North Side residential buildings constructed shortly after the Great Chicago Fire including the Superior Street Rowhouses. We encourage the preservation of the adjacent seven-story Art Deco limestone building and the historic four-story red brick Giordano’s building at 730 N. Rush Street.
We hope that Sunny Side Up Restaurant, a locally owned Chicago Legacy Business, and other small businesses located in the Superior Street Rowhouses will be able to remain after the sale of the buildings to new ownership.