“In a rare offering of urban land that could be redeveloped with more than 5 million square feet of buildings, Moody Bible Institute is looking to unload a large portion of its downtown campus.
“The evangelical Christian school, whose property spans a series of blocks between LaSalle Street and the CTA tracks north of Chicago Avenue, has hired investment sales firm HFF to sell a handful of “non-core” large properties it owns next to its main campus to help fund the school’s new strategic growth plan.
“HFF is playing up all sorts of potential uses for the available land, which today includes surface parking lots, several low-slung buildings and a large vacant lot next to Walter Payton College Prep.” (Ecker, Crain’s)
The few remaining attractive functional historic loft warehouse buildings located near Walton and Franklin within the extensive 10-acre site should be protected and preserved as part of any redevelopment of the site. Preservation Chicago encourages the Moody Bible Institute, 27th Ward Alderman Walter Burnett, and City of Chicago to make this a requirement upfront so that potential buyers will accommodate this in their plans from the outset.