US Steel Hires Cushman & Wakefield To Sell South Works Site
US Steel's former South Works site is one of the great redevelopment opportunities in Chicago commercial real estate—one that US Steel has been unable to make a reality. Now, the steelmaker is hoping another developer can make that happen, and hired Cushman & Wakefield to sell the 430-acre campus. The news comes five months after US Steel parted ways with McCaffery Interests, which planned an ambitious, $4B mixed-use redevelopment of the site.
US Steel is allowing Cushman & Wakefield flexibility in how it sells the site, which runs from Rainbow Beach Park at 79th Street south to the Calumet River. Interested buyers can purchase the entire site, or it can be sold in four separate parcels to different buyers, Crain's reports. The piecemeal approach allows for more redevelopment options. Notably, a 128-acre parcel on the southern edge should draw interest from industrial and data center developers. Retail and multifamily are other options along the site's northern edge.
Cushman & Wakefield has rebranded the site as 8080 Lakeshore and will start accepting bids this fall. US Steel's decision to sell the site dovetails perfectly with the expected announcement that the Obama Presidential Library will be built in nearby Jackson Park. That will bring much-needed public infrastructure improvements to the south lakefront, including added public transit; the city completed an extension of Lake Shore Drive in 2013 that intersects the South Works campus. [Crain's]
