Feb. 12--The former Children's Memorial Hospital in Lincoln Park will be demolished within the next six weeks, according to developers McCaffery Interests and Hines, which say they have closed on the purchase of the vacant site.
Friday's announcement paves the way for a mixed-use redevelopment that will eventually add 600 residences to the 6-acre site at Halsted Street and Fullerton and Lincoln avenues.
McCaffery and Hines said last summer that they hoped to begin demolition work before the end of 2015, but delays closing the deal and securing financing prompted tweaks to that timetable. The developers nonetheless said they still expect residents to begin moving into the 540 luxury apartment units in two towers and 60 low-rise condominiums by late 2018.
An equity investment made by Henley Holding Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority -- the emirate's sovereign wealth fund -- is helping bankroll the development designed by Skidmore, Owings Merrill and Antunovich Associates.
Construction of the residences and 160,000 square feet of retail and outdoor space, including gardens and a children's play area, will begin in early 2017, McCaffery and Hines said.
Neither the terms of the purchase nor of Henley Holding's investment were disclosed.
Children's Memorial has been vacant since 2012, when the hospital moved to Streeterville and was renamed Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. The city gave planning approval for the redevelopment in 2014.
kjanssen@tribpub.com
