Looking for some beachfront property close to the Loop? South Works, a massive, long-vacant U.S. Steel site along Lake Michigan, is back on the market.
U.S. Steel, which abandoned redevelopment plans for the 430-acre site earlier this year, is offering it up to potential buyers as a “clean slate,” perfect for everything from industrial use to a vacation resort, according to Cushman & Wakefield, the firm newly hired to sell the property.
“This is a complete fresh start for the property,” said Larry Goldwasser, senior director of industrial and development services in the brokerage firm’s Chicago office.
The sprawling South Side site, between 79th and 91st streets, housed a U.S. Steel plant until 1992. After scraping it clean of buildings and its industrial remnants, U.S. Steel partnered with McCaffery Interests more than a decade ago with plans for an ambitious residential and commercial redevelopment.
Solo Cup flirted with relocating its factory there 10 years ago, and the city offered tax-increment financing for multiuse projects, but redevelopment never got off the ground, and the partnership with McCaffery was dissolved earlier this year.
The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker forged ahead with plans to sell the property outright two weeks ago.
Renamed 8080 Lakeshore, the property touts proximity to downtown Chicago and more than 3 acres of “pristine” Lake Michigan shoreline among its amenities. The construction of a new four-lane extension of Lake Shore Drive, completed in 2013, runs through the site, providing 2 miles of highway frontage.
Early response has been strong, according to Goldwasser. “We have people looking at industrial, retail and residential, and we have people talking about building vacation communities there,” Goldwasser said. “We have people talking about building research parks.”
Goldwasser said local, national and international investors and developers have expressed interest in the property.
The sales brochure breaks the site into four parcels, but Goldwasser said that’s only one option and the whole site can be had — for an undisclosed price.
“We don’t really have a preference,” he said. “It’s whatever makes the most sense for U.S. Steel, once we get the offers in.”
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