West Loop Condo Plan Drops Community Center for Park Bathrooms

A revised plan for a long-vacant West Loop lot would replace a once-promised community center with a 70-unit condo building, public bathrooms, and storage space for Mary Bartelme Park.

The proposal covers 23 S. Sangamon St., a site that has cycled through multiple incarnations since 2021, when developers Fern Hill and Free Market Ventures first won approval for an 80-unit condo building. Three years later, that plan gave way to something far more ambitious: a mixed-income complex with 283 apartments, 90 parking spots, and a community center that would have covered the building’s first three floors, with an open-air field house on the fourth floor. All four floors together would have delivered 30,000 square feet of programmable space, fully funded, maintained, and staffed by Fern Hill.

That plan is gone now.

The community center fell apart over two separate problems. Residents worried that a high-traffic amenity would funnel crowds into the 2.71-acre Mary Bartelme Park, straining a green space that already draws consistent use. City officials, meanwhile, couldn’t work out an arrangement for how the Park District would manage and operate the facility, said Ald. Bill Conway, who represents the 34th Ward.

The site shifted into Conway’s ward following a city-wide remapping that moved 23 S. Sangamon from the 25th Ward. That change gave Conway jurisdiction over a project he inherited mid-revision, and more than a year passed between the first community meeting on the scaled-back proposal and the version now circulating.

What neighbors wanted, Conway said, turned out to be more concrete and immediate than a field house.

Public bathrooms. Storage for park equipment.

The revised plan delivers both. According to Nick Anderson, president of Fern Hill Company, the bathrooms will have a dedicated entrance along the public sidewalk, keeping them accessible during park hours even when the cafe that will occupy the adjacent corner stays closed. That corner cafe faces Mary Bartelme Park directly. The design separates the bathroom entry from the commercial space so that park access doesn’t depend on a business being open.

The Park District confirmed in a statement that restrooms have been a consistent ask from residents who use and live near the park. “While a field house will not move forward as part of this proposal, we are pleased discussions have continued toward a dedicated public restroom for Mary Bartelme Park as part of the development,” said Park District spokesperson Michele Lemons.

The park currently rents storage space on the Southeast Side, Conway said. Getting storage on-site, steps from the park itself, would end an arrangement that never made much geographic sense for a West Loop green space. The Chicago Park District manages Mary Bartelme Park, which sits at 115 S. Sangamon St.

The Mary Bartelme Park Advisory Council didn’t comment on the revised proposal.

That silence is notable given how long this parcel has been in play. The lot at 23 S. Sangamon has sat vacant through multiple rounds of design, two separate ward boundaries, and what amounts to a complete philosophical pivot, from a sweeping mixed-income development with a privately funded community anchor to a smaller condo building with bathrooms and a storage room as its public contribution. The 70-unit condo count also represents a significant drop from the 283 apartments proposed in the middle iteration.

Fern Hill and Free Market Ventures still own the site. The Chicago Department of Planning and Development would need to sign off on any final zoning changes before construction moves ahead. Conway’s office has been the primary point of contact for community feedback since the ward remapping took effect, and the alderman has framed the current proposal as a reflection of what residents said they actually wanted rather than what planners initially assumed they’d want.

Whether a 70-unit condo building with bathrooms and park storage satisfies West Loop residents who spent years anticipating 30,000 square feet of community programming is a question the next round of public meetings will have to answer. The Mary Bartelme Park Advisory Council’s continued silence on the revision leaves a gap in the public record that Conway’s office has yet to fill. Anderson, for his part, has pointed to the sidewalk-accessible bathroom design as evidence that the development still delivers a meaningful public benefit, even at a fraction of what was once promised.