City and project officials broke ground Wednesday on Foundry Park, the $3 billion megadevelopment that promises to create a new neighborhood along the Chicago River’s North Branch — a vow that the land’s previous owner failed to keep after the pandemic.
Developer Jim Letchinger and Kayne Anderson Real Estate acquired the northern chunk of the former Lincoln Yards development site in 2025, after previous owner Sterling Bay couldn’t follow through on its ambitious plans to build towering steel and glass buildings.
Letchinger’s real estate firm, JDL Development, is breaking ground on something more scaled back: a mixed-income residential development that includes public green space and a 183-room hotel.
Gathered public officials and other dignitaries toss shovels of dirt during the groundbreaking for Foundry Park on Wednesday. Doing the tossing were (from left) Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd); JDL Development CEO Jim Letchinger; Mayor Brandon Johnson; David Selznick, chief investment officer for Kayne Anderson Real Estate; Commissioner Ciere Boatright of the Chicago Department of Planning and Development; Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd).
Jim Urquhart/For the Sun-Times
The groundbreaking comes less than 10 months after JDL and Kayne Anderson notched their first city approvals from the Chicago Plan Commission in January — a speed city officials praised at the groundbreaking, held at West Cortland and North Kingsbury streets.
“We took advantage of what we learned from them,” Letchinger said of Sterling Bay’s attempt at Lincoln Yards. “We go fast, and we had the capital. Capital is critical. We went through planning knowing that as soon as we get this done, we’re building.”
Sterling Bay’s plans for the 53 acres of vacant land called for the equivalent of two Willis Towers’ worth of office space along the Chicago River between Bucktown and Lincoln Park — an amount that outpaced office demand after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 31-acre Foundry Park is being built on the northern half of the former Lincoln Yards site and includes the old Finkl Steel property on Cortland Street, along the Chicago River.
“When I saw an opening to get involved in this incredible piece of land, I jumped at it,” Letchinger said. “Foundry Park offered a blank slate that would allow JDL to create another world-class neighborhood — and there’s a lot of them in Chicago. This was an opportunity that we just could not miss.”
Plans call for more than 3,700 residences, with 20% of them affordable, and 970,000 square feet of office, retail and hotel space. Public parks, riverfront improvements and an extension of the 606 (the Bloomingdale Trail) also are planned.
Renderings show a mix of building heights, the tallest roughly 40 stories, grouped near open space, with riverfront access. In another departure from Lincoln Yards, Foundry Park’s buildings will be clad in traditional limestone and brick.
Phase one will include more than 725 residential units, retail, public green space and underground parking around Southport Avenue and Cortland and Kingsbury streets.
Letchinger is confident in the success of Foundry Park because the mix of uses is flexible based on market demand. The homes will include rentals and for-purchase homes. Letchinger knows there’s an opportunity to build even more for-sale homes as Chicago’s housing market stays hot with inventory thinning out.
“We know what people want,” Letchinger said. “We don’t know if we can deliver all of the units right away, but we know over five, six, seven, eight years, the demand will be here. It’s actually an unusual project where the more we build, the better it is because it’s a neighborhood.”
Foundry Park will benefit nearby neighborhoods like Logan Square and Lincoln Park as it takes shape, said Chicago Department of Planning and Development Commissioner Ciere Boatright. The development will bring 8 acres of public green space, along with 2,500 jobs.
When the Cortland and Chicago River tax increment financing district expires in 2043, Foundry Park will be contributing $70 million a year to citywide property taxes, according to Boatright. By 2056, the property will have contributed an estimated $1 billion, making it “one of the most consequential projects in the city’s history,” she said.
The City Council’s Finance Committee approved a $201.6 million TIF subsidy for Foundry Park on Sept. 22, nearly a month before developers put shovels in the ground. Much of that money will pay for redesigning and rebuilding streets, like Southport and Cortland, that for decades, were closed to accommodate companies like Finkl Steel.
“Foundry Park will be a place where people will want to live, work, visit and raise families and where they can truly call themselves Chicagoans,” Boatright said.
Mayor Brandon Johnson praised the project for its speed, jobs and mix of uses — though he joked that one key element was missing.
“Looking at the renderings there, Jim, this is impressive,” Johnson said. “Everything is in this site except for our Bears stadium. I know you tried.”