19-Story Hotel Planned Near Future McDonald's HQ In West Loop
By Stephen Gossett in News on Apr 19, 2017 7:36PM
The West Loop keeps a-boomin' as tireless local developers Sterling Bay have submitted plans to build a hotel in the neighborhood, just a stone's throw from where McDonald's is constructing its new headquarters.
Pending approval, the proposal calls for a 19-story hotel at the corner of Washington Blvd. and May St., according to Crain's. (A surface lot currently occupies the space.) That's about a tenth of a mile, roughly one block southwest, from where "fresh beef" purveyors McDonalds are setting up HQ, as the currently Oak Brook-based fast-food titan continues setting up corporate shop on the former Harpo Studios site—which arguably got this whole West Loop mania rolling in the first place way back when.
Sterling Bay did not immediately return a request for comment, but Curbed reports that the project will be a brick-and-metal design with retail space at the ground level and off-street parking.
The hotel wouldn't be the lone option for potential MceeDees corporate visitors, as Sterling Bay's own much-anticipated Ace Hotel (311 N. Morgan St.) is due in the fall. Ald. Walter Burnett, speaking with Crain's, made it sound like the necessary zoning change would be doable. "I think hotels are good. They bring a lot of jobs, they bring tourists to our economy." he told the business paper.
So (eternally, it seems) onward and upward, West Loop.