A concrete colossus could soon join the Clybourn Corridor skyline as the New York-based developer Georgetown Co. sets its sights on constructing a 37-story tower designed to be a tenants' paradise with up to 396 apartments at 1565 N. Clybourn Ave., steps from one of the city's hottest shopping scenes and the bustle of the Red Line. While the tower promises to bolster the local high-rise population, the developer plans to play nice with the existing neighborhood fabric, opting to retain a 46,000-square-foot retail building on the site and preserving its neighboring four-story parking structure, as per reports from the Chicago Tribune.

However, the road to breaking ground for this lofty project is long and strewn with bureaucratic hurdles, and the developer has yet to convince 2nd Ward Ald. Brian Hopkins and the local residents who will have the opportunity to weigh in during an online forum slated for Monday, and even with a neighborhood nod, it must rope in financing and navigate the gantlet of city planner approval and City Council's demanding oversight. Not to mention, the proposal is just a glistening piece of Georgetown's broader Chicago portfolio, which includes the 496-unit K2 Apartments and the high-profile State Street Primark store acquisition, a narrative detailed by Crain's Chicago Business.

Attracting developers with the ferocity of moths to a flame, the Clybourn Corridor is already home to a veritable menagerie of high-rise habitats, including the Residences at NewCity and the SoNo towers, not to mention the impending presence of Structured Development's Wendelin Park project wrapping up its curtain by early next year and CRM Properties Group's planned 40-story North Fremont Street tower. Georgetown's proposed high-rise adds to this burgeoning vertical village, with the area increasingly becoming Chicago’s de facto canvas for architectural verticality and housing variety.

"You're right across from the Apple store, so what can be better?" Ron DeVries, senior managing director of Integra Realty Resources, colorfully opined on the enviable location of the proposed tower while acknowledging the high interest rates that have developers like Georgetown playing the waiting game - all eyes are watching the Federal Reserve's next moves and the developer's push to realign their financial chess pieces to feasibly kickstart this expansive project. This financial conundrum was explored by the Chicago Tribune.