The Zoning Board of Appeals on Monday signed off on variances and special uses that clear the way for a seven-story condo-hotel at 2000 S. Clark, the vacant lot at the northwest corner of Clark and Archer on the Near South Side. Plans call for lodging, a ground-floor restaurant and a rooftop bar with an outdoor deck looking out over S. Clark. With the board’s vote, the project now shifts from zoning review into the permitting phase.
Project size, layout and amenities
Planned by HMC Realty and shown in designs by Hanna Architects, the building is set to reach about 77 feet in height and include roughly 102 hotel keys, a street-level restaurant and a rooftop bar with an outdoor deck. Typical floors are drawn up in a U-shaped layout with about 19 rooms per floor, plus seven rooms on the seventh floor’s west wing. The plan includes zero vehicle parking spaces and four bicycle parking spaces. These details were reported by Urbanize Chicago.
Developer pitch and the condo-hotel model
Developer HMC Realty is pitching the building as a condo-hotel, a setup in which buyers can purchase individual units and either place them in a hotel management program or keep them as second-home or investment units, according to HMC Realty. That structure, a building legally organized as condominiums but run with hotel-style front-desk services and short-term rentals, carries its own operational and legal wrinkles, as outlined by JMBM's Hotel Law Blog.
Zoning relief the project received
The development team sought a package of eight variations to make the project work, and the ZBA approved relief that raises the maximum height from 70 feet to 77 feet, bumps the floor-area ratio by about 10% to 45,837 square feet, and eliminates the required loading berth. The board also agreed to reduce the required transparency area, allow the proposed driveway and building location, cut required vehicle parking from ten spaces to zero, and reduce bike parking from ten spaces to four. With those variances in place, along with a special use that clears the way for a rooftop bar, the project can move toward permitting. A construction timeline has not been announced, according to Urbanize Chicago.
What comes next for the site
AIA Chicago lists Hanna Architects as an active Chicago firm, and the team is now expected to move through engineering, permitting and contractor selection while securing financing. After ZBA approval, developers typically file for building permits and related city reviews before any shovels hit the ground. Neighbors, aldermanic staff and city agencies will see additional filings as plans are refined and permits are requested.
