Allen Richards' Blog: Demolition Crews Tear Into 156 North Jefferson Street

Heneghan Wrecking, doing what they do: “Creating Space.”

Over the past three weeks, you’ve told you here and here about the new residential project happening at what is now 156 North Jefferson Street in the West Loop, and what will become 165 North Des Plaines Street. Thanks to a couple visits from friends and readers to our Tip Line, we knew to be on the lookout for some demolition work to the rear portions of the North Jefferson address.

And pay attention is what we did. Crews from Heneghan Wrecking are on site as we speak, removing a couple portions of existing structure, to be replaced by a 14-story residential tower GREC Architects has designed in its stead.

This 4-story portion of 156 North Jefferson will be demolished as well.

We knew about the one-story addition being removed so Gerding Edlin Development project can extend west from Jefferson Street to occupy its new address on Des Plaines. But we got confirmation from crews on site that the four-story building on the south end of the lot is coming down too.

Once buildings have been reduced to rubble, and the rubble has been hauled away, Power Construction will move in and get to work on building 199 new dwelling units, plus 141 parking spaces for cars, 71 for bikes, and some ground-level retail space. There will also be a pocket park to serve as a more pleasant background for the Haymarket monument that sits along Des Plaines.

Once the old edifices are torn away, the original building at 156 North Jefferson will be converted from office use to residences. All this demo and construction are expected to be completed in September 2017.