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Controversy Continues on 44-Story Moody Church High-Rise

Moody Bible Church
Moody Bible Church

By Don DeBat


The on-going, highly controversial saga of the proposed construction of a massive 44-story high-rise at North Ave, and LaSalle St. in Old Town continues to drag on in 2025.


The latest chapter unfolded on January 9th with a Zoom meeting attended by hundreds of exasperated Old Town residents who oppose the development.


At the on-site meeting held at Moody Church, developer Nick Anderson, CEO of Fern Hill Co., continued his smooth, smoke-and-mirrors presentation attempting to gloss over the crushing impact of the high-rise on neighborhood traffic and the quality of life in historic Old Town.


At one point, Anderson said: “The site of the proposed high-rise actually sits in the city’s Lakefront District, not in Old Town.”


Critics predict the proposed project would generate a daily traffic nightmare similar to the Old Town Art Fair, which typically attracts 30,000-plus attendees in the neighborhood.


In an effort to mitigate Old Town residents’ concern about a massive traffic grid-lock developing on the corner of North Ave. and LaSalle St., Anderson gave the following new information on how the development would reduce neighborhood traffic.


Apparently, Moody Church’s long-range plan is to raze both the BP gas station at Clark St. and LaSalle St. and a second gas station at North Ave. and LaSalle St. for future expansion of the church.


Critics say now is the time to redirect the focus and blame for this massive high-rise plan and the ensuing traffic and neighborhood disruption on the true gluttonous protagonist in this drama—the ever-expanding Moody Church.


In 2024, Moody, a non-denomination evangelical Christian church, celebrated its 100th anniversary on the block-long site at LaSalle St. between North Ave. and Clark St. The non-pillared, two-level auditorium has permanent seating for 3,740 worshipers. Because Moody Church is a religious institution, it pays no real estate taxes. In addition, there will be lost sales taxes if the two gas stations are razed.

 

Automobile parking for parishioners currently is provided on a flat lot Moody owns on the northwest corner of LaSalle and North. Expanded parking for the church is the spark that ignited the controversy over the 44-story Fern Hill high-rise which would contain 150 dedicated parking spaces for Moody worshipers.


Critics ask why didn’t Moody Church simply build a five-story garage at 1610 N. LaSalle St. to provide the parking it needs? This parking alternative might have created some additional traffic during Sunday morning services, but would have added much needed neighborhood parking during the week.


Regarding Moody Church’s interest in the Fern Hill project, long-time Old Town resident Joe Collins believes: “Moody Church has strayed into the garden and been tempted by the serpent (Fern Hill) with poison fruit. They have much to eagerly bite into for profit.”

Collins said: “More than 20 years of Christian education taught me about dancing with the devil and laying down with dogs, and the end does not justify the means.”

 

During a blessing at one Fern Hill meeting, Collins recalled: “Moody Church’s pastor had the audacity to say their organization has ‘no financial interest in this deal.’ Not true. Moody, you are the backbone of this deal and your neighbors recognize it,” Collins concluded.



When Nick Anderson entered the game with his 44-story high-rise plan a couple of years ago, veteran real estate watchers recognized that Moody Church parking spots were on the bottom of the list of Fern Hill’s expansive rezoning and development plans.


Developer Nick Anderson of Fern Hill Cos. (left)




Anderson, who hails from Boston, founded Fern Hill Co., in February of 2018. The prior nine years he worked for Related Development, mostly as a project manager, not a lead developer.


A new 2024 high-rise zoning application calls for much more than rezoning of a proposed 44-story apartment tower for a vacant Moody Church parking lot through a new entity, Old Town Triangle Partners I LLC. The partnership also includes Moody Church, and Walgreen’s, which plans a new store on the northeast corner of North Ave. and Wells St.

 

The plan further includes the Piper’s Alley tract, now owned by Old Town Development Associates, LLC, a partnership headed by politically connected Thomas M. Tully, who served as Cook County Assessor from 1974 through 1978.


Insiders say Fern Hill’s proposed 500-unit “Old Town Canvas” high-rise, apparently is planning—through various partnerships—to stretch the “land-canvas” for at least two additional towers along North Ave. west of Wells St.


In play in this rezoning chess game is the Piper’s Alley complex, including the X-sport Fitness Club, Starbuck’s, Second City Theater, and more than a dozen commercial properties that ring the northwest corner of North and Wells running west to North Park Ave.

Old Town Canvas
Old Town Canvas

Zoning experts say the rezoning of the 84,078-square-foot Piper’s Alley site to allow a floor-area-ratio (FAR) of 420,390 square feet could eventually pave the way for two additional high-rise towers on the north side of North Ave. between Wells and North Park.


As proposed, the sweeping zoning changes under Fern Hill’s planned development could result in up to 1,400 new units for 4,000 to 5,000 people along a two-block stretch of North Ave. between LaSalle and North Park.


Although Fern Hill’s rezoning application does not immediately allow residential units on the Piper’s Alley commercial site, that may happen in the future.


The rezoning application also provides that the 392 parking spaces in the deteriorating Piper’s Alley garage could be removed at the time of that parcel’s “site-plan approval,” resulting in a sharp reduction in the area’s much-needed parking.


At the January 9th Zoom meeting, Anderson said Piper’s Alley owners just signed a new long-term lease for the Second City Theater and have “assured him that they have no future plans for high-rises.”


“If another development proposal for Piper’s Alley comes along it will be judged on its own merits,” 2nd Ward Ald. Brian Hopkins said at the Zoom meeting.


Piper’s Alley is within a stone’s throw of the Old Town Triangle landmark historic district. A survey by the Old Town Triangle Assn. shows that 80% of members are opposed to Fern Hill’s massive high-rise development because of its impact on neighborhood traffic.


Affordable housing advocates say that the proposed 44-story building would provide 100 affordable housing units. They report housing in Lincoln Park and Old Town is the least affordable in the city.


“Old Town is being treated differently than other neighborhoods such as River North,” Anderson said.


Cabrini-Green Impact?


Ironically, there was no mention at the Fern Hill Zoom meeting about the Chicago Housing Authority’s new plan to rebuild 4,080 new affordable units on vacant land at Cabrini-Green, only two blocks south of North and Wells.


The affordable housing units are not all proposed as low-rise buildings and row houses. Notorious high-rises and mid-rises also are part of the plan. Most are affordable residences, and likely will include hundreds of Section-8 public-housing units. Critics say it is doubtful that few, if any, of the CHA residents will attend services at the elitist Moody Church.


Despite the overall failure of Cabrini-Green, and the eventual razing of the property nearly two decades ago, in 2025, the CHA appears to be determined to repeat its mistake.


Don DeBat is co-author of Escaping Condo Jail, the ultimate survival guide for condominium living. Visit escapingcondojail.com. For more housing news, visit www.dondebat.biz. Don also is writing Chicago’s Game, a book on 16-inch softball.

Comments


“The book is Escaping Condo Jail by Sara Benson and Don DeBat. I would say that anybody thinking about buying a condo, or even anybody serving on a condo board, or anybody who has any connection to a condo, this is must reading—all 600 and something pages. Thanks a lot for a great book!”

 

Steve Sanders, “Your Money Matters” WGN TV, December 22, 2014

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