West Loop Condo Plan Drops Community Center for Park Bathrooms

A long-vacant lot at 23 S. Sangamon St. in the West Loop is heading toward a new future, one that trades a promised community center for 70 condos, public bathrooms, and on-site storage for Mary Bartelme Park.

The developers behind the project, Fern Hill and Free Market Ventures, aren’t strangers to this address. They first won city approval in 2021 for an 80-unit condo building on the 2.71-acre adjacent parkland site. That plan didn’t stick. What followed was something considerably larger: a 283-unit mixed-income complex with 90 parking spots and a community center sprawling across the building’s first four floors, including an open-air field house on the fourth. All told, those floors would’ve delivered 30,000 square feet of programmable space, with Fern Hill committed to funding, staffing, and maintaining the whole operation.

That’s not what’s happening now.

Two problems killed the community center. Residents near the park were concerned that a high-traffic amenity would pour crowds into Mary Bartelme Park, a green space that already draws steady use. On the city side, officials couldn’t nail down a workable arrangement for how the Park District would run the facility. Ald. Bill Conway, who represents the 34th Ward, laid out both issues plainly.

Conway’s involvement in this project is itself a product of the city’s ward remapping. The address at 23 S. Sangamon shifted out of the 25th Ward and into Conway’s 34th after redistricting, handing him a project already mid-revision. More than a year separated the first community meeting on the scaled-back proposal from the version now circulating before the Chicago Department of Planning and Development.

What came out of those meetings wasn’t a demand for a field house. It was simpler than that.

Bathrooms. Storage.

Park users and nearby residents made clear they’d rather have practical amenities than a facility the Park District couldn’t commit to operating. The revised plan addresses both. Nick Anderson, president of Fern Hill Company, said the public bathrooms will have a dedicated sidewalk entrance so they’re accessible during park hours even when the corner cafe isn’t open. That cafe, which will sit directly facing Mary Bartelme Park, won’t control access to the restrooms. The entry points are separated by design.

That detail matters. It means park visitors don’t have to wait for a business to unlock its doors to use a bathroom. It’s a modest thing, but it’s the kind of thing that makes a park actually function.

The Park District confirmed that restrooms have been a recurring ask from residents. “While a field house will not move forward as part of this proposal, we are pleased discussions have continued toward a dedicated public restroom for Mary Bartelme Park as part of the development,” said Park District spokesperson Michele Lemons.

Storage tells a similar story. Conway noted that the Chicago Park District currently rents storage space on the Southeast Side to serve equipment needs at a West Loop park. That’s a geographic mismatch that’s persisted for years. On-site storage at 23 S. Sangamon would end it, putting park equipment steps from where it’s actually used.

The condo count dropped from the 283-unit proposal down to 70 units. Parking sits at 115 spots in the current plan, up from the 90 spots in the previous version. The building’s footprint reflects the practical compromises that accumulated over five years of revision, community feedback, and a ward boundary change.

The Fern Hill Company and Free Market Ventures have been working this corner since 2021. What they’re proposing now in 2026 looks almost nothing like where they started. Whether the city signs off on it depends on what comes next from planning review.

Bathrooms and storage. Sometimes that’s what a neighborhood actually needs.