Developers showcase $5 billion project along Chicago River

Developers on Wednesday unveiled plans for the $5 billion mixed-use Lincoln Yards riverfront development along the North Branch of the Chicago River - a concept pitched by designers as an economic super engine, but met with skepticism by some residents and parkland advocates.

The massive Sterling Bay proposal has been floated for months as one of the city's top prospective sites in its bid for Amazon's coveted second headquarters, but Wednesday's meeting - which drew a standing-room-only crowd to the 400-capacity Near North Montessori School gymnasium - was the first public presentation of the project.

The overhaul of the Sterling Bay's 53-acre section of the 760-acre North Branch Corridor was touted as a transformation from a drab industrial zone into a "vibrant community" by managing principal Andy Gloor, including a high-rise that could soar up to 800 feet, a 20,000-seat stadium and 13.5 acres of open space.

According to developers, it would create 23,000 on-site jobs and another 10,000 "indirect or induced" jobs, as well as 2,500 construction jobs per year during the development's first decade.

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