Former New City Y site becoming huge retail and residential development

Get ready for the already-popular Clybourn Avenue corridor to get busier as big-name retailers such as Mariano’s and Dick’s Sporting Goods move in.

But the NewCity retail and residential project, expected to open in September on 8.5 acres at the southeast corner of Clybourn and Halsted, will have a 1,100-space parking garage.

The $265 million project was unveiled to the media during a tour Thursday.

The development, named for the former YMCA that occupied the space, will feature a movie theater, a high-end bowling alley, Dick’s Sporting Goods, a variety of restaurants and the largest Mariano’s grocery store yet in Chicago — just blocks away from the city’s largest Whole Foods Market.

“It’s a tried-and-true location from a retailer’s perspective,” said John Bucksbaum, founder of Bucksbaum Retail Properties LLC, a partner with Structured Development LLC on the development.

The restaurants include Lyfe Kitchen, a good-for-you eatery offering kale, quinoa and meal calorie-counts created by two former McDonald’s executives; Canadian upscale restaurant Earl’s Kitchen and Bar; and Adobe Gila’s, a restaurant with one suburban location in Rosemont that specializes in a party atmosphere with cocktails and margaritas.

The development will also house a 16-story high-rise of rental apartments. The apartments will have a fitness studio, theater room, dog run, pool and spa, 24-hour door staff and outdoor lounge with fire pit.

A separate developer, who hasn’t yet been chosen, will build 60 affordable, mixed-income apartments on the south end of the property, near the site of the former Cabrini-Green housing project.