Illinois Medical District Gateway Project View Full Caption

MEDICAL DISTRICT — A group of developers have unveiled new renderings as the $300 million Gateway project comes closer to starting major construction on the Near West Side.

Slated to open in summer 2018, the massive 10-acre project will bring two hotels, young professional housing, retail and office space to the vacant site at Damen and Harrison in the Illinois Medical District.

Developers will break on the project in late October, said Ryan Gage, Illinois Medical District spokesman.

According to Gateway Development Partners, the project will include:

• a 10-story, 240-room dual-branded Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites hotel at the center of the gateway campus

• a 230-unit apartment tower with studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units targeted toward young professionals and students at the corner of Ogden and Polk

• a 12-story, 240,000-square-foot building that could house medical or commercial office space

• 76,000 square feet of retail space with restaurants adjacent to a park with outdoor seating

• a five-story parking garage with 800 spaces

Gage said the businesses that will eventually open in the project hasn't been determined yet.

" Through various District studies and stakeholder outreach, we know that there is a high demand for amenities such as restaurants and coffee shops," he said. "Although specific retailers haven’t been determined, the developers are working to incorporate these, and other types of amenities into the project."

In July 2014, the Illinois Medical District commission approved Gateway Development Partners to develop the $300 million hotel project, which includes plans for a 10-story, 225-room hotel on a nine acre site at 2020 W. Ogden Ave.

Higgins Development Partners — one of three developers that make up Gateway Development Partners — was initially selected as the lead contractor on the project until the company was suddenly dropped after evidence surfaced that the group's founder, Jack Higgins, owed the federal government more than $2.5 million in back taxes in 2014.

Check out more renderings of the IMD Gateway project below.

[Gateway Partners]

[Gateway Partners]

[Gateway Partners]

[Gateway Partners]

[Gateway Partners]

[Gateway Partners]

For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here: