Dan McCaffery, the developer behind projects like the South Loop’s Roosevelt Collection and Lincoln Park’s upcoming Lincoln Common development, has split with long-time partner US Steel to reactivate the massive lakefront site formerly occupied by the company’s South Works mills. The nearly 600-acre parcel at the mouth of the Calumet River between 79th and 92nd street has sat vacant since US Steel closed the site in 1992. McCaffery came on board in 2004 with grand plans to redevelop the site. The developer envisioned a mixed-use masterplan called Chicago Lakeside Development that would feature a carefully planned, walkable neighborhood with shopping complexes, upscale condos, wind turbines, an active canal and boat marina.

Just how big was McCaffery’s plan? Well, it called for 13,000 homes and 17.5 million square feet of retail to be built in phases over 25 years at the staggering cost of $4 billion. McCaffery even released a fanciful design study for the Obama Presidential Library by architecture firm Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill in the Summer of 2014 to bring public attention (and hopefully investors) to his expansive South Shore site.

McCaffery’s Lakeside Development had a number of skeptics. Despite a nearby Metra stop, part of the issue with South Works was it’s lack of connectivity to downtown. This problem was addressed in 2013 when Lake Shore Drive was extended two miles south directly to the development site. McCaffery hoped that the extension would be a driving catalyst to bring his ambitious vision for the site to fruition. Meanwhile transportation planners hoped that a redeveloped South Works site would make their $64 million investment to extend Route 41 worthwhile. So far neither has happened. Perhaps the biggest hurdle the project faced (aside from its $4 billion price tag) was magically conjuring demand for shiny new housing and retail in a lower-income area that already had a surplus of abandoned and distressed homes.

In October of 2015 McCaffery Interests released a video showing an updated vision for a shopping center at the South Works site. Under the new name Chicago Lakeside Retail, gone was the Sim City-like walkable master plan of the Lakeside Development plan. It was instead replaced with suburban style malls and sprawling surface parking lots and would occupy the parcel's western edge. The modest ambition of Chicago Lakeside Retail plan was clearly not enough to save the strained relationship and US Steel and McCaffery announced an "amicable" split yesterday, according to DNAinfo Chicago. US Steel will retain its ownership of the land.

·Lakeside Development Dead After U.S. Steel and McCaffery Interests Split [DNAinfo]

·Revisiting The Chicago Lakeside Development Promo Vids [Curbed Chicago]

·Dan McCaffery Throws His Hat in the Ring for Obama Library [Curbed Chicago]