August 13, 2013 – Attorneys for a condominium association suing to stop the development of Wolf Point had until Tuesday to respond to a motion by the City of Chicago to dismiss their case.

The Residences at Riverbend Condominium Association is suing the city, trying to get the zoning amendment that allowed the project voided. On July 9, the city entered a motion to dismiss that lawsuit, filed on May 30, saying the plaintiffs do not own property on the actual planned development where three towers will be built and even if they did, the zoning amendment that allowed the project was approved properly.

Riverbend’s attorneys, Richard Kessler and Joseph Jacobi of McDonald Hopkins LLC, had until August 6 to respond but were unable to meet the deadline due to “commitments in other matters.” Attorneys for the city agreed to a seven-day extension. U.S. District Court judge Amy J. St. Eve granted the extension on August 6. A reply is due on or before August 27. The next status hearing is scheduled for October 29.

The plan is to build the towers one at a time at Wolf Point near where the Chicago River splits into its north and south branches. In May, Thomas Kerwin of bKL Architecture, the building’s architects, said construction of the first tower would begin on July 31. More than two weeks past that date, construction does not appear to have started on the site. Reached on Tuesday, Kerwin did not know of the new schedule.

Kim Jagger, director of corporate communications for Hines, the project’s developer, said on Tuesday they “don’t have anything to share right now.”

The Residences at Riverbend (left) is a 38-story condominium on North Canal Street. It is approximately 250 feet across the Chicago River from Wolf Point.

When the city council amended the zoning ordinance for Wolf Point on March 13, to allow construction of one 525-foot 510-unit residential tower on the west side, the condo association at Riverbend claims they were “deprived of procedural and substantive due process of law as well as denied equal protection under the law.”

The project will eventually include a 950-foot south tower and a 750-foot east tower.

 Related story: City moves to dismiss Wolf Point suit