• Posted: November 12, 2018
• better construction, Chicago Construction

To cap off what has been a booming year for Chicago real estate and construction, the City Council in October approved three new projects that could bring 7,000 residential units, more than 1,200 hotel rooms, and 2 million square feet of additional office space to the city.

The projects are located at Union Station, at the Lakeshore East complex, and on the river just north of downtown that is owned by Tribune Media and currently being look at by Amazon for its new headquarters.
“We’re taking care of business here in the city of Chicago. … My goal has always been about creating economic growth and job creation,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel proudly proclaimed during a news conference midway through the busy agenda.

“North Point as a transportation, distribution, and logistics facility will be up to 4,000 jobs. Union Station will not only be a new office tower. Union Station will be returned to its glory and create a tremendous economic engine and opportunity for the city.”

The greenlight by the City Council for Union Station opens the door for a $900 million piece of the more than $1 billion Union Station redevelopment that is expected to create 5,100 construction jobs and 480 permanent jobs. Construction is anticipated to begin the fourth quarter of 2019 and is projected to last three years.

The largest of the projects — for $2.5 billion — could someday bring 14 mixed-use buildings and 4,099 additional residential units to previously-protected industrial land in Chicago’s North Branch Corridor.

The planned development, with 13 acres of open space and a picturesque walkway along the Chicago River, is at 643-741 Chicago Ave., a site owned by Tribune Media that includes the Tribune’s Freedom Center printing plant.

The city also approved a 455-foot tall office tower atop a River North firehouse, a 50-story hotel and residential building in the already massive Lake Shore East complex and a $1.1 billion plan to add several new towers to that same complex.

The three new Lake Shore East towers will be built in the northeast corner of the neighborhood rising south of the Chicago River as it flows into Lake Michigan.

Alongside the 50-story building approved separately along the western side of Lakeshore East, the three new buildings would fill some of the last available sites in the project.

The three new buildings would be 40, 50, and 80 stories tall. Plans call for a small public park along the southern edge of the site.