the Chicago Spire was under a shadow of the 2016 Olympics until a few weeks ago.
When Chicago was in the running for the 2016 Olympics, the local AFL_CIO Investment trusts signaled interest in helping foot the bill for an Olympic Village in Chicago. The trusts represent 24 trades. Now that the Olympic bid is lost the trusts have another investment opportunity. The Chicago Spire.
Though it appears today, 12/1, that a meeting between the Chicago & Cook County Building & Cosntruction Trades Council which represents the trades, and the Spire’s developer, Shelbourne Development Group was uneventful, the issue of funding the restart of the project is still on the table. Under discussion is a potential $170 million land loan that would payoff liens and restart work on the dormant project.
below: the 2,000-foot-high 150-story condominium tower has remained a large hole in the ground for over a year ever since financial woes stopped construction work.
below: the latest 3D renderings.
For $40,000,000 you can get the 10,000 square-foot penthouse condo, which by-the-way was bought by Ty Warner, creator of the Beanie Baby toys; for $750,000 a bottom-end 543-square-foot starter unit. The average per-square-foot cost of a bit under $2,000 marks a new top price point in Chicago.
below: the latest 3-D interior renderings.
above: santiago calatrava, the architect, in the Chicago Spire sales office in NBC Tower.
The Spire was supposed to be finished by 2012 and the Irish developer staged a global marketing campaign. Buyers have snapped up a third of its 1,194 luxury condominiums to date.
Calatrava has placed a lien on the building, claiming that he was owed $11.34 million. But while in Chicago last month, he said it was his “personal wish” that the four-year-old project “was not dead,” noting that some of his projects have taken up to 13 years to complete.
More… spire not spared — spire news
Resources:
the chicago spire
blair kamin – not DOA yet
chicago architecture info
chicago real estate daily
lynn becker
savills
