CHICAGO—The CBD and its surrounding neighborhoods will see thousands of new apartment units come online over the next two years, and some fear that developers have started too many projects for the market to absorb efficiently. But Steve Fifield of Fifield Cos. tells GlobeSt.com that has no worries about eventually filling up the company's giant new apartment project at 727 W. Madison St. in the West Loop. The developers recently secured financing for the 46-story, 492-unit project, and their conservative plan gives them the luxury of time.

“We're not expecting to lease this building up in six months,” Fifield says. Instead, after the builders complete the tower in late 2018 and open that winter, tenants should occupy an average of about 30 units per month. That would mean a 17-month lease up, a pace far below what Fifield saw at its 848-unit Alta at K Station development. Finished in 2010, those West Loop towers attracted roughly 45 tenants per month.

Fifield points out that even when the real estate market hit bottom in 2008, Echelon at K Station, the company's development at 353 N. Des Plaines, was bringing in an average of 21 tenants per month.