Chicago Funds Four Loop Office-to-Resi Projects

Chicago is committing $151M in public funding toward the conversion of four aging office buildings to residences in the city’s LaSalle Street financial corridor in the Loop.

The four projects, part of the city’s LaSalle Street Reimagined initiative, will cost a total $520M and create 1,000 housing units, of which 319 will be rented at affordable rates.

At the end of 2022, the city received nine bids in response to its LaSalle Street Reimagined Initiative, which put out an RFP for adaptive reuse projects for the LaSalle Street corridor, which stretches from Washington Street to Jackson Boulevard in the Loop business district.

The original pool of bidders envisioned a total of $1.2B in projects to convert seven office buildings.

The largest of the four winning bids, submitted by Prime Group and Capri Investor LLC, involves a $203M redo of fourteen floors in the former BMO complex at 111 W. Monroe Street, a property that dates back to 1911, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune.

The developers are planning 345 rental units at 111 W. Monroe, of which 105 would be affordable. The project would be funded with $40M from the city’s LaSalle Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District.

Prime Group also submitted the proposal for a $123M project that will create 226 apartments, including 68 affordable units, at the original home of the Continental and Commercial National Bank. The project would receive $26M in TIF funding.

Golub & Co. is planning to redevelop an aging high-rise at 30 N. LaSalle Street, creating 349 housing units of which 105 will be affordable.

Eight floors of the Bell Federal Building at 79 W. Monroe Street will be redeveloped by the Campari Group into 117 residential units, including 41 designated as affordable.

The development team is seeking city landmark designation and federal historic tax credits for the $64M Bell project, which will include the restoration of the “Weather Bell” sign that changes colors as it predicts temperature changes.

Affordable units for the designated projects will be reserved for renters earning at or below 60% of the area’s median income, estimated at about $53K for a two-person household, the report said.

Chicago has earmarked a total of $320M of LaSalle TIF funding for LaSalle Reimagined projects in 2025 and 2026.

LaSalle Street is the historic heart of Chicago’s central business district. LaSalle experienced significant office and retail vacancy rates during the pandemic, exacerbated by market trends that shifted most new office investment to the West Loop, leaving millions of square feet of underutilized office space along the corridor.

Major financial players, including Bank of America and BMO Financial, have relocated from LaSalle Street to trophy towers along the Chicago River.

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