A couple of office buildings have moved one step closer towards their residential conversion centered around LaSalle Street in The Loop. With rising vacancy rates across the city’s central business district, more and more office structures are making the switch to residential.
79 W Monroe Street (green) – 19 S LaSalle Street (red) – 105 W Adams Street (orange) via Google Maps
Now, one building has received approval from the Finance Committee for its LaSalle Street Reimagine funds, while another two have been purchased by developers with plans for a conversion. They are as follows:
Current image of 79 W Monroe Street via LoopNet
Rising 14-stories tall and sitting on the corner with S Clark Street, the $64 million conversion is the first of four LaSalle Street Reimagine projects to receive approval from the city’s Finance Committee. Developer R2 Companies is working with Ware Malcomb on the design of 117-residential units made up of studios, one-, and two-bedroom layouts.
Rendering of 79 W Monroe Street by Ware Malcomb
The project would receive $28 million in TIF money once fully approved. As part of the city’s requirement for this, 30-percent of the total units will be considered affordable. The project will keep the ground floor Walgreens and existing school in the lower levels. However it will add new amenity spaces and a rooftop on the 14th floor.
While it still requires City Council approval, the rest of funding will come from $28.3 million in equity from the Campari Group and $7.8 million in historic tax credits. Construction will commence at the start of 2025 and finish early 2026.
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View of 19 S LaSalle Street via LoopNet
19 S LaSalle Street
Rising 16-stories and built in 1893, the 159,000 square-foot tower was just purchased by a partnership between Igor Gabal and Envoi Partners. The structure is currently 30 percent leased and the team paid $4.6 million for the building compared to its last owners who paid $22 million in 2019.
View of 19 S LaSalle Street via LoopNet
While plans have not been drawn yet, Gabal hopes to fit anywhere from 150 to 170 residential units within the building, with a potential retail space on the ground floor. This conversion would cost around $50 million according to Crain’s, for which the developers hope they can apply to city funding as they progress. Currently no timeline is known.
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PREVIOUS rendering and section of 105 W Adams Street Proposal 2 by DesignBridge
The 41-story Art Deco structure behind the Federal Center was one of the original LaSalle Street Reimagined proposals, however it did not move forward as one of the four finalists earlier this year. Now a new set of owners made up of Primera Group and Marc Calabria have purchased the office floors within the building for around $11 million.
PREVIOUS rendering of 105 W Adams Street Proposal 2 by DesignBridge
While a hotel partially occupies the lower floors, the owners plan to continue efforts to redevelop roughly 300,000 square-feet of space across 30 of its floors. The team will now work on finalizing architectural plans which will most likely be similar to the original proposal with 247-units and a grocery store. With a rough cost of over $200 million, they hope to continue the past team’s effort for city funding as well.
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These projects as well as the other three LaSalle Street Reimagined projects and the conversions of 65 E Wacker Place and 500 N Michigan Avenue will add around 2,000 units in total to downtown. Coupled with the redevelopment of the Thompson Center into Google’s new home, the city is hoping for a revitalization of its center.
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This stuff moves so slow. Can’t wait to see what the area look like in 5-10 years.
Very excited to see the Loop become a robust mixed use neighborhood. The last rendering, which includes a grocery store, is a very exciting and livable vision.
Maybe one day we’ll no longer refer to it as a central business district and instead just call it the city center like non-US cities tend to do. That would be a mark of success of achieving a less fragile place.