The prominent development sites at 601-625 W Monroe Street in West Loop Gate have officially been placed up for sale. Bound by S Desplaines Street to the west and S Jefferson Street to the east, the large lot was originally earmarked for a two-tower residential development split into subareas. With the plans being approved by the city in 2021.
Site plan of 601-625 W Monroe Street via CBRE
However, this isn’t the first time plans for this pair of lots haven’t panned out. The current developer and owner, Pacific Reach Properties, bought the site for $28 million in 2018 from Fifield Companies. Fifield had been trying to build a new super tall office tower with 75-floors since 2013 to no avail, eventually selling the land.
2013 proposal for 601-625 W Monroe Street via John Garb Design
Pacific Reach then decided to pivot to residential, gaining the aforementioned approval for their own planned development after three years. This included splitting the block-long, 63,100-square-foot site into two sub-areas with their own tower. Because of this, they are now being sold separately with the zoning of their respective tower.
Sub-area elevations of 601-625 W Monroe Street via CBRE
601 W Monroe Street – $22.4 Million
The larger of the two and sitting on the intersection with Jefferson Street, this is considered Sub Area A and is 34,642 square-foot in size. This site is approved for a 47-story and 527-foot tower with 562 residential units. This will be supported by 18,475 square-feet of retail space and a 218-vehicle parking garage.
625 W Monroe Street – $19.6 Million
The smaller of the group, Sub Area B sits along Desplaines Street and spans 28,526 square feet in size. This was approved for a slightly smaller building rising 40 stories and 460 feet tall, with 491 residential units. This will also be supported by 7,445 square feet of retail space and 126-vehicle parking spots in its own garage.
Rendering of 601-625 W Monroe Street via CBRE
Rendering of 601-625 W Monroe Street via CBRE
The original plans for the towers designed by SCB called for them to be built in phases, each building half of the eventual shared podium with a large rooftop pool deck. However, the new renderings in the marketing brochure by CBRE show each with their own pool and separated rooftop. Both sites were listed on LoopNet on January 30th.
It is worth noting that all approved plans by the city have six years to break ground, meaning whoever purchases the sites has until 2027 to start construction with the current zoning. While extensions have been granted before, it is very possible that time could run out on the Planned Development.
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This and the huge parking lot northwest of here desperately need to be filled in with super dense housing towers like this. Sits between the job-rich and high demand areas of the loop and west loop with great access to the L, busses, Metra, and even the water taxi. The retail space would help activate this area as well. Wish we could get that parking ratio even lower! No need for a car here
It would be nice if a grocery store could be included. Residents probably wouldn’t want to walk over the expressway to get to the Marianos and Whole Foods on Halsted.
100%, a grocery store or two would do wonders for this area. It’s a food desert currently.
The amount of parking is fine! Less than one third of a space per unit!
I completely understand the backlash against car dependency, but even Paris has 0.37 cars per household. I suspect that the parking in this building was sized to be perfectly appropriate for the demands of the typical West Loop tenant.
I think the complaint was about the existing lots, not proposed parking ratios.
Nice plans to help continue the development in West Loop Gate, the empty lots need to be developed as in other parts of downtown.
This stinks, I really want this area to get filled in as soon as possible. There area few developments here that have been in stasis for a while (I think 4 or 5) and really hope we can get some momentum going in 2025
Agreed. Unfortunately it seems the new 25% tariffs on imported steel and aluminum aren’t going to help this situation nor the ability for these buildings to be affordable.
Very true. And the labor pool will shrink. I’m not super optimistic but I’m also trying to hold out hope. Trump does like nice, shiny new cities and infrastructure that compete with the global cities of the world, but he and Johnson also don’t have the best relationship so who knows where it goes from here.
It’s really sad that a city as big as Chicago, with so little development and much needed new apartments still can’t break ground on hardly any projects. Yet cities like NYC and Dallas have over 30k apartments built last year. We can’t even compete with cities like Portland or Minneapolis who are consistently building more than us. Don’t blame the finance rates and construction costs, because everyone has the same issue. The politics of the city are the main culprit, yet we keep voting the same people in.
How do you know it’s the politics of the city? How many total new units did Portland and Minneapolis produce last year and how many did Chicago?
Progressive state and local leadership is almost as bad as MAGA. Things won’t change until progressive leadership is kicked to the curb. It’s the same disfunction that you see in the CTU. Progressives can’t lead, and this is coming from a moderate-left millennial.
Oh hello fellow moderate-left millennial. I sometimes think I’m the only one
I keep posting the links but this site won’t allow it. You can just search 2024 apartments built by city and chicago is nowhere near the top 20. 14% approval rating by the mayor, corruption in the CTU, excessive taxes, etc. Brutal
There is a lot of building in the west loop along lake, and Randolph as well as other parts of the west loop. I suppose if you make your living dropping new building there is never going to be enough new buildings. I agree because these are apartment buildings and not affordable condos or single family homes I agree there does seem to be something wrong with how these things are decided. I too would like to see more affordable housing built. Buying starting at $800,000 is not affordable unless you make $320,000. Renting starting at $3,500 per month is not really affordable. Maybe if they build more faster the prices will come down.
We need more green space not towers that will remain empty.0ne tower is fine
Possibly the worst place in the entire city to put a park would be in this lot, sandwiched between the Kennedy and the Loop. Some of the most valuable land in Chicago and you want it to be a place where children can go to get asthma. Get real.
This is a residential proposal, not office and wouldn’t have remained empty. Occupancy in the central area has been hovering between 92%-95% occupied for sometime now.
You’re not going to get any green space in the foreseeable future..
“Don’t blame the finance rates and construction costs, because everyone has the same issue. ”
Chicago and Illinois are essentially toxic, uninvestable, nogo zones for capital and businesses for the foreseeable future until there’s a solid political shift and the union stranglehold busted so the pensions can be dealt with. The businesses moving here are ones the state pays to move here, the city has lost 60% of incorporated businesses in the last 20 years alone, you can see it everywhere. The city has 47,835 fewer businesses today than in 2004. They killed the golden goose, it took a few decades but they finally did it.