Now six stories high, structural work continues its climb for 166 N Aberdeen Street, a 21-story residential development in West Loop’s Fulton Market. Set to rise 241 feet and planned by development firm Greystar, this tower is one of several new additions for this cycle that will transform the Randolph Street corridor.
Potential groundbreaking have been announced for two Fulton Market projects after securing the land sale and anchor tenants this week. The two projects in question are the life sciences building at 400 N Elizabeth Street and the office building at 360 N Green Street, each led by different developers but delivering similar amounts of leasable space at each end of the quickly growing neighborhood. All together they will bring roughly 1 million square feet of new commercial space in an area poaching new leases at a faster rate than most.
Demolition work has now begun for the five-story Cassidy Tires building, located at 344 N Canal Street in Fulton River District. The masonry edifice will be replaced by a 33-story mixed-use tower, under development by The Habitat Company and Diversified Real Estate Capital LLC. Just north of the Metra tracks, the project will yield a total of 343 for-rent units atop ground-level retail.
Just north of the Randolph & Aberdeen intersection in West Loop, Greystar Development’s 166 N Aberdeen Street can be seen rising past the second floor. The 21-story project involves a mixed-use package of ground-level retail and 224 total apartment dwellings. Greystar purchased this parcel, a former sausage factory, for $6 million from MCZ Development.
The edifice’s story begins almost exactly 100 years ago, when The Chicago Tribune newspaper held a public competition to design its new headquarters. The key guideline was to design the “most beautiful office building” in the world, with over 260 submissions vying for that title and a first prize of $50,000 (roughly $800,000 in 2021). The winning entry was the Neo-Gothic design by New York-based Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells, whose dramatic Neo-Gothic design came to fruition with the tower’s completion in 1925. The Chicago Landmark would serve as the Tribune’s headquarters for another 93 years, up until its 2018 relocation to One Prudential Plaza. Upon the departure, the property was sold for $240 million to co-developers CIM Group and Golub & Company.
