A pair of tower crane permits have been added to the Chicago Data Portal this week. On Tuesday April 8, a permit showed up for 626 South Wabash Avenue in the South Loop, where activity got started late last month on a residential building from DAC Developments. One day later, on April 9, a permit appeared for Bally’s Casino, addressed to 705 West Chicago Avenue in River West.
Soil is being turned on a long-vacant lot in the South Loop, and it just might mean that construction is underway for 626 South Wabash. Melrose Ascension Capital and DAC Developments are co-developers here, and they got caisson and full building permits back in 2022, but this is the first action we’ve seen on the site since then.
The Chicago Plan Commission on Thursday approved the conversion of the Graphic Arts Building at 1006 South Michigan Avenue in the South Loop from offices to residential use. The project required a change to Business Planned Development No. 1323, which includes the newly-opened 1000M residential tower next door at 1000 South Michigan. Two members of that development team, JK Equities and Oak Capitals, are the tandem working on the residential conversion. FitzGerald is the design firm for the project.
The City of Chicago has issued a permit for a Liebherr 316 EC-H 12 Litronic tower crane for the continued construction at 1630 South Wabash Avenue in the South Loop. CMK Properties has three apartment projects in the works on a two-block segment of Wabash, and it looks like 1630 will be the next one to restart. The permit became reality yesterday, March 7.
The City of Chicago has issued a tower crane permit for a alrge-scale expansion and renovation at the Shedd Aquarium. The permit application was filed on October 9 of last year, and issued on February 21. Pepper Construction is both the general contractor and concrete contractor here, so they’ll be in charge of the crane’s operation. This is the second renovation project to get a tower crane in Chicago this year, joining the Thompson Center transformation into Google offices.
