Someone created a dedicated thread for this project:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=225358

Does anyone know how to link it to the Chicago P&C regional group? Can an administrator help with that?

Demolition will not start until after the first of the year as the development team expects to close their loan around Thanksgiving and have a GMP by the end of the year.

Is this building going to be condo or apartments? If condo, when do you expect a sales center to go up?

^ It's all apartments.....

will they remodel the hotel?

^The hotel will be completely renovated. The renovation will take place near the end of the tower construction so the hotel and tower open roughly the same time.

Thanks to whoever updated this.

Construction loan should be closing on Monday for this project. Overheard canopies for the garage demolition should go up just after the moratorium is lifted after the first of the year. Excited to see this one rise!

^ To hell with permits, earth moving machinery, or drills I say.

Nothing generates more dancing bananas in my mind than a construction loan.

Everything else is just a display. Money talks, while bullshit....

The view looking down the Michigan Ave cliff down to Roosevelt from Grant Park is about to see some major changes

The extension of the skyline down Michigan Ave is the most exciting thing happening to the city imo. Now if we can just get 1000 Michigan going, we'd be great.

Great to see this one moving forward imminently. Now if we can get an early 2017 groundbreaking on 1326 S Michigan as well, I'll be quite happy with the South Loop's current progress in this boom.....

My buddy is an electrician, and at his company's Christmas party on Friday, his boss shared the news with the guys that they won the bid for the electrical work (from McHugh I think he said). He said they expect to be on the job starting sometime in 2017. Needless to say the union guys went wild after this announcement. I wish I could somehow share the snapchats he sent from the party. Them boys can drink!

I used to work at 208 S. LaSalle while they did the JW conversion. Seemed like the timeline of that renovation spread much longer than the inital due date. Should we expect the same for Essex? Also, the cost of these hotel conversion projects is absolutley rediculous, aside from the fact that JW charges $400 a night. Marriot spent 450 million to renovate 12 floors plus 3 basement floors. Plus they picked up the tab for the elevator and lobby renovation for the office space. They could have built a 60 floor state of the art hotel for that cost. I understand the point of fixing up Classic, Beautiful, Old buildings, but at what what point does cost take over tradition? Couldnt Essex save a butt load by just tearing down the old hotel and make one massive building instead.

Well there's certainly no going back now, since the developer had the Essex landmarked.

I think you are downplaying the importance of how much money these hotels make in rooms AND in food and beverage from their associated bars and restaurants in their downtown location. Also note that most of these recent conversions have happened in landmark buildings that cannot be torn down and have recently shown to have little use as office except as class C or D. Add to that that redeveloping in a landmarked building provides significant Class L tax credits. These projects wouldn't be happening if the numbers didn't make sense.

But specifically in the case of Essex, the fact that they have landmarked the original building suggests that they are planning to use historic tax credits. Plus I'm assuming that they are using the FAR/air rights of the Essex parcel to build higher on the new tower parcel. If they tore the existing building down and filled the entire site they either wouldn't be able to build as tall, or would have to purchase additional FAR in order to achieve a building of the same height with larger footprint.

Per a source:

606'11"|56 floors

essex construction loan

http://www.chicagoarchitecture.org/2...ney-gets-busy/

RentEssex.com

great news!

someone with seemingly insider info mentioned somewhere else on the forum that Case will be starting foundation work on this project in early march.

EDIT:

here's the post from the 1200 S Indiana thread

how in the world are people getting construction loans for hotels? there are so many articles out there about room glut downtown.

^ This is not a new hotel, just a reno.

Even then, a new hotel can still get financed.

Ah, my bad. I should actually read the article before posting. :D