What Tishman Speyer should do here - I think I may have mentioned before - is pull the tower to the northern edge of the site. I think this would provide the best views in aggregate and specifically provide better westward views - for at least the northern half-or-so of the repositioned tower.

I think that I recently read they have a brand new head of development for Chicago.....so maybe if they reassess a little, they’ll come to this conclusion as well.

Exactly how "prime" is this real estate?

One of the longest economic expansions in recent memory, record downtown job growth, low interest rates, a rebirth of companies and people moving downtown, and they still couldn't get this shit off the ground?

Hell, the Old Post Office got sold posthumously by a halfwit landbanker in Britain, got a $1 billion loan, and is now sopping up tenants like the world outside the OPO is about to end.

That huge albatross should never have made it out of the abyss, but a bunch of New Yorkers had vision and are rebuilding it into what will certainly be one of downtown Chicago's most valuable assets.

Meanwhile, these clowns who own 130 N Franklin can't get this one project off the ground.

Yeah....they really have no one but themselves to blame. It’s been a D- effort to-date at best.

A damn shame it is...

I wonder if it's costing them to hold onto the site, or if they could just sell it to someone else?

Imagine how awesome a 1,200 footer would look here! Omg! Would help close the gap from Willis Tower to all the other supertalls. Ugh. I hope this doesn't get built so the lot can be saved for a supertall

So is this like completely canceled now?

Why?

I mean I think it's exactly where it was a year ago...and the year before that...it was never really *fully* alive so it could have been "canceled" a while ago, but AFAIK Tishman Speyer is still holding on to it...which has to mean...something, right?

I will say, that I think the fact that TSP is developing 320 n. Sangamon was them kinda, for lack of a better word, gauging the Chicago office market (pre-pandemic). Obviously, TSP is experienced, but they have little development in Chicago. How what's going on right now affected this? IDK.

Also, now that Riverside has developed pretty much all their loop properties (that we know of) there could be more interest in this property; this could also be why Murphy wants to move ahead with 301(?) s. Wacker.

I imagine this site will be back in play for the next trophy office tower, whenever the office market recovers. I like the chances. It's really one of only a tiny handful of sites in a strong location where you can do a big tower and give it some breathing room with park/plaza.

301 S Wacker I am skeptical about. It has that Wacker Drive address, but in other respects it's kind of a ho-hum site for highrise development. In order to get respectable floorplates they need to sandwich the new building up against 311 awkwardly and eliminate all the open space. I honestly think that might be a better site for a hotel - they can offer bundle deals with the Skydeck and do a more slender building, kind of like how the Hotel Palomar building on State sidles up to the AMA Building. Pre-Covid there was some pretty strong hotel growth in the Central/SW Loop with JW Marriott, Hyatt Centric, etc.

Residential might work at 301 as well, but I think 255 W Van Buren cast a negative light on SW Loop residential. Things may be different with the OPO re-opened, though.

I'm kinda glad they're not jumping the gun and wasting the site on some 700+ box at the moment. Hopefully they'll build something more worthy when the time comes.

a 1000+ footer here and a 1300+ thompson center redevelopment would do wonders in filling out the skyline. Seems like two of the last lots with the potential to balance out sears in the loop and connect it with the northern supertalls of the skyline... at least before parking garages start getting torn down.

100% agree. 130 site is prime for a supertall

I think this block has now been vacant longer than Block 37. :(

^ holy crap, you're right!

Demo on the old merc exchange wrapped up in spring 2003, so we're coming up on 19 years now.

Block 37 demo wrapped up in 1990, and the first building didn't open until 2008, so 18 years.

Isn't this one of the sites that JP Morgan Chase is considering building on?

Yeah, but that was also full block outside the transformer station, this is half that.

Jeez, has it been 19 years already? I still remember how livid I was over the demo of the old CME. It was over 98% occupied at the time, and in very good structural condition. At least if they kept the damn thing up it would have earned the owner rental income over the last two decades, instead of being a fallow empty lot with zero ROI.

I seem to recall the demolition was being rushed because the owners did not want Landmarks to give the building legal protection as it was rated orange at the time. It seemed insane to me that the old CME didn't have landmark status to begin with. There was definitely some backroom dealings going on with that.

And now instead of a gorgeous historic building where modern day derivative trading was arguably conceived in, we all get to cherish in the barren abandoned lot we have inherited as a result of these idiotic actions. :hell:

^ i believe that both the CME and the concept of derivatives trading preceded the 1928 opening of the building in question, but yeah, it's still kind of a bitter irony that this beautiful building was lost because someone made a bad bet on the future.

https://www.emporis.com/images/show/...ast-corner.jpg
Source:
https://www.emporis.com/buildings/11...chicago-il-usa

I don't think there's been any actual concrete news about that. If you got that from the forum that was probably just some posts by me speculating that they might consider building here as Tishman has a proposed design here (https://tishmanspeyer.com/properties/130-north-franklin) and Tishman is also the developer that is building Chase's new hq in NYC. And Chase said they want up to 1 million sqft. And Chicago recently gave Tishman until September, 24 2022 to start getting something built here or 'force it back to square one.' (https://www.chicagoarchitecture.org/...-blames-covid/)


Edit: Did a bit of searching and Tribune says Tishman is one 'making pitches' to Chase but not really sure the source or context on that.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/busin...m6y-story.html

Thanks for the update. :cheers: