:D I believe that schmuck was the architect?

Encouraging, hopefully this project still pencils out as approved. The capital markets and construction costs are quite shit at the moment, and supertalls are especially tricky.

Wow, what a difference a few weeks make. Lightfoot is on the way out, this fantastic project, Tribune East appears to be on the way in, what's next to make it a trifecta.

Normally I would delete such an off-topic comment as unsourced and whatnot, but what the hell. . . it's good! :D

. . .

Thanks Tom. I think this whole saga of this tower qualifies as weird wild stuff. Plus, you know, Dana Carvey.

^yep. . .

. . .

https://news.pypeline.co/wp-content/...s-a-chance.jpg
Source: https://news.pypeline.co/college-foo...eres-a-chance/

I don't see this being constructed anytime soon - rising interest rates, risk of recession, Chicago's current challenges. I do see it maybe being built in the next real estate upswing, perhaps in the 2030s...of course, just my conjecture, but I think many banks and developers would consider this a risk right now...

It seems like their intention is to build it. Whether that happens is another question. I'm guessing they're probing to see how costs have changed. Chicago YIMBY pointed out a couple details that seem interesting.

If the developers don't use these entitlements, they will lose them. Not sure when they would lose their approvals, but most likely before the 2030s.

If construction of this 1,442 footer does not start by the end of 2024, then Chicago might have nothing >500 ft under construction after 1000M's completion. I think that would be the first time since the 1990s that Chicago isn't building something taller than 500 ft.

Proposed or approved towers with planned heights above 500 ft that received relevant updates in the last 6 months:

Tribune East Tower - 1,442 ft
725 W Randolph - 664 ft
655 W Madison - 604 ft
1200 W Fulton - ~600 ft
420 N May - 600 ft
1300 W Lake - 530 ft
1300 W Carroll - 514 ft
330 N Green - 503 ft
375 N Morgan - ~500 ft

I think it’s pretty cynical not to think at least one of these will be under construction by the end of 2024.

The Spire site gets developed with a 2,000 footer?

Spire schmire. Am I the only one that's perfectly okay with that 2000 foot Russian pied a terre filled grotesque unicorn horn never coming to fruition? I never liked that kind of shear height sitting right on top of LSD like that anyways. Towers look better to me completing a crescindo in a skyline. I'm perfectly fine being alone on this btw. I do wish the first taller iteration of the 400 N LSD replacement was happening though.

I guess you are dude ^

That design was freaking amazing, and the height was just *mwah*

I preferred the original design that had its roof height at 1600 ft and a spire extending it to 2000ft. I think it would've looked better in the skyline.

No, Busy Bee isn't the only one; to me, the Spire died a long time ago, everything from before the Recession feels like a very different time, especially proposals from then. I've moved on, I like Related's replacement towers, just wish they were taller. That doesn't mean that I didn't like the Spire design, on the contrary. It's just time to move on.

IF this new movement for Tribune East is legit (I really don't want to get my hopes up), and it actually gets built to the same height and relatively same design, I'll be ecstatic.

Who do you think will live in Tribune East, if they build it? We have the same condo buyer pool that we did in 2006. If anything, I would expect to see more overseas Chinese buyers than Russians, but I don't think we've seen a lot of those either.

I don't think either building would fill with foreign oligarch buyers, because nobody overseas thinks Chicago real estate is a slam-dunk investment. Developers have tried to court this type of buyer with little success (it didn't work at St Regis IIRC). Instead of those top-dollar buyers, this type of tower ends up getting medium-dollar buyers - Americans looking for a pied-a-terre with their suburban/country house in St Charles or Saugatuck or w/e.

Do you know my old neighbors?? Lol! You're basically describing exactly what they did: sold their house in the burbs in the summer of 2021, moved into the St. Regis, which they bought with a pre-construction and pre-pandemic discount, and still have a comfortable, 4-bedroom house in Saugatauk! Eerie :D
But having spoken to them recently, theirs is not an isolated situation, many of their new neighbors in the St. Regis basically done the same thing: mid & upper middle income empty-nesters selling their suburban houses, all from different burbs and moving downtown full-time. Maybe it's just anecdotal, maybe it's an actual trend. But to your point, it's gonna be more Americans than foreign investors buying prime downtown condos, townhouses, etc.

^ Also, only 125 of the units are condos. The remaining 439 units are rentals.