Quote:
Originally Posted by VKChaz
But it is basic supply/demand. This won't happen, but let's say for sake of argument that 2 million sq ft of office space is built on this site. That is 2 mil sq ft that won't be needed somewhere else. Similarly with hotel tax revenue, a large hotel here means someone else doesn't get funding to build a hotel (it also does nothing to add visitors to fill the rooms to get the revenue). Obviously this is an oversimplification; the world doesn't work in an exact 1:1 way, but the point is that developers are not building just for the sake of building - the supply and demand have to stay in some kind of balance.
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The "somewhere else" doesn't necessarily mean nearby. Unique locations, particularly in global cities, can incentivize entities to move to them when they become available. That may not happen here, but it is a fairly unique site by American standards and even by global standards. Unlike any other recent Loop project other than Block 37, it's a full square block and across the street from Chicago's center of government, it's literally on top of a major city transit hub, it's not a bad walk from at least two, and depending on your tolerance for walking, as many as four commuter rail stations, it's blocks from Chicago's largest entertainment district, within Chicago's large-production theatre district, blocks from Millennium Park, blocks from State Street. That could conceivably draw from more than just existing local demand to get used. The location would *easily* support a mixed-use super-tall with global draw.