CHICAGO SKYLINE FROZEN - Credit Crisis Delays Completion of New Downtown High Rise Buildings!
IN-PROCESS STRUCTURES TO STAND IN PLACE FOR A WHILE, NEW CHICAGO SKYSCRAPERS LIKELY ON HOLD HERE!
Around the world, the Chicago Skyline is one of the things that makes our city famous, and instantly recognized.
If you're traveling abroad, and see a city shot framed by two, super-tall black high rises on each end, with a shoreline in the foreground - you know your looking at a photo of Chicago, with the Sears Tower on the south, the John Hancock Building on the north, and Lake Michigan as our front yard.
During the past 10 years, our skyline has evolved meteorically, with dozens of new residential and commercial buildings sprouting up all over The Chicago Loop, The South Loop, River North, and nearby.
Our rapidly-evolving skyline, however, is likely to stay unchanged for the coming few years, as many high-end condo buildings sit undersold, and construction funding for others is hard to find.
Chicago real estate developers have built more than 195 high-rise buildings since 1998, according to the Emporis Building Database. That's more high rises than even exist in downtown Detroit, St. Louis, or Milwaukee - these major cities boast 132, 106, and 83 tall buildings, at least 12 stories high, respectively.
Our decade-old housing boom will come to a long-awaited, symbolic climax when the spire atop the Trump International Hotel & Tower, on Wacker Drive at Wabash Avenue, along the Chicago River, is installed later this month. With the spire attached, the Trump Tower will rise 1,361 feet to the river below. It will make Chicago home to the largest skyscraper built in the U.S. since our own Sears Tower, at Adams Street and Wacker Drive, was completed 34 years ago.
But now, high-rise construction has ground to a virtual halt here. Although downtown developers are expected to complete roughly 4,900 new condos in high rises in 2008, that number will collapse by 2010, to just over 500 units.
Even the high-fanfare Trump Tower offers little reason for Donald Trump to celebrate when his Chicago building is completed. For a couple of years now, the developer has been stuck at the 75%-sold benchmark in that 92-story iconic building. Typically, developer profits come from the final 20% of units sold.
How long will the construction freeze last?
That's hard to say, as it is impossible to precisely predict when the Chicago economy will once again grow with the flourish it did over the last ten years. But two hallmark skyscrapers-in-progress have sent away construction cranes, and sit in limbo.
The Chicago Spire, at 400 N. Lake Shore Drive, is just a big hole in the ground - work has completely stopped, with the date of resumption of construction unclear.
Work has also stopped at The Waterview Tower/Shangri-La Hotel at 111 N. Wacker Drive. Plans call for this project to rise 1,047 feet, one foot taller than the Chrysler Building in New York City. But now, the project sits uncompleted, work stuck on the 26th floor, with the building's steel frame exposed to the harsh Chicago elements.
Several other, smaller structures remain on hold as well, including a 16-story hotel project at 127 W. Huron Street in the River North Neighborhood. And although work proceeds on the 82-story Aqua Tower, a residential building at 200 N. Columbus Drive, the companion 76-story mixed use residential/office tower project has been mothballed for now as well.
The expected falloff in high rise construction is not strictly a Chicago phenomenon. Projects in major cities from New York to Los Angeles have been stalled as well.
For more, read today's Tribune Staff Report in today's Chicago Tribune, with comments from Tribune Architecture Critic Blair Kamin, and Gail Lissner, Vice President of Appraisal Research Counselors of Chicago.
DEAN MOSS & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
