Ronero’s Owners Return to Randolph Street With Japanese Restaurant

By: Ashok Selvam | 9/30/2021 | Chicago.Eater.com

The owner and chef of Komo, a West Loop restaurant opening Friday along Randolph Street have known each for years. Owner Nils Westlind first met chef Macku Chan when Westlind was 15 and working at a pet store in Evanston.Chan had something hidden underneath his shirt and when Westlind asked about the bulge, the chef revealed he was holding a monkey. “I wasn’t impressed,” Westlind says. “I had my own monkey.” The two quickly became friends. Westlind offered Chan specials at the pet store and Chan returned the favor by hooking him up at his restaurants, where the teen couldn’t afford to eat on his own. Read More....

Photo by Komo/Jeff Brady

Plan Commission Approves Mixed-Use Development At 160 N Morgan Street In West Loop

By: Ian Achong | 9/18/21 | ChicagoYimby.com

The Chicago Plan Commission has approved a mixed-use development at 160 N Morgan Street in the West Loop. Slightly revised plans for the bKL Architecture-designed residential high-rise were presented by developer Sterling Bay as they continue to build up the former meat packing industrial area. Facing N Morgan street, the site which once held a drive-thru bank turned Gucci store pop-up, will give residents direct access to restaurant row, the CTA Green Line, and next door Federales bar. Read More....

Photo Courtesy of bKL Architecture

Fulton Market eyed for new Metra station

By: Greg Hinz | 9/27/21 | Crain's Chicago Business

The booming Fulton Market area may be getting something new to go along with its fast-growing number of corporate headquarters and other business outposts: its own Metra station. Metra and city officials have scheduled a virtual meeting for mid-October to talk about opening a new station that would be available to the 80,000 riders a day who commute on Metra’s west, northwest and southwest lines. Read More....

Photo by Chicago.gov

Crews make room for 43-story Fulton Market tower

By: Jay Koziarz | 7.23.2021 | Urbanize Chicago

Demolition crews have knocked down a dilapidated single-story industrial building to make space for a 43-story tower in the heart of the Fulton Market District. Known as 900 W. Randolph (though the building actually fronts Peoria), the skyscraper will rise an impressive 495 feet—making it one of the neighborhood's tallest projects to date. The transit-oriented development will deliver 300 luxury rental units (60 on-site apartments will be affordable rate), new retail space along Peoria, and garage parking for just 75 vehicles. The project comes from Related Midwest and co-developer Tucker Development, which rehabbed the historic low-rise buildings on the north and west sides of the block. Read More....

Photo from Urbanize.City

Sterling Bay reveals 25-story rental tower for Fulton & Elizabeth

By: Jay Koziarz | 7.21.2021 | Urbanize Chicago

It's been five short months since Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) and the Planning Department lifted the ban on new residential development north of Lake Street in Fulton Market, and the apartment proposals just keep coming. The latest, a 25-story high-rise slated for 1245 W. Fulton, made its debut at a virtual community meeting Wednesday night. Developed by Sterling Bay, the 314-foot-tall project would replace a vacant lot at the southeast corner of Fulton and Elizabeth. The development site is just west of the single-story Revel Fulton event space where rival developer Fulton St. Cos. recently won Plan Commission approval to build a 34-story high-rise with 433 apartments. Read More....

Photo by Sterling Bay/HPA

West Loop Apartment Complex Could Bring Nearly 300 More Units To Neighborhood

By: Mauricio Pena | 7.21.2021 | BlockClubChicago.org

A developer that sought to build a hotel and apartment tower in the West Loop is changing course. DCA Developments is pitching a 19-story, 213-foot building at 1217 W. Washington Blvd. DCA scrapped its initial idea for a hotel after residents said that business wouldn’t make sense for the location, Michael Ezgur, a zoning attorney for the project, said at a Monday community meeting. The new proposal would have 288 apartments, 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and a rooftop pool deck, Ezgur said. The apartments would be a mix of studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms, and 20 percent — or 58 units — would be affordable. Read More....

Photo by Melrose Ascension Capital

Planned Fulton Market tower would rise 26 stories

By: Alby Gallun | 7.20.2021 | Crain's Chicago Business

Nearly three years after buying a site at the west end of the Fulton Market District, Jeff Shapack has revealed what he wants to build there: a 26-story residential high-rise. The Chicago developer, one of the most active in the booming neighborhood, has filed plans for the 316-unit project at the corner of Fulton and Ada streets with the Chicago City Council. Shapack is among several developers to march west in search of land in Fulton Market as the neighborhood’s core fills up. Housing developers in particular also have started to move north after the city lifted a ban on residential projects north of Lake Street earlier this year. Read More....

Photo by CoStar Group

Record sale in Fulton Market

By: Danny Ecker | 7.13.2021 | Crain's Chicago Business

An Australian family that made its fortune in the hospitality and casino industry is buying a boutique Fulton Market District property in a deal that will set the new high mark for a Chicago office building. Melbourne-based Zagame Family Group has an agreement to pay nearly $42 million for the newly built 45,380-square-foot building at 1100 W. Fulton Market, according to sources familiar with the deal. A sale at around $925 per square foot would top the $879 per square foot that a German investor paid in May 2020 for Mondelez International's headquarters building at 905 W. Fulton Market. Read More.... 

Photo by Fulton Street Cos.

Fulton Market's Office Sector May Recover Faster Than The Rest Of The CBD

By: Brian Rogal | 6/16/2021 | Bisnow.com

Big office leasing deals returned to Fulton Market this year, but like the rest of downtown, the neighborhood may have a long way to go before it fully recovers. Developers and landlords across downtown were caught by surprise when Covid shuttered offices, but the timing was worse for those active in Fulton Market, which was in the midst of a building boom. Developers delivered more than 2M SF since the beginning of 2020, in a neighborhood that started that year with about 5.5M SF of total inventory. And with leasing efforts basically shut down, the vacancy rate for Class-A buildings in Fulton Market soared from less than 15% in Q1 2020 to more than 34% by May of this year, according to a May market beat report from MBRE. Read More.... 

Photo by Gensler

Google's Fulton Market landlords cashing out

By: Danny Ecker | 6/2/2021 | Crain's Chicago Business

Real estate investors have struck deals to pay big bucks for Google's two office buildings in the Fulton Market District, more evidence of a swift return to normalcy for the trendy corporate corridor as effects of the COVID-19 pandemic wane. German real estate firm Deka Immobilien is under contract to pay about $169 million for the 207,000-square-foot office building at 210 N. Carpenter St., where the search giant opened a new office in 2019 for its growing local cloud computing team, according to sources familiar with the deal. And at Google's Midwest headquarters building a block north at 1000 W. Fulton Market, an undisclosed buyer has agreed to pay close to $360 million for the 10-story building, sources said. Read More....

Photo by CoStar Group

Texas developer planning two more Fulton Market towers

By: Jay Koziarz | 5/24/2021 | Urbanize.City

Dallas-based developer Trammell Crow Company is doubling down on its commitment to Chicago's Fulton Market District with plans to build a 410-foot-tall office tower and a 359-foot-tall apartment complex along Carroll Avenue between May and Aberdeen streets. Trammell Crow submitted a single zoning application for both buildings. Under the plan "Subarea A," currently occupied by a single-story industrial building at 315 N. May Street, will become a 26-story commercial tower with 650,000 square feet of office, 15,000 square feet of retail, and 184 parking spaces. Read More.... 

Photo from Urbanize.City

Plumbers Union (UA) Local 130 obtains $25 million building permit for seven-story West Loop parking garage

By: Mark Buckshon | 5/18/21 | ChicagoConstructionNews.com

The Plumbers Union (UA) Local 130 has obtained a $25 million building permit to construct a seven-story parking garage, the first stage of a project including a six story building at 1371 W. Randolph St. Specifically, the permit issued on May 14 says: “New construction of 7-story parking garage on caisson foundations. Building to include ground floor retail to be built out under separate permit. Site work includes surface parking lot.” Read More....

Photo by OKW Architects

Fulton Market developer plans massive apartment, office project

By: Danny Ecker | 5/18/21 | Crain's Chicago Business

One of the busiest real estate investors in the Fulton Market District over the past few years has lined up a deal to buy most of a city block near the corridor's western end, where it aims to develop a trio of buildings totaling 1.1 million square feet of apartments and offices. Teeing up what would be its largest project to date in the former meatpacking neighborhood, Chicago-based Fulton St. Cos. is under contract to pay roughly $40 million for more than half of the 1200 block of Fulton Street bounded by Racine and Carroll avenues and Elizabeth Street, according to Fulton St. co-founder Alex Najem. Read More....

Photo by CoStar Group

Mayor Lightfoot Announces Elite Transit Solutions Expands Presence with New Office in Fulton Market Neighborhood

By: Chicago.Gov | 5/17/21

Today, Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot announced Elite Transit Solutions (ELITE) expansion in Chicago, becoming its new central hub. Michael Johnson, CEO of ELITE, signed a multi-year office lease for 9,000 square feet in the newly refurbished 600 West Fulton building at Jefferson and Fulton Streets in Chicago's west loop and historic Fulton Market neighborhood. Chicago will anchor the company’s aggressive national expansion plan in the wake of its explosive growth. ELITE is a third-party logistics (3PL) leader in the freight management logistics industry, delivering innovative technology solutions for customers in food and beverage, OEM, industrial, and chemical companies. Read More....

Massive Fulton Market life sciences building planned

By: Danny Ecker | 5/13/2021 | Crain's Chicago Business

Veteran Chicago developer Mark Goodman wants to build a massive life sciences lab building along the western edge of the Fulton Market District, a project that could boost an emerging cluster of properties for pharmaceutical and biotechnology research in the trendy former meatpacking corridor. In one of the most ambitious proposals to date for a new life sciences development in the city, Goodman this week presented plans to a West Loop neighborhood group committee for a 19-story, 500,000-square-foot lab and office building at 400 N. Elizabeth St., a spokeswoman for the firm confirmed in a statement. Read More....

Photo by Solomon Cordwell Buenz

West Loop Housing Boom Set To Expand North As City Committee OKs Lifting Ban In Long Off-Limits Fulton Market Stretch

By: Justin Laurence | 4/20/2021 | BlockClubChicago.org

The West Loop development boom is set to expand north. On Tuesday, Chicago’s Committee on Zoning approved an ordinance lifting a ban on residential developments north of Lake Street in the Fulton Market District. The move will give the city a “shot in the arm” as it recovers from the coronavirus pandemic, said Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. (27th), who represents the area. Read More....

Photo by West Central Association

Fulton Market projects would bring over 1,000 apartments

By: Danny Ecker | 4/20/2021 | Crain's Chicago Business

A Chicago developer that pitched plans before the COVID-19 pandemic to build two office buildings and a hotel in the middle of the Fulton Market District has scrapped the projects in favor of a vision to develop more than 1,000... Read More...

Photo from Google

Maker of Huggies and Kleenex to bring 250 jobs here, open new Fulton Market office

By: Ryan Ori | 4/14/2021 ChicagoTribune.com

The maker of Huggies diapers and Kleenex tissues plans to bring 250 jobs from Wisconsin to an office in Chicago’s Fulton Market district that is expected to open next year. Plans for Kimberly-Clark Corp.’s commercial center for its North American consumer products business were announced Wednesday by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and World Business Chicago. The office at 1155 W. Fulton Market is expected to open next spring. Read More....

Photo by Lisa Poole / AP

The Goddess and Grocer opening 5th Chicago location

By: FastCasual.com | 4/2/2021

Chicago-based The Goddess and Grocer is opening its fifth location this summer in the city's West Loop at 911 W. Randolph St. "I am excited to open in the West Loop as that is where I live now, and a two-block walk to work is a dream," Debbie Sharpe, owner of The Goddess and Grocer, said in a company press release. "When I lived in Bucktown, I opened the first Goddess there because I wanted a neighborhood place, and now that the West Loop is my neighborhood, I had no choice." Read More....

Photo from FastCasual.com

Near West Side’s profit lure outlasts the pandemic’s lull

By: David Roeder | 3/1/2021 | Chicago Sun-Times

Wander the sidewalks of the Near West Side, and it’s easy to get an eerie sensation. It’s almost like a “Twilight Zone” episode about a place with evidence of human habitation right there, maybe just around the corner, and yet you don’t see anybody. It’s just the mind playing tricks, after all. Whatever name applies — West Loop, Fulton Market, West Town — the region was Chicago’s busiest place for development and an extension of downtown’s commercial might. Read More....

Photo by Anthony Vazquez / Sun-Times