Chicago Illinois Real Estate Blog

An Irish condominium developer wants to build two 25-story towers with hotel rooms and residences at the southwest corner of Harrison and Wells streets in the South Loop.

Limerick, Ireland-based Chieftain Group plans 200 hotel rooms, 200 apartments and 250 condos on the 2-acre parcel, part of a long-vacant 8-acre tract known as Franklin Point, says Sean O’Sullivan, Chieftain’s chief operations officer.

Designed by Chicago architecture firm Brininstool & Lynch, the project is expected to cost about $150 million. Chieftain aims to submit its plans for the project to the Department of Planning and Development in October, Mr. O’Sullivan says.

With lenders sitting on their hands, the condo market in a funk and a swelling supply of apartments and hotel rooms, it’s not a great time to be trying to launch a large mixed-use project. Yet it is a good time to be planning one, Mr. O’Sullivan says.

“We’re using the time well to get through the planning process so when the market does turn we’re ready to break some dirt,” he says. “The market will turn in 2009.”

Chieftain signed a contract earlier this year to buy the property for roughly $20 million, while Russland Capital Group, a Skokie-based developer, paid $32.5 million for the other six acres within Franklin Point. Russland Partner Jacob Blenitsky says it’s too early to discuss his firm’s plans for its site.

Chieftain executives have shared their plans with Alderman Robert Fioretti (2nd), whose ward includes Franklin Point. The alderman, who has veto power over developments in his ward, is withholding judgment until he sees an integrated master plan for all of Franklin Point, a property that has sat fallow for 37 years despite many efforts to develop it.

“The two developers have to work together through the community process,” he says.

Chieftain’s only other Chicago condo project is Lexington Park, a 35-story high-rise under construction at 2138 S. Indiana Ave. Buyers had signed contracts for 138, or 41%, of the building’s 333 condos by the end of the first quarter, according to Appraisal Research Counselors, a Chicago-based real estate consulting firm.
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