Construction work stops at 74-story condo developed by New York firms

New York-based developers Francis Greenburger and the Karlik family may have hit a snag with their major residential project in Chicago known as 1000M.

Construction on their 74-story condominium tower at 1000 S. Michigan Ave. has stalled, according to Crain’s.

Though developers have been allowed to continue to construct residential buildings, the developers told the outlet that they shut down work to stop the spread of coronavirus among construction workers.

“When the Covid-19 situation broke, we had workers underground, working shoulder to shoulder, making it effectively impossible to maintain social distancing,” the developers said in a statement. “We consulted with our experts, and we all felt the safest route was to temporarily halt construction on site to ensure worker safety.”

However, that stands in stark contrast to another supertall condo rising in the Loop — JDL Development’s 76-story One Chicago Square in River North, which continues to have about 250 to 300 workers on site each day.

Time Equities and JK Equities’ tower on North Michigan Avenue, in the works since August 2015, has struggled to find buyers, according to Crain’s. In October, just 97 of the 421 units were classified as under contract, and representatives for the developers told the publication that “we have over 100 signed contracts. Some of the units were reconfigured last year into micro-units to spur sales.

Prices at the Helmut Jain-designed building range from $476,000 for studios to $8.5 million for the penthouse.

Goldman Sachs provided $470 million in financing, which closed in November.

The development pipeline doesn’t look great for Chicago, especially in the luxury sector. Residential construction starts in April fell 20 percent year-over-year, according to Dodge Data & Analytics. [Crain’s] — James Kleimann