Here are Chicago’s top 10 construction permits issued in May

Chicago’s building boom is reaching far beyond Downtown.

The top 10 building permits issued in May were all for properties outside the Loop, kick-starting tens of millions of dollars in development in neighborhoods including Edgewater, West Ridge and Archer Heights.

With three projects combining for more than $200 million in estimated costs, the West Loop was represented more than any other neighborhood on the list. Between ZOM Living’s 357-unit apartment complex and two Fulton Market developments by Sterling Bay, even more cranes are set to sprout from the West Loop’s rapidly growing skyline.

1. 939 West Washington Boulevard | $103.5 million

May’s largest permitted project, designed by bKL Architecture, will sit a pair of 15-story apartment buildings atop a shared three-floor podium. It would add 357 residential units and 13,700 square feet of residential space to the booming West Loop by the time it’s completed.

2. 754 South Wabash Avenue | $45 million

Columbia College moved forward on the latest development on its South Loop campus, getting the go-ahead for its modern five-story student center at the corner of Wabash Avenue and 8th Street. The 114,000 square-foot facility was designed by architect Gensler to include cavernous interior spaces enclosed in a glassy facade.

3. 105 North May Street | $44 million

Sterling Bay is set to begin work on a 14-story, 200-key hotel around the corner from the new McDonald’s headquarters, claiming its own own piece of tech-dominated Fulton Market. Designed by Eckenhoff Saunders Architects, the hotel will join a web of other Sterling Bay developments in the neighborhood, including the Fulton West development at 1330 West Fulton Market and the “vendor village” office building at 210 North Carpenter Street near the McDonald’s building.

4. 6800 North Western Avenue | $24 million

Architecture firm Perkins+Will will pad its roster of sleek, minimalist-designed public libraries with the Northtown branch in the West Ridge neighborhood, sitting 44 senior housing units atop a 16,000-square-foot library. Backed by developer Evergreen Real Estate Group, the four-story building was one of three library-plus-affordable-housing proposals unveiled by the city last year.

5. 3540 West 51st Street | $20 million

Amigos Foods broke ground on a 110,000 square-foot processing and warehouse facility, filling a vacant 10-acre plot in the Southwest Side neighborhood of Archer Heights. Designed by architect Arete Design Studio Ltd., the industrial site will host 50 full-time employees by the time it’s projected to open in 2020.

6. 1135 West Sheridan Road | $17 million

The seven-story mixed-use “Arcade” building is ready to rise next to Loyola University Chicago’s campus on the border of the Rogers Park and Edgewater neighborhoods on the city’s Far North Side. The Algonquin Venture Real Estate development includes 58 apartments above first-floor retail, all inside a modernist black frame designed by architect Hirsch MPG.

7. 810 West Wayman Street | $16 million

Sterling Bay’s second West Loop building permit in one month clears the way for its 19-story office tower at 333 North Green Street, also known by its Wayman Street address. The Gensler-designed building will join a 20-story companion across the street at 330 North Green Street, on the former campus and parking lot of Coyne College.

8. 1107 West Loyola Avenue | $15.5 million

Fresh off its historic run in this year’s NCAA tournament, the Loyola men’s basketball team is celebrating the permit for its new practice facility on the Rogers Park campus. A few blocks away from “The Arcade,” the three-story building designed by RDG Planning and Design will also feature two regulation-size volleyball courts.

9. 820 South Michigan Avenue | $15 million

Months after city leaders designated the 47-year-old Johnson publishing building a historic landmark, developer 3L scored permission to rehab the brutalist 12-story office complex into a 150-unit apartment tower. Architect Jeremy Bentley has been required to keep the iconic “EBONY/JET” sign on the building’s roof, advertising the two magazines that called the building home for decades.

10. 5234 South St. Louis Avenue | $13 million

Connor Commercial Real Estate, the development arm of the McShane Construction Company, is building a single-story, 316,550-square-foot industrial building in Gage Park, near the new Amigos Foods facility. Connor Commercial has already built more than 2 million square feet of industrial space in the Chicago metro area since 2016, records show.