Hines wasted no time demolishing McDonald’s former keystone office in Oak Brook.
The Houston-based developer and investor began tearing down the building on Wednesday, less than a week after receiving a demolition permit, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The Heneghan Wrecking Company, Inc., which is executing the demolition, has put up fencing, removed asbestos and brought in heavy machinery, Tony Budzikowski, the village’s development services director told the Daily Herald.
The demolition is expected to be completed in less than two months, Budzikowski told the Chicago Tribune, and the development is planned to finish in 2020.
The village approved the re-zoning of the property in May, and Hines’s purchase of the 328,000-square-foot property closed in June for $24 million, according to the Chicago Tribune. McDonald’s moved its headquarters to the Fulton Market in Chicago last year after nearly five decades in Oak Brook.
In its place, Hines will build a $500 million multi-use development called Oak Brook Commons with retail, restaurants, two office buildings, 104 condominium units, 250 rental apartments, a 252-key hotel, and a park.
Hines competed against the Atlanta-based Pulte Group’s gated community proposal and Oak Brook voters’s proposal for public play fields.
[Chicago Tribune] — Sarah Paynter