Jahn building in downtown Chicago gets $305M loan to restart construction

The 73-story tower changed plans to build luxury apartments, not condos

From left: Time Equities' Francis Greenburger, JK Equities' Jerry Karlik and Oak Capital's Stephen Mitchell in front of a rendering of the 1000M tower at 1006 South Michigan Avenue (Getty Images, JK Equities, Oak Capital, Time Equities, iStock)
From left: Time Equities' Francis Greenburger, JK Equities' Jerry Karlik and Oak Capital's Stephen Mitchell in front of a rendering of the 1000M tower at 1006 South Michigan Avenue (Getty Images, JK Equities, Oak Capital, Time Equities, iStock)

Construction is set to restart at a 73-story Helmut Jahn-designed building in downtown Chicago after developers secured a $305 million loan and changed plans to turn it into luxury apartments instead of condominiums.

Time Equities, JK Equities and Oak Capitals said they closed on a construction loan for the tower at 1006 South Michigan Avenue from Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank Wealth Management, Crain’s reported. The tower, known as 1000M, will have 738 luxury apartment units.

The building is scheduled for completion in late 2024. Developers broke ground in 2019 and shut down work in June 2020 as the pandemic erupted.

At the time of the ceremonial groundbreaking, about 23 percent of the planned 421 units were under contract, according to Crain’s. A $3.4 million unit was the highest-priced one in contract at the time and unsold condos were priced between $4 million and $8 million.

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“We ended up with the right design, the right product at the right time,” Robert Singer, director of Time Equities. “The market in Chicago for ultra-luxury rental apartments is very strong, and we see this segment of the market only strengthening from here.”

Chicago’s downtown apartment market is rebounding. Occupancy rates bounced up to 94.5 percent in the second quarter of this year from 86.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020. About 11,530 apartments are planned by the second quarter of 2023, almost double the units completed during the 12 month period ended in June.

The building will provide 23 affordable housing units, about 3 percent of the total, ranging in size from studios to three-bedrooms.

At 805 feet, the tower will be late architect Helmut Jahn’s tallest building in Chicago. It lags behind the 993-foot Leatop Plaza in Guangzhou, China and the 814-foot CitySpire Center in Manhattan.