Crescent Heights proposes West Loop’s tallest tower

May Street development will yield almost 600 residential units

Crescent Height's Russell Galbut and a rendering of the proposed tower in West Loop (City of Chicago)
Crescent Height's Russell Galbut and a rendering of the proposed tower in West Loop (City of Chicago)

Crescent Heights, already the owner of the tallest apartment building in Chicago, is now aiming to claim the tallest in the city’s West Loop submarket.

The Miami-based developer has proposed building a 600-foot-tall tower at 420 North May Street, between two sets of Metra tracks, Urbanize Chicago reported. The project will go before the Committee on Design next week.

Plans show a 52-story, 587-unit structure that incorporates and preserves the existing masonry loft office building on the site. It will add to the West Loop multifamily boom — developers have put or plan to put projects totaling 9,000 units into the area’s development pipeline, according to previously published reports.

Crescent Heights in March was reported to be negotiating its purchase of the site from a joint venture of the founders of residential real estate brokerage @properties — Thad Wong and Michael Golden — and Chicago-based MCZ development. The joint venture bought the property, which holds a 71,000-square-foot loft office building, for more than $15 million in 2018.

Preliminary designs show the bulk of the building will be located on the western edge of the site with a six-story podium on the eastern side. There will be 3,100 square feet of retail space and 2,700 square feet of coworking amenity space within the building.

Flex office spaces inside residential buildings have gained steam in Chicago, with publicly traded coworking firm WeWork planning a much larger space in its first multifamily property in a new project by development firm Cedar Street in the Uptown neighborhood.

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The building’s fourth, fifth and sixth floors will hold resident amenities, including a swimming pool, pet terrace and rooftop deck. Some units will have private terraces and balconies, while others won’t.

Another amenity floor will be located on the 44th story, right below where penthouse units will begin. There will be six floors of four penthouses — two two-bedroom units and two three-bedroom units — leading up to the 50th floor.

The proposal still needs approval from the Chicago Plan Commission, Committee on Zoning and City Council. It requires rezoning the site and would transform a full city block.

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— Victoria Pruitt