Primera Wins $68M Subsidy for Chicago Loop Conversion

Chicago is moving forward with Gabriel Martinez’s Loop office-to-residential project, with the city giving a green light to $68 million in public subsidy to help turn most of a 41-story Loop office tower into 400 apartments.

The city’s Community Development Commission approved the tax-increment financing for the $184 million conversion of 105 West Adams Street, known as the Clark Adams Building, Crain’s reported. Martinez’s locally based firm Primera Group is leading the project. Its CEO is Zach Waickman and its development venture also includes investor Marc Calabria.

Primera’s plan still requires City Council approval, but officials aim to break ground in January and finish construction by mid-2027.

The new proposal replaces a previously floated, more affordable-focused plan from Celadon Partners and Blackwood Group that stalled last year amid complications over control of the property — Primera gained its ownership of the property from Old National Bank, which seized it through foreclosure from a previous landlord involving investor Musa Tadors. The Celadon and Blackwood plan would have created 247 units, most of them affordable.

Primera’s venture acquired the vertical subdivision of the building last fall for nearly $11 million.

The project is the sixth under the city’s LaSalle Street Reimagined initiative, launched in 2022 under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and continued by Mayor Brandon Johnson, aimed at reviving downtown through housing development. The city is now on track to commit nearly $317 million in TIF subsidies to support the conversion of vacant Loop offices into more than 1,800 apartments.

Primera’s stake includes office floors 11 through 40 and commercial space on the first two floors. The floors between are occupied by a separately owned 429-room Club Quarters Hotel and are not part of the redevelopment.

The planned residential mix includes 195 studios, 122 one-bedrooms, and 83 two-bedrooms, with 121 units designated as affordable for households earning 60 percent of the area median income, which translates to about $53,000 for a two-person household. The TIF funds will cover 37 percent of project costs, a higher share than is typical for such subsidies, city records show.

Financing will also include $77 million in debt led by Millennium Bank, $15 million in developer equity and nearly $24 million from the sale of historic tax credits. Chicago-based Pappageorge Haymes Partners is the architect.

The project will also include tenant amenities on the 24th floor and potentially a rooftop terrace. The commercial space will be leased to neighborhood-serving retail, such as a grocer or restaurant.

— Judah Duke