Chicago megadevelopments are lurching forward again after many stops and starts.
Related Midwest is nearing kickoff at The 78, the 62-acre site between the South Loop and Chinatown where the developer has pursued and been through breakups with multiple versions of a University of Illinois research center and a casino bid.
Now, billionaire Joe Mansueto’s soccer club Chicago Fire FC is committing to build a $650 million stadium, privately funded, on the tract.
Plus, the Chicago White Sox — which came to a succession plan this week that will let Justin Ishbia purchase the baseball team from real estate magnate Jerry Reinsdorf — are still in play to build a stadium on The 78 to make it a two-arena site, though there are obstacles.
On the North Side, a new development squad is about to take over the stalled Lincoln Yards megaproject site. The backstory underscores the hazards of mixing big city politics with bold real estate speculation, as well as how Kayne Anderson stayed in the game after it considered rescuing the project over a year ago.
In the Loop, Chicago-based developer LG Group is facing a $27 million foreclosure lawsuit for 330 South Wells Street, an office-to-apartment conversion project it partnered on starting in 2018 with Marc Realty.
Developer Domus Group’s Fulton Market zoning request for a 30-story, 347-unit rental tower on a lot of just about 13,000 square feet could be a game-changer for the neighborhood, which hasn’t seen such intense building.
CA Ventures — a Chicago-based developer that has faced a litany of legal and financial challenges — won dismissal of an investor’s lawsuit who alleged the firm mismanaged real estate projects once proposed to transform a pocket of Arlington Heights near the potential new Chicago Bears stadium site.
In the residential market, Brazilian soybean moguls whose company last year paid $6 million for a Hinsdale mansion put it back on the market for just under that price as they prepare to exit the high-end western suburb.