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Even as overall construction activity slowed in Chicago last year, a handful of massive projects reshuffled the ranks of the city’s top general contractors and signaled where development dollars are still flowing.
Contractors in the Windy City asked the government to green-light more than 7,000 construction projects last year, according to an analysis of Chicago building permits from Jan. 2, 2025 to Jan. 22, 2026. That was down by nearly 6 percent compared to the year before.
While general construction has tapered in the city, thanks in part to a cooler investment climate and elevated borrowing costs, there still were about 26 percent more filings for new projects last year compared to the year before. Meanwhile, requests for renovations or alterations of existing properties edged down year-over-year, by more than 10 percent.
TRD Data also ranked the top general contractors in the city; these firms accounted for roughly half of the construction activity in Chicago by dollar volume. The top 20 firms combined filed 545 permits totaling just under $3.4 billion in 2025. By dollar amount, that was down about 6 percent, year-over-year.
Gilbane Building Company took the top slot for having the permits with the highest total estimated job cost. Across 15 filings, the firm’s projects likely will cost about $596.3 million. The company, which did not make TRD’s top-20 list last year, jumped to the No. 1 spot mostly because of one mega permit: the $396.2 million construction of Bally’s Chicago Casino at the old Tribune Publishing site. That project also was the overall most expensive to hit city records last year.
On the renovation and alteration front, the company with the costliest estimated project was FH Paschen. The firm filed an application for an $85 million renovation of a building at O’Hare International Airport. The work is part of a larger, $8.54 billion renovation of the facility.