Calatrava tower to drop spire
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By Eddie Baeb and Alby Gallun
Dec. 06, 2006
(Crain’s) — The Chicago Spire is losing its point.
The developer of the proposed Streeterville tower, right, that would be North America's tallest skyscraper on Friday plans to file design changes with the city eliminating the 430-foot antenna that tops the twisting design by renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.
Instead, condominium units in the building are to rise all the way to the top at 2,000 feet, says Thomas Murphy, a Chicago attorney and spokesman for the project’s developer, Garrett Kelleher of Dublin, Ireland-based Shelbourne Development Ltd.
“The silhouette will be the same, but there won’t be a spire on top,” Mr. Murphy says. “It’s good for the neighborhood, the city and the building. It makes it a sensible, rational scheme.”
The changes, which Mr. Calatrava presented to neighbors earlier this week, would allow for 1,000 condominiums, up from the current plan that calls for 300 units and a 20-story hotel, according to people briefed on the plans. The building also would move slightly north, farther away from the river, and the pedestal-shaped base would be eliminated and replaced with underground parking.
“There are many positive features and we are in the process of reviewing it,” says Gail Spreen, vice-president of the influential neighborhood group the Streeterville Organization of Active Residents, which has yet to take a formal position on the changes.
Ms. Spreen, whose group was shown the plans Tuesday night, says she likes the developer’s plan to build an underground parking garage and include a large plaza along the river. She declines to comment on the new design of the building.
Sources say the developer also told neighbors that its financing was lined up, meaning they can begin construction without pre-selling condos, and that Shelbourne didn’t think a hotel would succeed at the 400 N. Lakeshore Drive location, so far from Michigan Avenue.
Mr. Murphy wouldn’t comment on financing, the hotel or how the unit makeup will change with the new designs. He says groundbreaking is planned for the second quarter of next year.
“The building is going forward, there’s no question about that,” Mr. Murphy says. Some observers may question Shelbourne's decision to add condos to the project amid a sluggish downtown condo market. Sales of downtown condos fell 7.6% in the first nine months of the year vs. the same period in 2005, according to Chicago-based consulting firm Appraisal Research Counselors.
Yet condo developers aren't slowing down: They have started marketing 6,100 units this year, eclipsing the 4,700 they put on the market for all of 2005, according to Appraisal Research.
Chicago developer Christopher Carley first proposed the skyscraper in July 2005. Yet Mr. Carley was unable to secure a loan to buy the 2.2-acre development site, so Shelbourne stepped in last July and bought it for about $64 million. |
