A Chicago developer wants to start building more than 1,500 apartments across three towers in Fulton Market by late this year in a wager that the former meatpacking district will continue to rise above broader economic challenges.
Fulton St. is working to secure financing for a 32-story, 433-unit tower at 1201 W. Fulton that it wants to start building by December, CEO Alex Najem said. The firm’s partner on the $210 million project is Weldon Development.
Meanwhile, Fulton St. has submitted documents to the city seeking a zoning change for a site across the street at 1200 W. Fulton. There, Fulton St. and different partners — including Shanna Khan’s SNK Capital and Harrison Street Real Estate Capital co-founder and CEO Chris Merrill — plan a $600 million project that would have 43- and 37-story towers with a combined 1,079 units.
That application will be formally introduced this week to the City Council, which eventually would have to approve the plan. If approved, Fulton St. wants to begin construction on that project by late 2025, Najem said.
Plans for an $800 million-plus new investment at Fulton and Racine Avenue come after rising interest rates and construction costs have pushed down property sale prices and slowed the pace of new projects of all types throughout the country. Najem, however, said a slowdown in construction and high rents in recently completed buildings give him confidence.
“Fulton Market has continued to show resilience, along with Chicago overall, for apartments,” Najem said.
While areas of Chicago, including the Loop business district, struggle to overcome changing off-work trends, Fulton Market has shown relative strength, even after previous waves of construction that in recent years made it the fastest-expanding urban office market in the country, according to a CoStar analysis. Office tenants include the global headquarters of McDonald’s and Mondelez International and the Midwest headquarters of Google.
Fulton St. last year was part of a rarity nationally, a groundbreaking for a major office project just east of the planned apartment towers. After a groundbreaking ceremony last year, Najem talked of pushing forward with the residential projects.
The 409,000-square-foot building is expected to top out at 11 stories by the end of June, Najem said.
Harrison Street is the anchor tenant in the building at 919 W. Fulton, which last year secured $233 million in construction financing.
In the 1200 W. Fulton plan submitted to the city this week, first reported by Urbanize, Fulton St. said it plans towers 545 and 465 feet tall, with a combined 440 car parking spaces, 1,079 bike spaces and 124,000 square feet of retail.