Golub & Co. Breaks Ground on 45-Story Apartment Building in Chicago’s Streeterville

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

A joint venture between Golub & Co., Chicago, and GID, of Boston, has broken ground on a 45-story apartment high-rise, at 545 N. McClurg Court in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood, just east of the Magnificent Mile, Golub announced Wednesday.

The building, which will total about 650,000 square feet, will have 490 apartment units, as well as an attached 290-car parking garage and 5,200 square feet of ground-floor retail.

The project’s total cost is anticipated to be about $180 million, a Golub spokesperson told Commercial Property Executive.

The 490 units will consist of 57 studio apartments, 42 convertibles, 287 one-bedrooms, 99 two-bedrooms and five three-bedrooms, according to the spokesperson. At this point, a preliminary estimate of the initial rents is $3.25 per square foot.

The building is scheduled to be completed Fall 2016 and is intended to achieve LEED Silver certification.

“We’ve been in Streeterville for decades,” Golub & Co. president & CEO Michael Newman said in a release. “545 North McClurg Court answers the rising demand for luxury apartments in the area, and reinforces Streeterville’s  position as one of Chicago’s premier live-work-play neighborhoods.”

Some of the apartments at 545 N. McClurg Court will feature private balconies, and there will be two amenity decks, on the ninth floor and the rooftop. The ninth floor deck will include an outdoor garden, water feature, fitness center, indoor/outdoor spa, lounge, game room, community room and outdoor terraces with lake views. The rooftop was designed as a sun deck with a pool, a party room and expansive views on all sides.

The site, which is directly east across McClurg Court from Golub’s recently completed Streeter Place Apartments, appears from Google Maps to have previously been a surface parking lot.

Construction financing has been provided by The PrivateBank (as agent and sole lead arranger), The Union Labor Life Insurance Co. and Prudential Mortgage Capital Co.

The general contractor is Walsh Construction, and the architects are Solomon Cordwell Buenz.

The silver-blue tower features a glass-and-metal exterior wall with panels arranged in a pattern of asymmetrical bay windows. Trees and landscaping along McClurg Court will lead to a covered residential drop-off.

“[A]partments within an easy commute into downtown are highly sought after,” and this strong demand, fueled in part by Chicago’s steady job growth, has motivated developers, who have nearly 6,000 units under construction, according to a second-quarter apartment market report by Marcus & Millichap. Of those 6,000 units to be delivered by the end of 2015, 80 percent are in the Loop and the River North/Streeterville submarkets.

The report notes that a 450-unit building completed in River North in the first quarter is commanding rents of $1,658 to $4,139 per month.