Prolific Chinese real estate developer and investment company Wanda Group has announced that it will build a new 1,150-foot-tall skyscraper in Chicago.
Wanda Group isn’t a household name in Chicago… yet. But it has big plans to move into the American real estate development sector very aggressively in the near future. It already has 55 five-star hotels and 78 department stores in China. In America, you may know it as the company that owns AMC Theatres.
Chinese developers say a lot of things, and we would normally consider this yet another rumor/wishful thinking/bit of puffery from our friends in the Orient. But this announcement of what might become Chicago’s third-tallest skyscraper (sorry, Aon Center) was very specific.
Specifically:
The cost is $900,000,000
The height is 1,150 feet and 89 stories
1.4 million square feet of space
The tower will be hotel on the bottom, and apartments on top, with a retail component
A five-star hotel with the Wanda brand is planned
Walking distance to Millennium Park and Michigan Avenue
240 hotel rooms
Opening in 2018
I’m not sure how there wasn’t a thread made for this a long time ago, but this tower is well under way. Started construction at the end of the year last year and it is soaring.
I am too @jagaruni! There are so many that are proposed right now, it’s ridiculous. Obviously not even close to as many as NYC, but for Chicago, it’s a lot.
