Tall & Urban News

Work is set to begin in December 2019 on a 1.5 million-square-foot (139,000-square-meter) office tower alongside Union Station, after the developers landed a US$476 million construction loan.

BMO Tower will be under construction once demolition of a parking garage is completed on the site at 320 South Canal Street, said John O’Donnell, CEO of Riverside Investment & Development.

The loan is from BMO Harris Bank, Bank of America, and Citizens Bank, O’Donnell said on 4 December 2019.

Riverside is developing the 50-story office tower with another Chicago-based developer, Convexity Properties, which is the real estate investment arm of trader Don Wilson’s DRW Holdings.

Another investor in the tower is AustralianSuper, a pension fund based in Melbourne.

The developers have not disclosed the estimated total cost for the office development, which is expected to open in 2022.

BMO Harris’ parent company, Toronto-based BMO Financial Group, is the namesake tenant after leasing almost 500,000 square feet (46,000 square meters) in a planned consolidation of downtown Chicago offices.

BMO’s plans to anchor the project were first reported on in September 2018, and BMO confirmed the lease in December 2018, saying it would move 3,600 workers there from three Loop buildings. The building will serve as the bank’s U.S. headquarters, and there will be a bank branch on the ground floor.

No other leases have been announced for the building.

The tower, designed by Goettsch Partners, will include an adjacent 1.5-acre (0.6-hectare) park.

“The BMO Tower is a primary example of our commitment to economic development in Chicago,” David Casper, BMO Financial’s U.S. CEO, said in a statement.

The 700-space Union Station Self Park garage on the site closed 30 September 2019, and demolition of that structure will wrap up soon.

BMO Tower will join a wave of major development projects in the area along the river and near commuter train stations, which are expected to bring more than 22,000 new office workers to the once-quiet southwest corner of the Loop.

Next door, the redeveloped 2.8 million-square-foot (260,000 square-meter) Old Post Office opened to office tenants in October 2019.

Just across the river at the city’s tallest building, Willis Tower is in the late stages of a US$500 million expansion that will add retail and entertainment space to its base.

For more on this story, go to the Chicago Tribune.