A year later, first tower at former Chicago Spire site takes shape

More than a year after work to fill the infamous Chicago Spire hole at 400 N. Lake Shore Dr., a curtain wall of windows is starting to cover what will become Chicago’s 13th-tallest building.

The tower is the first in a pair of skyscrapers for the residential project dubbed 400 Lake Shore, and it sits at the confluence of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. The ground-up development, a rarity for Streeterville, will also have several acres of open green space.

Developer Related Midwest purchased the site via bankruptcy court in 2014. It had been vacant after the prior developers, Garrett Kelleher and Steve Ivankovich, planned to build the tallest condo tower in the Western Hemisphere.

Work to fill the 75-foot deep crater at the site has been a lengthy process, Related Midwest Executive Vice President of Construction Don Biernacki said. But the site’s cofferdam will be filled this month, turning the page on a chapter of the site’s history.

The project is being developed in two phases. Phase one is the 72-story tower at the waterfront, sitting on the site’s northern end. The phase will also includes a plaza with retail space, public art and three levels of underground parking.

The first tower will have 635 units, including 127 affordable apartments. Units will range from studios to three-bedroom penthouses with views of Lake Michigan, the Chicago River and the city’s skyline. The first units are expected to be complete in the first quarter of 2027. Pre-leasing is expected to start next fall, according to Related.

Construction on the second tower — a shorter, 765-foot high-rise to the south — will start once the north tower is completed. And it will have 500 units.

Co-general contractors LR Contracting Co., the contracting arm of Related, and BOWA Construction Group said there’s about 300 tradespeople on-site, as they start to build out the northern tower’s floors.

A new floor is wrapped with windows about every three and a half days. A new concrete deck is poured every three days, Related said.

The building’s structure will be composed of more than 236 million pounds of concrete and 13 million pounds of rebar. Construction of the northern tower’s concrete superstructure will be finished by October. The curtain wall of windows will be complete a year later, according to Related.

The developer broke ground on the $500 million project in June 2024. With the first units on track to finish in 2027, as planned, the project could wrap up by the end of that year.

Some of the building’s electrical and utility components were prefabricated off-site, which has helped save time, Biernacki said. LR Contracting and BOWA also have experience working together on The Row Fulton Market, a luxury high-rise building at 164 N. Peoria St.

Biernacki said Related has yet to feel the full impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs but that could change.

“We’re weathering it,” he said. But he hopes there’s more certainty around the import taxes soon. Contractors and vendors tend to assume worst-case scenarios with their pricing, he said, which can make developments more costly.

Many of the building’s appliances are being imported from Mexico, and the cabinets, for example, are from Italy.

“We are being impacted by the tariffs — there’s no question about that,” Biernacki said of appliances and cabinetry.