Samarth Narang has only lived at 820 Michigan for 10 months, but he knows there’s a colorful history behind the South Loop building.
“Just walking through the doors, you can get a sense that maybe it was something else,” Narang said.
Located on Michigan Avenue, the official Chicago landmark was once the headquarters of Johnson Publishing Co. Ebony and Jet were two of Johnson’s magazines, which were created in the 1940s and ’50s. There are still vestiges of the building’s publishing history like the “Ebony JP Jet” sign that was restored and put on the building’s new roof deck.
Rosemont-based 3L Real Estate purchased the 11-story building in 2017 then converted it into apartments, from studios to two-bedroom units. Many apartments, like Narang’s, have views of Lake Michigan.
Narang said he appreciates the history of the building, but he also enjoys living at 820 Michigan because of its location. He works in Indiana and likes being close to the train station, plus grocery stores and other downtown amenities.
Soon, thousands of more people will share a similar experience. City officials and developers are pushing for more office-to-residential conversions, which they view as an opportunity to transform downtown Chicago into a full-fledged neighborhood with commercial, residential and office uses. There are at least 11 planned conversions in the pipeline, according to research from commercial real estate agency Bradford Allen and public records.
Quintin Primo, founder and executive chairman of Capri Investment Group, estimates roughly 3,600 new apartments are in the works — including some that his firm will bring to market. Many of those units will come from the city’s La Salle Corridor Revitalization initiative and developments outside of downtown, like Fulton Market, an increasingly attractive area for developers.
In 2022, the Loop had 30,342 housing units, according to the Chicago Loop Alliance. The organization found there were 140,394 total units in downtown Chicago.
Converting offices to apartments is just one solution for bringing outmoded buildings back to life. The number of projects is higher when factoring in all office conversions: Primo’s Capri Investment Group is working with the Prime Group to redevelop the former Cboe Global Markets headquarters. The partners plan to turn the building into a data center after buying it last summer for $12 million.
A report last year by the commercial real estate data company CommercialCafe said that of the 30 biggest cities in the United States, Chicago has the second-highest amount of office space that could be converted to residential use.
Nearly 27% of Chicago’s office stock has conversion potential, the report said, with the bulk of the space it identified deemed to be “largely viable” for conversion. That description means there could be hurdles but those buildings have considerable potential for residential conversion, according to CommercialCafe.
There’s a wide divide, though, experts say, between that high-level estimate and the reality of what developers can do in Chicago. High interest rates, financing difficulties, government red tape, a building’s floor plan and other factors often leave developers’ hands tied when it comes to taking on conversion.
Yet, Primo said he thinks 27% is too low of an estimate.
“In a very traditional redevelopment strategy, probably this is an accurate number,” he said. “But there are things that can be done with very deep floor plates that I don’t think the market has really thought of. I think that there’s a much larger inventory of potential assets that would be prime for conversion.”
Floor plates are the area of a floor.
‘A crazy number’
Golub & Co. Managing Principal Lee Golub said CommercialCafe’s 27% is “a crazy number.” Those office buildings might work as apartments but for some properties, it wouldn’t make financial sense.
“Development in general right now is really, really hard,” Golub said. “Most of the buildings that are in bad shape financially, that make up that 27%, are located in places that aren’t typical residential spots. … And all the construction costs are higher than they were before.”
Because of the challenges in doing office-to-residential conversions — like removing elevator shafts and adding windows that open — the projects typically cost as much as ground-up development. But ground-up development is much easier, Golub said, because developers know going into a project what they’re building and designing.
For aging buildings, developers might not know the cost of repairs or maintenance until they begin renovations. Materials like terracotta and limestone cover some of Chicago’s older buildings — like the Tribune Tower, which Golub’s company converted to condos — and can be particularly expensive, he said.
“The floor plate might work, and the light wells might work, but there’s a big risk there on the facades in the city of Chicago,” Golub said.
Andy DeMoss, executive managing director of Bradford Allen, said in addition to the physical constraints, the city would need to “see the wheels come off” with tax-increment financing and other economic incentives to help fund more office conversions.
There are a lot of impediments to converting office buildings, DeMoss said, with escalating interest rates and construction costs among them.
Creating more housing
City Hall projects 1.3 million square feet of vacant space will be converted to housing — including affordable housing — through the La Salle Corridor Revitalization program. And there are even more conversion projects underway across the city.
Primo points to Fulton Market and River North.
In Fulton Market, old warehouses and industrial buildings have been converted to trendy offices and new apartments. There’s been a surge of new development to complement it, like two proposed towers at 1200 W. Fulton St. that would total more than 1,000 units when complete.
And two River North conversion projects — 111 W. Illinois St. and 116-122 W. Illinois St. — could start work this year.
“The city has been very thoughtful and very purposeful in the use of incentive[s] to get something that the city really wants to see, and opening up the residential markets in downtown to not only market rate families and individuals but also those that require affordable housing with lower incomes,” Primo said.
Chicago Department of Planning and Development Commissioner Ciere Boatright said city officials are “encouraged” by developers “who recognize that these buildings are gems, and they should be redeveloped.”
Boatright doesn’t see any red flags that would affect property tax revenue. In Cook County, residences are taxed on 10% of their value. Commercial properties are taxed at 25%.
As office vacancies rose after the pandemic, a greater portion of Chicago’s property tax burden has fallen away from the Loop, a recent Chicago Sun-Times analysis found.
“We’re not talking about hundreds of buildings being converted,” Boatright said. “I’m not naive to the fact that we should be aware of implications for these conversions, and I think we’ve got a ways to go before I’m concerned or the city’s concerned as a whole.”
The conversions also are in line with what Boatright and others see as the future of downtown as a full-fledged neighborhood that’s vibrant outside of the 9 a.m.-to-5 p.m. crowd.
Narang, the South Loop resident, said programs like the La Salle Corridor Revitalization are a good way to bring more residents to the city’s core.
“If it’s affordable, I’m all for it,” he said.
For some residents looking to move downtown, it’s more about the location than the building’s history.
Ainhoa Ortiz has lived at 820 Michigan for three years. She knew the building had roots in publishing, but it was the rent and location that made her choose to live there. She thinks initiatives like the La Salle revitalization are a good way to create more housing and affordability in the city.
“I really like that we’re very close to the river, the Bean, the heart of Chicago,” Ortiz said.
Office demand uptick
Bradford Allen expects office occupancy to rise now that most companies have pulled back from reducing office space or axing it completely. There was 1.7 million square feet of office space leased in the first quarter of 2025, a roughly 26% decrease over the 2.3 million square feet leased in fourth quarter 2024, according to the company.
Many of the office properties seeing increased occupancy are newer builds with modern amenities and finishes. Despite that rising demand for premier office spaces, DeMoss sees a place for conversions — especially for older buildings that are largely vacant as companies opt for newer spaces.
“It’s helpful to nurse the overall market back to health,” DeMoss said. “It removes product from the market. It forces some tenants in those buildings to move to other buildings and increase their occupancy.”
DeMoss said while most conversions today are residential, he sees potential for more data centers and self-storage facilities, among other uses.
Flexibility is key as the city moves forward and downtown buildings take a valuation hit, said Shawn Ursini, senior manager with the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. The nonprofit is interested in urban density and how it can lead to more sustainable cities.
“You’re gonna have to be flexible to any ideas out there that might be best suited for a particular building because it really is not a one-size-fits-all approach,” Ursini said. “For the city, that’s making sure the zoning is also flexible — that these buildings can convert.”
Golub said it’s a welcome sign that more private investment is starting to trickle in to Chicago. Many prominent conversions have been completed by local developers, but that’s starting to change because of the city’s high rent growth. Out-of-state developers see the opportunity for higher rent income over time, which means more profit for them in Chicago.
Boatright points to the planned conversion at 500 N. Michigan Ave., where Connecticut-based Commonwealth Development Partners will add more than 300 apartments by converting the 24-story office tower. The deal reached the Chicago Plan Commission in less than 35 days, according to Boatright.
“We want to support both the local talent but also welcome investment from outside of the Chicago market to convert these buildings to ensure that we have a thriving downtown,” Boatright said.
“Will it look a little different than it did pre-pandemic? Absolutely. But I think it’s the right mix of residential and office and retail uses, along La Salle, along Michigan, throughout the Loop, that we need and our city deserves to see.”