Page 1 - Tribune Tower Article November 2021

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November 18, 2021 05:42 AM
What's driving sales at the two hottest high-end condo towers in
town?

Crain's dug into public records to unearth some sales details the developers haven't divulged.

DENNIS RODKIN

Crain's dug into public records to unearth some sales details the developers haven't divulged.

Two highly visible condo buildings, each an icon of its own style, have been delivering dozens of
luxurious condos to buyers this year, but both have kept quiet about details of their results.

Developers typically play a dual game of revealing some details and concealing others while they
work to fill up a new condo project. Crain’s set out to find the details, to determine just how full
these two noteworthy buildings are as of November, the latter days of a record-setting run-up in the
housing market.

Among the details we unearthed are this: Between them, the St. Regis and Tribune Tower buildings
have so far delivered 202 condos priced at $1 million and up to buyers. That’s about 1.4 times the
number of luxury-priced condos that have been sold in the past year in all other buildings in a swath
of downtown from Oak Street to Roosevelt Road, and from Michigan Avenue east to the lake.

Clearly, St. Regis and Tribune Tower are dominating this year’s luxury condo market.

It’s not entirely surprising. “These are big buildings,” said Gail Lissner, senior managing director of
Integra Realty Resources and a longtime analyst of the downtown condo market. “They’d be doing
big numbers, no matter what.”

The newly built St. Regis (formerly known as Wanda Vista and later Vista Tower) commands
attention on the south bank of the Chicago River with its undulating 95-story tower wrapped in
multihued glass, a dazzling piece of contemporary architecture from Studio Gang and its principal
architect, Jeanne Gang.

A few blocks west and across the river is the Tribune Tower, 34 stories of 1920s exuberance
wearing a neo-Gothic crown and converted to condos after the Chicago Tribune departed in 2018.

Two other visible new additions to the downtown market, the 47-story Cirrus in Lakeshore East and
the 75-story One Chicago tower near Holy Name Cathedral, are not yet delivering finished condos
to buyers.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/residential-real-estate/tribune-tower-st-regis-dominate-chicago-condo-market-how-sales-are-going