Tribune Tower East project clears key hurdle

Tribune Tower East, a 2-million-square-foot project by Golub & Company and CIM Group, moved closer to reality following approval at today’s Chicago Plan Commission meeting. The site is adjacent to the historic Tribune Tower, which the developers are currently transforming into a 162-residence condo building.

The proposed 1,422-foot-tall, mixed-use tower would rise on the vacant parcel at the corner of Illinois Street and Cityfront Plaza Drive. The Golub-CIM joint venture acquired the entire site from Tribune Media for $240 million in 2016.

Designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, with Solomon Cordwell Buenz overseeing redevelopment of Pioneer Plaza, the tapered tower would contain a 200-key hotel, 439 apartments and 125 condo units. The base would include a 430-vehicle garage and 10,700 square feet of retail. This is in addition to the 162 luxury residences now going into the redubbed Tribune Tower Residences.

“This proposed planned development is an ambitious one: repurposing an iconic Chicago landmark, the historic Tribune Tower, while adding the second tallest skyscraper in the city of Chicago to our world-renowned skyline,” Alderman Brendan Reilly (42^nd) said in an email to his constituents. “At a time when Chicago needs some good news for its local economy, I am happy to report that this project will boost economic development by creating thousands of construction job hours for the men and women of the building trades and more than 400 permanent full-time jobs on-site, once the project is completed.”