March 24, 2009 - We have an update to our blog post yesterday about news that several construction unions were considering pooling their pension funds to restart work on the stalled Chicago Spire. More information was made public today in an article in the Chicago Tribune. It seems that Shelbourne Developments is meeting to day with representatives of the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trusts to continue talks that first began in January.

Although both sides agree that these negotiations are in the very early stages, a deal could prove to be extremely beneficial to both sides. Tom Villanova, who is president of the Chicago and Cook County Building Trades Council summed his side’s view in a few sentences.

“The main thing is jobs. We can use our own funds to benefit members. The Spire is going to be five years of construction, which is just phenomenal for us. It’s thousands of jobs,” he told the Tribune. If the deal works out, it would mean that the Spire would be built only by union workers. Already Shelbourne spokeswoman Kim Metcalfe used the phrase “Made in America” to describe the project.

She said in the article that, “We’re exploring all of the financial options with the economy as challenging as it is, but clearly this is long-term. We continue to actively market the building. Clearly, the construction of the building is on pause, but nothing else about the building has stopped.”

If the two sides can reach an agreement, it would at the very least put an end to the speculation about what to do with a 110 foot wide and 76 foot deep hole in the ground on Lake Shore Drive. And with credit continuing to be tight, Chicago real estate developers may have to get used to looking for financing from different sources if they want to build high-rise Chicago Condos.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 at 12:12 pm and is filed under Luxury Condos(t) , News(t) . You can leave a response.