https://www.chicagotribune.com/colum...zxi-story.html
After years of luring corporate headquarters downtown, altering the city’s skyline and transforming once-fringe neighborhoods, some of Chicago’s best-known developers are taking a new approach for 2020 and beyond.
They’re lining up real estate investments in other cities.
A decade into a Chicago construction boom, some major players known for focusing heavily on their hometown are shopping for land to develop in places including Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, Austin, Atlanta and Dallas.
Chicago-based firms, including Vista Tower’s Magellan Development Group and Lincoln Yards’ Sterling Bay, have determined that property tax increases and other factors make it difficult to finance new projects locally.
“We love Chicago but are super nervous about the headwinds Chicago faces,” said Magellan CEO David Carlins, whose firm’s Vista Tower condominium and hotel project with China’s Dalian Wanda Group will become Chicago’s third-tallest skyscraper when it opens in the fall.
“I would call it as difficult an environment from a capital standpoint as I’ve ever seen,” Carlins said. “In the recession, it was impossible for anyone to find money. Now there’s money, but there are other markets those investors are interested in.”
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