CHICAGO | St. Regis Chicago (Vista) | 1,191 FT | 101 FLOORS

[ethereal_reality]

I don't know if these have been seen yet. They're from an article in the Tribune.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...411-story.html


http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...411-story.html





http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...411-story.html

It's too bad the top of the Vista is cut off. The photographer should have stepped back a bit, or changed his lens.

_

[BVictor1]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I don't know if these have been seen yet. They're from an article in the Tribune.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...411-story.html


http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...411-story.html





http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...411-story.html

It's too bad the top of the Vista is cut off. The photographer should have stepped back a bit, or changed his lens.

_

I posted model pictures a number of pages ago.

From 10/25/15
[IMG][/IMG]

[rlw777]

^^ these photos reminded me... What happened to Gems Academy 2

[SteelMonkey]

Originally Posted by rlw777

^^ these photos reminded me... What happened to Gems Academy 2

It is the 16 story building just to the right of Vista in this rendering. It will be squeezed in between Vista and Coast. Still on track but not sure of exact start date

[rlw777]

Originally Posted by SteelMonkey

It is the 16 story building just to the right of Vista in this rendering. It will be squeezed in between Vista and Coast. Still on track but not sure of exact start date

I wasn't asking because I didn't know what the project was. I was asking because they don't seem to be on track. They had the groundbreaking ceremony for Gems phase 2 over a year ago and there hasn't been any construction.

[the urban politician]

When this building actually begins construction, I will have a glass of champagne right in front of the construction site

[headcase]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

When this building actually begins construction, I will have a glass of champagne right in front of the construction site

I seem to remember doing that when the Spire broke ground, I think I'll skip any festivities this time around...

SSDD

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by headcase

I seem to remember doing that when the Spire broke ground, I think I'll skip any festivities this time around...

SSDD

They're different situations and this thing has a lot better chance of happening than the Spire ever did. Garrett Kelleher was a developer that had some buildings and what not here and in Ireland, and then faced many years of financial stress for that project. He only employed about 100-200 total employees. Then the recession hit.

On the other hand, we have Dalian Wanda Group as the developer of this building who:
* Does $40B in revenue per year
* Employs over 110,000 people in its group
* Has a chairman and founder who's the richest man in China, ranked at #18 richest person in the world (who also owns 20% of Athletico Madrid)
* Largest real estate developer in all of China (that's kind of impressive, isn't it?) - they own 109 "plazas" across China (with over a quarter BILLION sq ft of leasable space), over 70 luxury hotels, about 100 department stores
* Owns AMC theaters and bought them a few years ago for over $2.5B.
* Just bought Legendary Entertainment in January for $3.5B, the same group who made such movies as The Dark Knight, 300, Straight Outta Compton, Batman Begins, The Hangover, etc.
* Owns the UK yacht maker Sunseeker and bought them not long ago for $500M
* Owns Australian cinema chain Hoyts


Yeah, I don't know. I think Wanda Group has more business sense in any one of their board members' pinkies than all of Shellbourne combined. Kelleher and his company are chumps compared to a company like Wanda. Wanda not only owns tons of real estate in China, but they own a fucking Hollywood entertainment company that's made some of the biggest movies of the past decade, as well as one of the largest movie theater chains in the world that's does billions a year in revenue by themselves and are listed on the NYSE, as well as yacht makers, etc. Wanda Cinemas is actually the largest cinema operator in the entire world.

This thing is a lot more of a reality than the Spire ever was. Wanda is diversified and rich enough to build this thing and finance a lot of it themselves if they wanted to. They have been pushing hard the last handful of years in the name of diversification and this is something, even though it's real estate, that would help them out in that too.

Oh, let's not forget this is also their first US project so I'm very sure they want it to succeed.

[the urban politician]

Yeah, despite the Kelleher debacle, my money is on this project succeeding. Very different than the monumental and bold gamble that was the Spire

[BrandonJXN]

Plus the building will help improve (increase?) traffic flow which how it reconfigures Upper Wacker Dr. a bit.

[aaron38]

Local news this morning had interior renders of the $17 Million penthouse on the 93rd and 94th floors. Looks like the press machine is starting to crank up on this one.
P.S., I can think of a lot better uses of space in a luxury penthouse than a 1000 bottle wine "cellar". It's a glorified storage locker, no matter how nice it looks.

[ithakas]

Originally Posted by aaron38

Local news this morning had interior renders of the $17 Million penthouse on the 93rd and 94th floors. Looks like the press machine is starting to crank up on this one.
P.S., I can think of a lot better uses of space in a luxury penthouse than a 1000 bottle wine "cellar". It's a glorified storage locker, no matter how nice it looks.

That, to me, seems a pretty clear sign that they're going to try to sell it to a Chinese billionaire.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by ithakas

That, to me, seems a pretty clear sign that they're going to try to sell it to a Chinese billionaire.

Who knows, but I would not be at all surprised if Jianlin took it. Dalian Wanda is the largest developer in China and this is their first US project. You would have to think there's some sort of sentimental value to him about that and considering the guy has over $30B in net worth, this is like nothing to him.

[headcase]

Originally Posted by ithakas

That, to me, seems a pretty clear sign that they're going to try to sell it to a Chinese billionaire.

Is Ty Warner still looking for a place after the Spire went belly up?

SSDD

[BVictor1]

Originally Posted by headcase

Is Ty Warner still looking for a place after the Spire went belly up?

SSDD

Does he have the money available after that $53,000,000 fine?

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by BVictor1

Does he have the money available after that $53,000,000 fine?

He's still a multi billionaire..

[Kngkyle]

These markers are all over the site now.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by Kngkyle

These markers are all over the site now.

Cassion markers don't typically show up unless construction is imminent, there's no sense in laying things like that out if it's going to sit for months getting knocked over, pulled up, blown down, etc. I wonder if we are about to get a pleasant surprise and see this start earlier than summer?

[go go white sox]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Cassion markers don't typically show up unless construction is imminent, there's no sense in laying things like that out if it's going to sit for months getting knocked over, pulled up, blown down, etc. I wonder if we are about to get a pleasant surprise and see this start earlier than summer?

Thanks for clarifying this I was about to ask. I never knew I would learn about construction when I joined this forum is pretty neat.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by go go white sox

Thanks for clarifying this I was about to ask. I never knew I would learn about construction when I joined this forum is pretty neat.

Yeah, hopefully Case is planning on rolling it's big rock cassion rigs over here straight from the RAMSA building on Grand. I don't think I've ever seen cassion markers show up more than a week or two before foundation contractors show up. Case will probably be another week or two at Grand before they finish up which would be about the timeframe I would expect to see them show up here if what I'm saying is correct. We don't see a whole lot of rock cassions in general so there really isn't that much equipment floating around for them relative to the smaller hard pan cassion rigs we see. It would make total sense for Case to save the expense of packing it all back up and taking it out to wherever they store it if they could knock two birds out at once.

I am by no means an expert on this and they could very well just be seeing how the site lays out or something, but like I said, in the decade plus I've been following construction I've never seen them mark a site like this much more than a few weeks before equipment does. Anyone else agree/disagree?