“Nearly a decade after buying a vintage office building across from Grant Park, a pair of New York developers is eyeing a residential conversion.
“A venture of JK Equities and Time Equities, along with Chicago-based Oak Capitals, wants to turn the eight-story Lightner Building into 49 residential units, with retail space on the ground floor, according to a zoning application set to be introduced to the City Council today.
“Office-to-residential conversions have been a hot topic as downtown office vacancy hits record highs while apartment demand is strong. In addition to the tax-increment financing-backed projects to transform offices on and near LaSalle Street into hundreds of apartments, developers are planning residential conversions at 65 E. Wacker Place, on the Magnificent Mile, and at West Loop warehouses.
“JK and Time paid $10.5 million for the building in April 2015. The venture had recently completed a conversion of a foreclosed warehouse farther south into 59 apartments.
“The Lightner Building is next to the developers’ most high-profile project in Chicago, the newly built 73-story apartment tower at 1000 S. Michigan Ave. The tower, dubbed 1000M, has a cantilever that extends 12 feet over 1006 S. Michigan.
“Built in 1904 and named for the former publisher that used to occupy it, the Lightner Building is considered a contributing structure to the architectural character of the Historic Michigan Boulevard District, according to city planning documents. The developers aren’t proposing any changes to the building’s exterior, according to the zoning application.” (Herzog, Crain’s Chicago Business, 1/15/25)
Read the full story at Crain’s Chicago Business
- Developers eyeing residential conversion for South Loop office building, Rachel Herzog, Crain’s Chicago Business, 1/15/25
- Residential conversion planned at 1006 S. Michigan; The office building would become 49 apartments, Lukas Kugler, Urbanize Chicago, 1/20/2
- Details Revealed For Residential Conversion of Lofts Under 1000M In The South Loop, Ian Achong, Chicago YIMBY, 1/21/25
- Developers of major Chicago apartment tower eye residential conversion of offices underneath, Vintage Michigan Avenue building sits next to, and partially under, Helmut Jahn-designed 1000M, Ryan Ori, CoStar News, 1/15/25
- Could apartments be coming to this vintage office building? Alby Gallun, Crain’s Chicago Business, 6/3/15
- Historic Michigan Boulevard District Design Guidelines 2/4/16
- Lightner Building, 1006 S. Michigan Ave Listing, Loopnet