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Massive Post Office Development in Chicago Moves Forward

Massive Post Office Development in Chicago Moves Forward

International Property Developers (IPD) has renewed plans for massive developments around Chicago’s Old Main Post Office. IPD bought the structure in 2009 for $40 million and has been working with Chicago-based architects Antunovich Associates on a plan to surround the massive building, which has almost as much interior space as Willis Tower, with three new towers.

The first phase, expected to take 5-7 years, would be a 100-story tower with 800,000 square feet of retail, 2,900 residential units, and 525,000 square feet of office space. Following that, a second 2,000-foot-tall tower would go up, adding 3,500 residential units, 1.5 million square feet of office space, and 920 hotel rooms. The project’s 5,700-space parking garage, rising six stories, would be built during the first phase, project representatives said at a public meeting Tuesday.

Those numbers are daunting, but so is the original acquisition, after all. They would need a sizable anchor tenant to lend the proposal some economic legitimacy. A casino, perhaps? Aldermanic support for the $3.5 billion development has apparently not waned, nor has scrutiny of its decidedly suburban sensibility and so-far uninspiring design.


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