Contstruction Stopped On The Chicago Spire
Filed under: Real Estate Developments
It is to be perhaps Chicago's most recognizable landmark, but first Santiago Calatrava's planned Chicago Spire has to get off the ground. The building of the dramatic swirl of a building is currently stalled out. Construction has stopped and the architect, Calatrava, has filed a lien against Shelbourne Development Group Inc,. the Irish developer of the 2,000-foot condominium tower, for $11.3 million.Perkins+Will, the Spire's architect of record, is also seeking nearly $4.85 million from Shelbourne. And the hits keep coming, Architectural Record also reports that New York-based Thornton Tomasetti, which worked with Calatrava on the project's structural engineering, has filed its own lien for $1.3 million. A spokeswoman for Shelbourne president Garrett Kelleher, says the developer is working to resolve the payment issue. The reason for the problem, it's the new old refrain of "the credit crunch" or as Kim Metcalfe, Kelleher's spokeswoman puts it: "We're waiting for the banks to start acting like banks again."
As we mentioned earlier this year, about 30 percent of the tower's 1,200 condominiums are sold, including the penthouse,which was originally priced at $40 million and bought by Beanie Babies magnate Ty Warner. I'd be very surprised if this project didn't get completed but I do think it's another one that will be majorly delayed.
