October 21, 2006

Tribune

Tower plans still on track, Developer of spire interviewing firms
By Susan Diesenhouse

Plans to build the nation's tallest tower in Chicago, the 2,000-foot-high residential spire designed by star architect Santiago Calatrava, remain on track.

The developer, Garrett Kelleher, executive chairman of Dublin-based Shelbourne Development Ltd. and the Shelbourne Group, has been here this week interviewing design and engineering firms to work on the $1.2 billion, 124-story project, his attorney, Thomas J. Murphy, said Friday.

"We're pulling the master contract together with the architects and engineers who will work under the Calatrava firm's leadership," Murphy explained. "We're interviewing two great local [firms] to be the architect of record."

By early next month, Murphy plans to announce the makeup of the team. As is customary, it will include an architect and engineer of record who file documents with government agencies and the design architect who creates the concept.

Murphy put to rest questions that have cropped up over whether the Spanish-born Calatrava's plan for a twisting tower overlooking the lake and the river at 400 N. Lake Shore Drive would actually materialize.

"Our intention from the start was to have Calatrava as part of the design team," said Murphy. "His design was what excited Mr. Kelleher about the project, as well as the site's superb location."

Once this team is put together, it will conduct an environmental investigation of the site, complete the conceptual design and design documents. The three-year construction project is scheduled to start next spring. Financing will be provided by Kelleher and the Anglo Irish Bank.

"Inevitably, there will be changes in the [early] design," said Murphy. "We still have a thousand choices to make concerning the facade, landscaping, elevators."

The tower at Lake Shore Drive and North Water Street, which was announced about a year ago, would rise higher than the 1,450-foot Sears Tower. The mixed-use spire has city planning and zoning approvals for a 150-room hotel and approximately 300 condominiums priced from about $600,000 to $5 million.

Unfazed by the slowdown in housing sales, Murphy said: "This property won't come on the market for three years. Chicago is improving and by then will be great."