8-Sep-16 – Though views will decidedly change for many residents of the Lakeshore East neighborhood in the northeast corner of the Loop, the 95-story, $950 million Vista Tower going up in their front yard over the next four years will improve access to and from the Chicago Riverwalk and Navy Pier.

At a groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday, held near a sales center above and to the south of the construction site, 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly said the project will come with “much needed and long-waited-for” infrastructure improvements to help traffic circulate more efficiently.

Vista Tower will connect the street around Lakeshore East Park with Wacker Drive, with traffic and pedestrians flowing through the base of the tower.

“If you’ve ever been through the Lakeshore East community, trying to find Navy Pier, well, you find yourself in a dead end,” said Reilly. “Now we’ll actually have true circulation through the Lakeshore East community, literally under [Vista] Tower, down Wacker Drive, and I think that’s going to be a great benefit for people who live and work in downtown Chicago.”

(Left) Reilly (center) at groundbreaking ceremony. At left is Mayor Rahm Emanuel and architect Jeanne Gang, whose firm, Studio Gang, designed Vista Tower. At right is Chen Xu, chairman of China General Chamber of Commerce USA, and Hong Lel, counsel general of the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Chicago.

Reilly says the owner of the building, Dalian Wanda Group, a real estate company based in China with annual income of $43.6 billion, and the Chicago-based developer, Magellan Development Group, “showed a lot of flexibility and understanding of the neighbors” as it sought approval from the city for zoning changes.

In addition to 2,000 construction jobs, the project will create 500 permanent jobs, which Reilly says “is no small feat.”

“We get excited about two or three hundred new headquarters jobs. Well, these are 500 jobs that will be here in Chicago for a very long time to support working families.”

When completed in 2020, Vista Tower, with 93 stories above ground, will be the third-tallest building in Chicago. It will offer 194 hotel rooms on the first eleven floors and 406 condominium units on floors 13-93. Units are being sold now and range in price from $1 million to $17.1 million.

More than 25 percent of the building’s leasable space is “under contract,” according to David Carlins, president of Magellan Development Group. (Right) A living room at Vista Tower that overlooks Lake Michigan.