BMO Financial Group announced plans on Monday to anchor an upcoming 700 foot office tower next to Chicago's Union Station per Curbed Chicago. The high rise construction will start the beginning of 2019 and should be completed in 2022.
The company plans on consolidating 3,600 BMO employees across 14 floors with the 50 story tower. The lease includes naming rights and exterior corporate signage.
Goettsch Partners, the architectural company working on the design has made a few changes. The facade now features less pronounced horizontal breaks at each setback and the previous X shaped supporting stilts have been exchanged for a less pronounced V arrangement.
Riverside Investment & Development along with Convexity Properties are the co-developers on this project. BMO Tower will also replace an Amtrak owned parking garage south of Union Station's transit center. A 1.5 acre publicly accessible park will conceal a 400 stall garage at the base of the tower.
Riverside, Convexity and Amtrak are getting ready to renovate the upper floors on the station's historic headhouse into 400 hotel rooms. An early design called for a seven story apartment addition but this was cut from the overall plan. Zoning for both the office tower and the headhouse conversion was approved by the Chicago Plan Commission and City Council in October.
"The new BMO Tower not only speaks to BMO's commitment to our city and its future, it also represents a vote of confidence in the Union Station modernization project as a vital link to economic, cultural and recreational investments for Chicago's residents, visitors and businesses."
Mayor of Chicago | Mayor Rahm Emanuel
The 1.5 million square foot tower will join a crowded downtown office market. It will compete with the 1.4 million square foot Bank of America tower which is currently under construction at 110 North Wacker, the 1.2 million square foot Salesforce Tower at Wolf Point and the current renovation of Chicago's old Post Office into 2.8 million square feet of office space. Click here to see all the upcoming high rise projects in Chicago.
According to the Chicago Tribune, BMO will bring together employees of BMO Harris Bank and other BMO Financial functions, such as wealth management and capital markets.
The 3,600 workers are currently based in more than 700,000 square feet of combined space at 111 W. Monroe St., 115 S. LaSalle St. and 200 W. Adams St. The new space will have a ground floor bank branch and BMO will keep its large branch on Monroe Street even after the company vacates its longtime Loop offices.
Mayor Emanuel said the new office tower would cost about $900 million, and would create 5,100 construction jobs.
DataBid is currently reporting on this project - Union Station Redevelopment Phase II BMO Office Tower - Chicago (0085101818)
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