A good read in the Tribune yesterday about the impact of the redevelopment of the Old Post Office as some of the businesses are set to move in next month:
The southwest edge of the Loop, for decades a sleepy buffer between downtown office skyscrapers and South Loop residential high-rises, is ready for its multibillion-dollar awakening.
More than $2 billion is getting poured into the neighborhood by real estate developers, forever changing a pocket of downtown where commuters are accustomed to hustling past fortresslike structures, concrete streetscapes and previously stalled development sites to get to their destinations.
Now it is becoming a destination in its own right.
Next month will start the trek of more than 22,000 new office workers who are expected to arrive in the next two years, which will bring a weekday crowd larger than a sold-out Chicago Bulls game to a small area along the west banks of the Chicago River.
High-powered companies such as Uber Technologies, Walgreens and Ferrara Candy are betting on the area’s potential as a magnet for top talent, even before the construction dust settles, and the area’s explosive growth is likely only beginning.
The boom will test the area’s streets and transit infrastructure, which have been beefed up in recent years. The coming flood of workers may struggle to find enough nearby businesses to serve them, at least initially. Time will tell whether an already lengthy development cycle has enough oomph remaining for several other proposed developments to get off the ground.
We've been covering this closely and agree that the Post Office has already ushered in a ton of activity in the South Loop - just look at all the residential activity across the river.
It will be an interesting 5 or 10 years to see how everything materializes but sure doesn't seem to be slowing down.
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