Crain's Chicago Business

12/15/2025

Portillo's is preparing to open a location in the Loop.

The Italian beef and hot dog chain earlier this month filed paperwork with the city for a dine-in restaurant buildout at the ground floor of 300 N. Michigan Ave., just south of the Chicago River.

While Portillo's brand is closely tied to Chicago, the chain only has three locations inside the city proper. It operates dozens in the suburbs and elsewhere in Illinois.

Crain's reported in October that Portillo's was eying a new location in Wrigleyville.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/restaurants/portillos-hot-dog-italian-beef-chain-open-loop?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

12/15/2025

After signing the largest new downtown office lease in three years, Sargent & Lundy has decided it needs even more workspace as it beefs up its local workforce.

Sweetening one of the biggest deals for the city's office market since the pandemic, the Chicago-based energy engineering firm has leased three more floors in the 51-story tower at 77 W. Wacker Drive, a spokeswoman for the company confirmed. The expansion adds roughly 66,000 square feet to the massive anchor tenant lease the firm signed a year ago, bringing its new total footprint to nearly 448,000 square feet — roughly 60% more space than it is leaving behind at its longtime 55 E. Monroe St. office.

The extra space turns one of the most impactful victories for the vacancy-ridden downtown office market into an even larger triumph. Many companies are still reducing their office footprints as they adjust to post-COVID remote work trends, creating more available workspace than ever before in the central business district.

Sargent & Lundy's new, larger home not only defies that movement, but solidifies the firm's spot among the largest office tenants in Chicago's urban core. Its growth is a lift for all downtown office landlords and adds more momentum to office leasing in the Loop, where Google is poised to open its new Chicago home next year.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/commercial-real-estate/sargent-lundy-adds-office-space-rare-downtown-expansion?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

12/12/2025

General contractor Novak Construction is set to buy the southern portion of the flailing Lincoln Yards megaproject and an eight-story office building that has stood vacant on the site since it was completed in 2023.

Novak is finalizing a deal to purchase more than 18 acres along the Chicago River between Lincoln Park and Bucktown from a venture of Chicago developer Sterling Bay and New York-based J.P. Morgan Asset Management, people familiar with the matter confirmed. The property was slated to become the southern portion of the $6 billion, 14 million-square-foot Lincoln Yards megaproject for which Sterling Bay won city approval in 2019.

If the land and building sales are completed as expected in the coming weeks, it would mark a formal end to Sterling Bay's vision for a sprawling campus on the property. The developer earlier this year surrendered the larger, northern portion of the Lincoln Yards site to Bank OZK, which sold it in September to a team of developers now seeking City Council approval for a redrawn mixed-use plan known as Foundry Park.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/commercial-real-estate/novak-construction-buy-southern-portion-lincoln-yards?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

12/11/2025

The holidays are almost here. If you’re staying home in Chicago, that may mean kids, in-laws, grandparents and friends are passing through to celebrate and looking to you for entertainment.

If you’re hosting loved ones this year, Crain’s recommender-in-chief suggests three local restaurants that’ll help you show off Chicago — and stay out of the kitchen — no matter the size of your family.

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Read the full recommendation here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/dining-table-david-manilow/best-chicago-restaurants-take-family-december-2025?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

12/11/2025

The developers overhauling the northern portion of the floundering Lincoln Yards megaproject want city officials to sign off on apartment high-rises topping 450 feet and more than 3,700 residential units — including 400 that may be developed by Sterling Bay.

Those are among the details revealed in a zoning application introduced Wednesday to the City Council for Foundry Park, the $1 billion-plus proposal for a sprawling mixed-use development along the North Branch of the Chicago River between Lincoln Park and Bucktown. The plans were submitted by a joint venture of JDL Development and Boca Kayne Anderson Real Estate, which acquired nearly all of the 34-acre site over the past few months.

The application is a key step toward a project that would redraw a swath of the North Side with less density than what was proposed by Chicago developer Sterling Bay at the 14 million-square-foot Lincoln Yards campus, but still with soaring buildings that would tower over their surroundings.

The Foundry Park proposal includes as many as 3,737 dwelling units mixed among single family homes, townhomes, rental units and condos, according to the application. The plan calls for as much 350,000 square feet dedicated to a combination of traditional and medical office space, 420,000 square feet of retail and commercial space and 250,000 square feet of hospitality space.

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The proposal would redraw a swath of the North Side with less density than Sterling Bay's previous plan for a 14 million-square-foot campus, but still with high-rises that would tower over their surroundings.

12/09/2025

Gibsons Restaurant Group is preparing to open a new restaurant in Fulton Market, and we now know the name, what the spot will entail and the latest estimate for when it's expected to open.

The long-anticipated restaurant will be called Gibsons Tavern and offer "an elevated take on classic American cuisine, brought to life in a warm, vintage-inspired setting," according to a release from the Chicago-based group.

It's set to open fall 2026 at 919 W. Fulton.

The announcement promised "refined tavern fare, from classic comfort dishes and Gibsons’ signature steaks to fresh seafood and unforgettable desserts" and said the beverage program will have "nods to the prohibition era." Renderings of the space show televisions tuned to sports.

Gibsons Tavern will be just the third restaurant to carry the "Gibsons" name — a title that comes with hefty expectations. Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse and Gibsons Italia are two of Chicago's most prestigious steakhouses, particularly among the city's power brokers.

Read more here:

The iconic steakhouse brand is expanding to Chicago's hottest neighborhood.

12/09/2025

The Trump administration is threatening to withhold federal funds if the Chicago Transit Authority doesn’t increase the presence of law enforcement in the wake of a recent attack in which a woman was set on fire while riding a train.

In letters addressed to Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker, the Federal Transit Administration takes the city and state to task for the attack on Bethany MaGee last month.

“Creating a safe, reliable transit system is the responsibility of leaders at every level,” FTA Administrator Marc Molinaro says in a letter sent late Monday to Johnson. “CTA, the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois have failed to meet this obligation. If CTA does not promptly increase its law enforcement presence, FTA will act, including by withholding federal funds.”

It’s the latest dispute between the White House and the Johnson and Pritzker, including an attempt to deploy the National Guard to Chicago to deal with crime and the Department of Transportation’s threat to withhold $2 billion in funding for the extension of the CTA’s Red Line because of minority-contracting provisions.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/politics/feds-say-cta-safety-failures-could-risk-federal-funding?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

12/08/2025

Theo Gilbert made a name for himself in the Chicago dining scene two decades ago with his Italian restaurant Terragusto. "I miss it terribly," Manilow said, reminiscing on the Addison Street spot that, to the shock of many, closed in 2011.

Terragusto was beloved, so after the unexpected closing, Gilbert had former guests reaching out wanting to know what he planned to do next.

Inundated with interest, Gilbert decided to get back in the kitchen cooking for his old guests, but he didn't do it in a regular restaurant. "I said, 'You know what? I'll just do a pop-up dinner, and I'll kind of make people happy for a second.' " The idea was it would be a one-and-done dinner.

The chef sent invites via email thinking 20 or 30 folks would RSVP "yes." Instead, 600 people signed up. Gilbert couldn't serve them all at once, so he turned it into a series of dinners — and that's how the (Chicago) Bite Club, Gilbert's underground supper club, came to exist.

The Bite Club has become a legitimate business; Gilbert has an LLC license with the state. But the pop-up's exclusivity and changing location and menu give it the underground feel. The parentheses around "Chicago" in the business name are a nod to Gilbert's reach beyond the city — he often travels to host pop-up dinners in other countries.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/dining-table-david-manilow/chef-theo-gilbert-terragusto-talks-pop-underground-dinners?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

12/08/2025

A years-long reluctance to buy downtown Chicago condos as second homes may be easing up, if recent sales at a building in Lakeshore East are any indication.

At Cirrus, about 30 of the 50 condos that have been put under contract this year have gone to second-homers, according to Brad Brondyke, the Jameson Sotheby's International Realty agent who leads the building's sales effort for the developers, Lendlease and Magellan.

Cirrus is a 47-story tower whose address is on Harbor Drive but whose primary exposure is on the other side, facing Du Sable Lake Shore Drive. It's seen in the middle in the image at the top of this story. About three of this year's 50 contracted units are not yet closed but should be by the end of 2025, he said.

The number of second home buyers "is great news for the city," Brondyke said. That's in part because it signals that the fear of downtown Chicago from the past several years may be diminishing.

Outbreaks of crime downtown and the slow return to in-office work have combined to make upper-income condo buyers reluctant to go downtown. The results have been deep discounts on condos in some towers that used to have high appeal for second-homers and few announcements of new construction.

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Cirrus, a 47-story tower that launched sales the year before the pandemic began, has seen an encouraging uptick in the number of buyers who are second-homers, according to its sales manager.

12/05/2025

Frank Gehry, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect whose audacious, sculptural designs reshaped skylines around the world — including Chicago’s own Millennium Park — died Dec. 5 at his home in Santa Monica, Calif., after a brief respiratory illness. He was 96, The New York Times reports.

Gehry became one of the most recognizable figures in contemporary architecture after the 1997 opening of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, a titanium-clad structure widely credited with helping revive the once-industrial Spanish port city and proving that bold design could be an economic engine. That international success cemented his status as America’s most famous architect since Frank Lloyd Wright.

Chicagoans know Gehry best for the Pritzker Pavilion, the sweeping stainless-steel bandshell that anchors Millennium Park’s Great Lawn and instantly became a civic icon when it opened in 2004. Its billowing forms and state-of-the-art sound system helped transform the former rail yard into one of the city’s most-visited cultural spaces.

Gehry’s career spanned more than six decades and produced a global roster of landmark buildings — among them Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris — that pushed the boundaries of design through early adoption of advanced computer modeling and a fearless embrace of nontraditional materials.

Read more here:

Chicagoans know Gehry best for the Pritzker Pavilion, the sweeping stainless-steel bandshell that anchors Millennium Park’s Great Lawn.

12/04/2025

A fine dining restaurant will soon open in the Randolph Street space once home to Grace, the three-Michelin-star spot that closed in dramatic fashion after a falling out between the founders. The new project is backed by Grace's original owner, plus the team behind Medi in Lincoln Park.

The restaurant will be called Susu and serve "Mediterrasian" cuisine that blends the "bold and indulgent flavors of the Mediterranean with the vibrant and intricate tastes of Asia," according to its website. Menu items will range from maki to whole duck shawarma.

Expectations for Susu will be high. Grace was one of the city's most revered restaurants, and the new spot will face stiff competition in the increasingly crowded West Loop dining scene.

Chef Alexander Willis, who previously worked with Alqas at the since-closed Mya via Medi, will lead the kitchen. The restaurant is soliciting general manager applications.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/restaurants/susu-restaurant-open-former-grace-space-west-loop?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

12/04/2025

New York no longer holds dominion over big-city bagel shops. In recent years, a new crop of Chicago restaurants has put its own spin on the breakfast staple, including Tilly’s with its Chicago-style bagels, Rosca with a Mexican twist, Zeitlins with a traditional Jewish recipe, R&A Sourdough and more. They’re all worth a visit, writes our recommender in chief, but one stands above the rest.

Al Manakeesh in Bridgeview uses Ka’ak bagel dough as the base for Arabic classics like labneh, falafel and manakeesh, as well as pizzas, sandwiches and more. Unlike traditional New York bagels, the Palestinian-style bagels at Al Manakeesh aren’t boiled before baking. The open kitchen lets customers watch as chefs roll out the dough for each order and slide it into the oven, and the staff is friendly and well-versed in the art of baking.

Read the full recommendation here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/dining-table-david-manilow/dining-table-recommends-al-manakeesh?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

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