Crain's Chicago Business, 130 E. Randolph Street, Chicago, IL (2026)

08/04/2026

The owner of NBC Tower wants to convert part of the Streeterville skyscraper into hundreds of apartments, joining the parade of downtown landlords turning empty office space into residential uses.

Metropolis Investment Holdings is in early planning to transform a dozen floors in the mid-rise portion of the 37-story tower at 455 Cityfront Plaza into apartments. Metropolis, which represents a German investor that has owned the property since the late 1990s, is working on the project in partnership with Chicago-based Riverside Investment & Development.

The preliminary plan would add another high-profile address to a wave of downtown office conversions since the COVID-19 pandemic upended workspace demand. Developers over the past few years have proposed dozens of projects totaling thousands of apartments in vacant former office space — some in the Loop getting a big financial assist from taxpayers as the city looks to restore regular foot traffic downtown.

Details of the Metropolis-Riverside plan were not immediately available, and spokesmen for the firms did not respond to requests for comment. But a Metropolis venture sought feedback earlier this year from the city’s Department of Planning & Development about a potential plan “to renovate and convert all or a portion of the existing building to residential dwelling units,”

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/real-estate/commercial/ccb-nbc-tower-apartment-conversion-20260804/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

08/03/2026

Tabor Hill Winery & Restaurant is betting a four-time James Beard–nominated chef and a seasoned hospitality operator can revamp the 55-year-old winery.

As global wine consumption declines, Tabor Hill is exploring multiple new avenues to attract customers, from hiring a fresh leadership team and building a new menu to adding a guest chef series to reinvigorate its in Southwest Michigan business.

The moves come as the wine industry faces its steepest declines in a generation, with global consumption down 14% since 2018, according to a report by the International Organization of Wine and Vine. For regional wineries like Tabor Hill, the calculus is simple: evolve or close.

In May, the Buchanan-based Tabor Hill hired Justin Carlisle, whose now-closed Milwaukee restaurant, Ardent, was a James Beard semifinalist for best new restaurant in 2014. Carlisle also garnered four consecutive James Beard nominations for best chef in the Midwest from 2015 to 2018.

Tabor Hill has also hired James Gray as its new chief operating officer. Gray previously developed Michigan culinary destination Farrand Hall, which was listed for sale earlier this year.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/restaurants/cgr-tabor-hill-revamps-amid-industry-turmoil-20260728/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

08/03/2026

The linchpin of the Great Lakes’ defense against invasive Asian carp is once again in jeopardy.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a stop-work order in late July on an infrastructure project on a dam in the Des Plaines River near Chicago. The project is seen as a critical step in preventing Asian carp from entering Lake Michigan, and it’s the second time construction has halted since it began last year.

Officials from Michigan and other Great Lakes states have spent decades trying to prevent the carp from reaching the Great Lakes — and the Chicago Area Waterway System is the last major vulnerability.

But the project may be swept up in a larger political battle between President Donald Trump and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration shifted the management of the infrastructure project from the Army Corps’ office in Illinois to Detroit, and Trump said he wouldn’t fund the project unless Pritzker asked for it — though the money had already been set aside.

Now, Pritzker said the administration is blocking the project — again.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/politics-policy/cdb-asian-carp-faq-20260731/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

08/03/2026

Atkore, an electrical-products manufacturer based in Harvey, has decided to sell the company for $3.2 billion to Prysmian, a top maker of cables used in data centers.

The Italian wire and cable maker said it will pay $95 per share in cash, or 30% more than Atkore’s stock value. The companies estimated the total value of the deal at $3.8 billion, including debt.

Atkore, whose stock recently traded as high as $170 per share in March 2024, said last fall it was undertaking a strategic review that could lead to a sale. The company’s revenue had been falling steadily from $3.9 billion in 2022 to $2.9 billion last year before increasing 8% in the most recent quarter ended June 26.

But Prysmian sees opportunity in the data-center space for Atkore, which makes a wide range of products in addition to metal and plastic conduit, cable-management systems, as well as mechanical tubes and pipes. It’s another example of the how artificial intelligence boom and resulting tsunami of data center expansion are rippling through the economy far beyond the tech industry itself.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/manufacturing-logistics/ccb-atkore-sale-32b-prysmian-20270803/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

07/31/2026

Yu Darvish, the San Diego Padres pitcher who seemed to finally be rid of his Cubs-era house in Evanston a few months ago, is putting it back on the market priced at a loss of more than half a million dollars.

In April, Darvish’s lakefront house on Kedzie Street went under contract three and a half years after the pitcher and his wife, Seiko, put it up for sale. The contract never closed.

The property is coming back on the market in the next few days, possibly as soon as tomorrow, said Mike Thomas. An Christie’s International Real Estate agent, he’s now representing it along with Lene Thomas, who’s also with .

The asking price is now $4 million for the property, a five-bedroom house on just over half an acre with 150 feet of Lake Michigan shoreline. That’s a little more than half a million off the $4.55 million Darvish paid for the house in May 2018, a few months after signing a six-year, $126 million contract with the Chicago Cubs. After three seasons, the Cubs traded Darvish to the Padres in December 2020.

The family’s Evanston home first went up for sale in October 2022 at $5.75 million. By the time it went under a contingent contract in April, the asking price was down to a little below $4.5 million.

With the price now at $4 million, “I think we’re definitely in the market value range,” Thomas said.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/real-estate/residential/ccb-yu-darvish-evanston-home-20260730/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

07/30/2026

As candidates for mayor begin collecting signatures this week seeking a place on the 2027 ballot, two likely contenders who have yet to officially enter the race are hovering over the field.

Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias is ostensibly running for a second term, but acting very much like a candidate for mayor, launching television ads for his statewide office solely focused on Chicago while meeting with elected officials, unions, business leaders and civic groups for months in an effort to build a coalition that prevents others from gaining traction.

Mayor Brandon Johnson is leaving hints of his intentions to run for re-election whenever he speaks to reporters, but has otherwise yet to kick into full gear, spending more money than he took in during the second quarter while sitting on just $631,309 in the bank.

Giannoulias isn’t just outpacing the competition, he’s lapping the field — at least in the money chase. The $22 million he ended the second quarter with is roughly three times the combined cash on hand of everyone who is either considering or has announced a campaign.

But entering the race as a frontrunner has its downsides, and other moderates will have to knock Giannoulias down a peg to advance their own ambitions, including bringing up past skeletons in hopes voters have long memories.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/politics-policy/ccb-alexi-giannoulias-brandon-johnson-20260727/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

07/23/2026

James Beard Award-winning chefs Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark have announced their plans for a new restaurant in downtown Evanston, expanding their restaurant group outside Chicago with a location focused on Midwestern cuisine.

Alleyway Grill will open in the historic Varsity Theater building at 1710B Sherman Ave., a space tucked in the middle of a pedestrian-only alley, and serve daily brunch and dinner centered on seasonal ingredients and live-fire cooking. Construction is underway after the team received permits, though an opening date has not been announced.

While the menus at Kim and Clark’s earlier restaurants are reflections of their Korean and Ukrainian roots, respectively, Alleyway is meant to celebrate their Midwestern upbringing — she was raised in Downers Grove and he in Cincinnati. The menu will feature vegetables, handmade pastas, seafood, responsibly raised meats prepared on a live-fire grill and Spanish oven, along with modern American desserts.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/restaurants/ccb-evanston-alleyway-grill-20260722/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

07/21/2026

The amount of cannabis sold in Illinois rose 9.3% during the first six months of the year, showing demand is still growing six years after the state legalized recreational ma*****na use.

Retail shops sold 27.6 million cannabis products, ranging from smokable flower and vapes to gummies. The rate of unit growth accelerated from 7.3% during the same period a year earlier.

The revenue picture is more murky because the state changed software vendors for tracking cannabis sales last year and discovered previous data sometimes failed to include product discounts, artificially inflating previous data.

Industrywide, cannabis prices have been falling for several years because of oversupply in more mature markets. In Michigan, which started legal sales about the same time as Illinois, recreational sales were down 5% through the first six months of the year to $1.7 billion. In Missouri, which launched in 2023, overall revenue through May was up 5% year-over-year to $582 million.

Illinois has a more tightly regulated market than Michigan in terms of who can obtain a license. But the number of Illinois dispensaries is still growing as new license holders get their shops open. The state now has 288 dispensaries, up 10% from a year ago.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/cannabis/ccb-illinois-cannabis-sales-20260721/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

07/20/2026

O’Hare International Airport returned to its pre-pandemic rank as the world’s sixth-busiest airport last year by posting the fastest growth among the biggest U.S. airports.

The number of passengers flying through O’Hare rose 6% to 84.9 million. The second-best performing U.S. airport on the global Top 20 list, Denver International Airport, was flat. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson, Dallas-Fort Worth and Los Angeles International each showed declines in passengers last year.

O’Hare moved up two spots from last year’s ACI ranking, returning to its pre-pandemic position just ahead of London’s Heathrow.

After five years, Chicago’s largest airport finally topped its pre-pandemic passenger total, even as rivals, including No. 1 Hartsfield-Jackson and No. 13 LAX, have yet to fully recover.

But that doesn’t mean everything is back to normal: Two of O’Hare’s primary competitors among big hub airports in the middle of the country — Dallas-Fort Worth and Denver — held steady or gave up a little ground last year. But they locked in what looks more and more like permanent gains coming out of the pandemic.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/transportation/ccb-ohare-rankings-dallas-and-denver-gain/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

07/18/2026

Residents of a Logan Square three-flat are suing their landlord over what they allege is an illegal effort to sell the building, the first lawsuit of its kind under an anti-gentrification ordinance covering parts of the city’s Northwest Side.

The tenants at 2471 N. Albany Ave. say building owner James A. Feeney had an agent market the property for sale and entered into a contract to sell without giving them the notice required under the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act created by the 2024 Northwest Side Preservation Ordinance, according to a complaint filed in Cook County Circuit Court earlier this month.

Under the ordinance, renters in a 6-square-mile zone that covers parts of Logan Square, Humboldt Park, West Town, Pilsen and Avondale have the right to match a buyer’s offer and buy their building or pass their right to buy on to another party. The legislation requires building owners of buildings with one to four rental units to give tenants notice of their intent to sell 30 days before listing the property for sale.

The lawsuit alleges Feeney hired Schwartz to market the building for sale in the spring, with the agent asking the tenants for keys and holdings showings starting in March. Those showings took place before Feeney notified the tenants of his intent to sell, according to the complaint, and the building went under contract May 30.

As a result, the tenants at 2471 N. Albany Ave. didn’t have the opportunity to explore buying the building or procuring an affordability-minded buyer.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/real-estate/commercial/ccb-logan-square-tenants-sue-landlord-20260716/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

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