Commonwealth Lands $113M in Financing for Chicago’s Largest Conversion Project
The project will include a mix of luxury and affordable apartments.
Commonwealth Development Partners has received $113 million in construction financing and joint venture equity for the office-to-residential conversion of the 25-story 500 N. Michigan Ave. in Chicago into a 320-unit luxury community.
The $162 million project, which is the largest office-to-residential conversion project currently underway in the Windy City, will include 64 units of affordable housing. The project is slated for completion by March 2028. Construction began at the site, located in Chicago’s Magnificent Mile district, in May.
Shortly after Commonwealth and Triangle Capital Group acquired the vacant office portion of the property in August 2025 for $5 million, the partners engaged JLL for further capital raising. A JLL Capital Markets team secured a $71.5 million non recourse construction loan through Santander Bank, N.A., and arranged a $41.8 million joint equity deal with Washington Capital Management on behalf of one of its institutional clients.
The project is also pursuing federal historic tax credits and expects to benefit from the Illinois Affordable Housing Special Assessment Program. The property was completed in 1968, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
Chicago-based GREC Architects is the architect for the adaptive reuse project. Skender is the general contractor for the conversion.
A separately owned 21,565-square-foot retail section of the building on the ground floor and lower level was sold in April to a private investor for $41 million. It is fully leased to tenants such as Bank of America, Chick-fil-A and Vans.
Commonwealth’s plans in Chicago
Upon completion, the multifamily portion of the property will feature 253,024 square feet of rentable area. The building will have a mix of studios, one- and two-bedroom units, plus 60 garage spaces.
The 24th floor will house the building’s mechanical systems and the 25th floor will feature indoor and outdoor amenities such as a rooftop pool. Other amenities will include a fitness center with a yoga room, coworking spaces, a multi-sport simulator, theater and front-desk concierge.
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500 N. Michigan Ave. is located at the intersection of North Michigan Avenue and East Illinois Street in the Streeterville neighborhood. The building is near Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Lurie Children’s Hospital and the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. It is situated at the epicenter of the Magnificent Mile retail corridor, providing residents with access to 460 retail shops, 275 restaurants and bars, as well as cultural attractions.
The building is two blocks north of Chicago River and the Wrigley Building, and it also sits one mile north of downtown. Grand metro station on the Red Line is two blocks west.
The JLL Capital Markets Debt Advisory and Equity Placement team representing the borrower included Managing Director Chris Knight, Senior Analyst Ryan Planek and Analyst Annie Thomas.
Adaptive reuse experience
Based in Greenwich, Conn., Commonwealth Development Partners is a full-service real estate development and investment firm that specializes in urban-infill and select suburban development and adaptive reuse projects across supply-constrained markets. Since its founding in 2017, Commonwealth has delivered more than $500 million and 1,500 units, including $217 million in adaptive reuse projects with institutional partners. The company has an active development pipeline with more than 1,200 units and $600 million in projects under construction or in pre-development.
The company is currently redeveloping the Grant Building, a 37-story historic Art Deco building on Grant Street in downtown Pittsburgh that will include an upgrade of office and commercial spaces on the lower floors and multifamily housing on the upper floors. Also in Pittsburgh, Commonwealth previously converted the former Commonwealth Trust Bank, a century-old skyscraper, into 140 market-rate rental units.
More Chicago conversions
In Chicago, Commonwealth’s redevelopment of 500 N. Michigan Ave. is one of roughly 25 office-to-residential conversion projects underway in the downtown area. The projects, which total $1.8 billion combined investment, will add more than 4,000 residential units. The city offers tax-increment financing and other incentives to encourage developers to tackle adaptive reuse projects.
Wacker Place, a transformation of a 24-story office building at 65 E. Wacker St. into a 252-unit residential tower, is nearing completion. The developers, Mavrek and ACRES Commercial Realty Corp., started preleasing in June and expect the first residents to begin moving in at the start of fall. Mavrek and ACRES obtained $90 million in financing for the project last year. The building, which has a mix of studios, one- and two-bedroom floorplans, will have 51 affordable units.
Earlier this month, developer R2 Cos. celebrated the grand opening of Bellwether Residences, one of the city’s first conversion projects at 79 W. Monroe St. The developer converted a vacant 14-story, 183,147-square-foot office building into 117 residential units, including 41 affordable apartments.
