On September 9, 2026, Mayor Brandon Johnson rang a bell inside the Rector Building at 79 W. Monroe St. The 1905 tower, designed by Jarvis Hunt, reopened that day as The Bellwether, the first finished project under the city's LaSalle Street Reimagined program. That afternoon, 25 residents lived in 25 units. Applications for all 41 affordable apartments were being processed, and market-rate rents started at $1,664 for a studio and $2,384 for a one-bedroom.
Every unit in that building is for rent. So is every unit in the five other LaSalle projects, along with each of the larger downtown conversions now under construction. The Loop is adding residents faster than it has in decades, and none of that growth is reaching the for-sale condo market. What that means for you depends on whether you plan to live in the condo you buy or lease it out.
The Pipeline, Building by Building
The program totals more than 1,700 apartments across six buildings. Thirty percent are set aside as affordable, and Ald. Bill Conway says the remaining projects will come online throughout 2028. Here is where each address stood as of early October 2026.
| Address | Planned apartments | Affordable units | City support | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 79 W. Monroe, The Bellwether | 117 | 41 | $28M TIF | Opened Sept. 9, 2026 |
| 208 S. LaSalle | 168 | 51 | $26.2M TIF approved in 2024 for an earlier plan | Interior demolition permit, June 2026 |
| 30 N. LaSalle | 349 | 105 | $57M TIF, January 2026 | No construction schedule announced |
| 111 W. Monroe | 345, plus a 308-key hotel | 104 | $50M TIF loan for the hotel portion, Sept. 23, 2026 | Interior demolition permit; financing pending as of May |
| 135 S. LaSalle, Field Building | 386 | 116 | $98M TIF | No confirmed 2026 groundbreaking |
| 105 W. Adams, Bankers Building | 400 | 121 | $67.5M TIF | Approved; litigation ongoing |
The LaSalle program is only part of the activity. Housing Commissioner Lissette Castañeda says 24 more downtown residential conversions are underway outside it. Three named projects show the range:
- Wacker Place at 65 E. Wacker: 252 apartments with no parking in a 1928 art deco tower. Morton's The Steakhouse stays at street level. Pre-leasing began in June 2026.
- 500 N. Michigan: 320 apartments. It broke ground in July 2026 and targets completion in late 2027.
- 19 S. LaSalle: 175 apartments plus 32 hotel rooms. Permits and zoning approvals cleared in June 2026.
Why Owner-Occupants Come Out Ahead
When a neighborhood adds housing, buyers usually worry about new competition for their resale. A new condo tower lists hundreds of units at once, often with developer incentives, and existing owners in nearby buildings feel it at their next sale. These conversions don't create that problem. A rental apartment in the Field Building never shows up as a comparable sale, never adds to condo inventory, and never competes with your two-bedroom when you list it.
The closest new for-sale condo projects we found are west of the river. ZSD Corp's 1282 W. Washington in the West Loop plans 16 condos priced from $1.7 million to $4 million, with delivery planned for fall 2027. Marielle on the Park, a 70-unit condo proposal at 23 S. Sangamon, went before the Plan Commission in August 2026. We could not confirm any new for-sale condo construction in the Loop itself.
That fits a tight market across the city. In August 2026, the City of Chicago recorded 1,208 condo closings at a median price of $420,000. Inventory across all property types was 3,541 homes, down 23.3% from August 2025. Those are citywide figures. Illinois Realtors does not track prices for specific communities. The Chicago Association of Realtors offers neighborhood-level data through a members-only tool, while its public monthly snapshot covers the city as a whole. Building-level comparable sales are the only way to get a real read on a particular Loop address.
For someone planning to live in their condo, the conversions bring the amenities a residential district needs. Each new building puts more people on LaSalle and Monroe after 5 p.m., the kind of foot traffic that lets restaurants, groceries and services survive evenings and weekends. Google is also expected to move into the renovated Thompson Center in 2027, which Block Club reports will become an office for thousands of employees. Owners get the benefits of more neighbors without more condo listings competing with theirs.
If You Plan to Lease Your Condo, The Bellwether Sets Your Benchmark
Investors face nearly the opposite situation. A condo bought as a rental competes with apartments, and the new apartments are strong competition.
Cushman & Wakefield's Q2 2026 multifamily report, current through June 30, shows how lopsided the Loop pipeline is. The Loop submarket had 3,714 apartment units, 848 under construction and 1,469 more proposed. The units under construction alone equal about 23% of the existing stock, and adding the proposed units brings the total to more than 60%. No other downtown submarket in that report had a pipeline that large relative to its size. In the same quarter, Loop apartments had the highest occupancy downtown at 96.6%. They also had the lowest average effective rent at $2,842 a unit, up 4.4% from a year earlier.
The Bellwether shows what a prospective tenant is now weighing against your unit. One-bedrooms run 550 to 800 square feet starting at $2,384. The building has a lounge, a fitness center, a 14th-floor outdoor terrace, bike storage and a dog run, inside a landmarked 1905 tower. Its property manager reported the building was 57% leased by September 17, eight days after opening. Wacker Place's floor plans were designed around in-unit workspaces, and its building includes a coworking lounge and a 25th-floor rooftop deck.
Rent growth is also slowing. Crain's reported on September 10 that downtown rent growth had cooled to its lowest level since late 2024. Its lead also noted that new supply is still expected to fall short of apartment demand. Demand looks healthy for now, but each new Loop building gives tenants another professionally managed option.
Before buying a Loop condo to rent out, compare it directly with this competition:
- Compare the unit's realistic rent with The Bellwether's $2,384 starting one-bedroom and its amenity package.
- Check whether your building offers something conversions often lack. Wacker Place, for example, has no parking.
- Read the association's leasing rules, since they set what you can actually charge and how fast you can fill a vacancy.
- Plan your lease terms around when the nearest conversion is scheduled to open.
The Delays Are Part of the Story
Unit counts are only half the picture, because these buildings have rarely opened on their original schedules.
A 2023 plan for 208 S. LaSalle called for construction by late 2023 and first units in summer 2025. The project went from 280 units to 226 and then to 168. By June 2026, it had an interior demolition permit and no published construction schedule. A 2025 schedule for 135 S. LaSalle projected a construction start in the first quarter of 2026 and completion in 2027. We found no 2026 confirmation that work had begun. At 105 W. Adams, a judge allowed former partners' fraud and breach-of-contract claims against the current developer venture to proceed in July 2026.
For a buyer, this changes the timing. The new rental supply will arrive in waves through 2028 and possibly later. An investor buying today may see little new competition at first renewal and a lot more two years out. An owner-occupant can expect the street-level changes, including more evening foot traffic and new storefronts, to arrive gradually as each building opens. The rental stock arriving in those waves still won't add to the condo inventory.
FAQ
Will any of the LaSalle Street Reimagined buildings sell units as condos? The city describes all six projects as apartments, and The Bellwether is leasing rather than selling. None of the current plans includes for-sale units.
Where can I find Loop-only condo sales figures? Illinois Realtors publishes figures for the City of Chicago as a whole, not by neighborhood. Its September 2026 report is scheduled for October 22. The Chicago Association of Realtors keeps neighborhood-level figures in a members-only tool. Loop-level analysis comes from building-by-building closed sales.
When does the Thompson Center reopen? Block Club reports the Thompson Center is under construction and slated for completion in 2027 as a Google office.
If you own a Loop condo and want to know how its rent or resale value compares with The Bellwether, Wacker Place and the buildings coming after them, Larissa Brodsky can go through it with you building by building, using recent closed sales. Request your complimentary condo valuation.
