Riverside nails West Loop financing

Riverside Investment & Development just got financing to finally start 566 West Van Buren, a 12-story apartment building with 199 units on a site that had been sitting empty after demolition permits were issued in 2022. Crain’s reported the financing on April 8, 2026, after years in which the project was stalled by high costs and scarce capital. (chicagobusiness.com) The address is a few blocks southwest of Chicago Union Station, at West Van Buren Street and South Jefferson Street, which puts it in the strip where the West Loop starts blending into the Loop. That location matters because it is close enough for downtown commuters to walk or take transit, but not in the highest-rent part of the near north lakefront. (chicago.urbanize.city) This version is smaller and simpler than the one Riverside was trying to build in 2022. The old permit called for 14 stories and 75 parking spaces, while the 2026 plan cuts that to 12 stories and 42 parking spaces and keeps the apartment count basically intact at 199. (chicagoyimby.com) The redesign also strips out the ground-floor retail space that had been in the earlier concept. In its place are tenant spaces like a coworking room, fitness center, bike room, club room, roof deck, grilling area, lounge, and pool. (chicago.urbanize.city) The unit mix tells you who Riverside is chasing. Urbanize reported 52 studios, 113 one-bedrooms, and 34 two-bedrooms, which is the kind of layout developers use when they want a building to hit young professionals and smaller households instead of luxury buyers looking for large floor plans. (chicago.urbanize.city) Getting money for a project like this has been the hard part across Chicago. Marcus & Millichap’s 2026 forecast says apartment deliveries in the city are expected to fall below 4,000 units this year, the lowest level since 2012, with vacancy projected to end 2026 at 3.8 percent. (rejournals.com) Downtown construction has been even thinner than the metro picture suggests. Cross Street’s annual report, cited by Chicago Agent Magazine, said downtown Chicago delivered just 243 units in 2025 and started only 1,395 new units, a decade low. (chicagoagentmagazine.com) That is why this financing is more than a single construction update. When a mid-size, non-trophy apartment project near the core can get funded after being shelved, it suggests lenders and equity partners are still willing to back new housing in neighborhoods where demand is steady and the plan has already been trimmed to fit today’s math. (chicagobusiness.com)