River North office becomes apartments
A former Salesforce office in River North has been converted to apartments and is set to welcome its first residents in May, adding new downtown rental supply near Gold Coast alternatives. Converted office product often competes differently — sometimes with lower amenity polish but fresher finishes and aggressive early pricing — which means nearby luxury buildings will see another substitute option for affluent renters. (chicago.suntimes.com)
A building that used to hold desks and conference rooms at 111 West Illinois Street is about to start taking move-in boxes instead. The former Salesforce space in River North has been rebuilt into 153 apartments, and the developers told the Chicago Sun-Times they expect the first residents in May 2026. (chicago.suntimes.com) This is the top six floors of a 10-story building, not a teardown and replacement. Path Construction and WindWave Real Estate bought the office portion for about $17 million in 2025 and chose conversion over trying to refill a weak office market. (chicago.suntimes.com, costar.com) The math changed because River North had too much office space and not enough demand for it. The Chicago Sun-Times reported in October 2024 that the neighborhood’s office vacancy rate was nearing 25 percent, which made empty floors more valuable as housing than as cubicles. (chicago.suntimes.com) The building sits a few blocks from the Chicago River and within walking distance of the restaurants and nightlife that make River North one of downtown Chicago’s most expensive rental markets. That gives the project a very different customer than a suburban office park conversion would get: renters who want a downtown address first and a long amenities list second. (chicago.suntimes.com, pathcc.com) Office-to-apartment conversions usually keep the bones and replace the skin. In this case, the developers are turning former office floors into one-bedroom and two-bedroom units, which lets them bring brand-new interiors to market faster than a ground-up tower that has to start with a hole in the ground. (chicago.suntimes.com, pathcc.com) That speed is part of the competition. The same project was described in 2025 as a roughly $64 million conversion, and developers without years of construction risk often have room to price early leases aggressively to fill a building fast. (therealdeal.com, costar.com) Chicago has been moving this way for more than one building. By late 2025, the Sun-Times was reporting another River North office conversion at 50 East Superior Street with 88 apartments, showing that landlords are treating obsolete office floors like raw material for housing. (chicago.suntimes.com) That does not mean every old office becomes a perfect luxury tower. Converted buildings can have odd floor plates, fewer flashy shared spaces, and less glass than a brand-new high-rise, but they can still pull renters with fresh finishes and a strong address. (costar.com, therealdeal.com) So the new residents arriving in May are not just filling one recycled building. They are testing a bigger downtown Chicago bet: that a floor once designed for software sales teams can make more money as homes in a neighborhood where empty office space has become easier to find than vacant luxury apartments. (chicago.suntimes.com, chicago.suntimes.com)
