Two of the contractors that helped construct the newly-opened Lowes Chicago Hotel were on the list of builders that Chicago Department of Buildings Commissioner Felicia Davis named as the top companies behind the city’s recent development boom.
During a speech at the City Club of Chicago on Wednesday, Davis said her department issued permits for $3.7 billion worth of construction projects in 2012. In 2014, that number had increased to $7.1 billion. On Wednesday, Davis said the top eight construction companies in the city over that three year boom, based on the value of projects for which the Buildings Department issued construction permits, were:
- Lend Lease: named on permits for construction with a total value of $3.5 billion;
- Power Construction: $1.8 billion;
- James McHugh Construction Co.: $1.5 billion;
- Walsh Construction: $1.3 billion;
- Pepper Construction Group LLC: $642 million;
- F.H. Paschen: $615 million;
- Bulley and Andrews: $519 million;
- Ujamaa Construction: $96 million
City building permit records indicate that two of those companies were involved in the most expensive Chicago construction project approved in the last three years. Lend Lease and McHugh Construction are both listed on the March 2013 construction permit for the $950,000,000 project at 435 North Park Drive in Streeterville. According to the permit, Lend Lease was the general contractor for the project and McHugh Construction was hired as the masonry contractor. The 50-story mixed-use building includes 398 residential units, the 400-room Lowes Hotel that opened this month and 230 parking spaces.
-Katie Cliff