The Chicago Spire, a $93 Million Hole in the Ground

Dec. 7, 2010: Foreclosure begins on the Chicago Spire

At 150 stories and a height of 2,000 feet, the Chicago Spire was meant to be the tallest building in North America. Designed by the celebrated Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and estimated to cost $1 billion, its drill-bit shape and near-stratospheric altitude promised to “change the skyline,” says Lynn Osmond, president and chief executive officer of the Chicago Architecture Foundation. Construction began in 2007. Within a year its lead developer, Garrett Kelleher, the founder and executive chairman of Ireland’s Shelbourne Development Group, ran out of money. Crews walked away from the site, leaving behind an unfinished, 76-foot-deep circular hole. “They broke ground with less than 10 or 15 percent of [units sold], which is a recipe for disaster,” says Garry Benson, a real estate consultant at Garrison Partners in Chicago. “It was ambitious and economically impossible to execute. And the building spun and tapered, and I don’t think there were two floor plans in the 1,500 units that were the same.”