Crain's Chicago Business

01/26/2025

The corner bungalow was once home to a mob leader with reputed connections to President Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra.

The oversized corner bungalow was the home of the mob figure who was reputedly connected to President Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra and Fidel Castro.

01/25/2025

Chicago was the chain's eighth location when it opened in 1986 and is the fourth oldest still open.

The iconic rock-and-roll memorabilia restaurant opened nearly 40 years ago.

01/24/2025

A year after former Chicago Bears defensive end Israel Idonije teamed up with chef Stephen Gillanders to open a South Loop restaurant, the duo is ready to open another spot in the neighborhood.

This time, it's a sports bar in a space that was previously home to a Green Bay Packers bar.

The Staley, set to open Jan. 27, is named for the football team’s original moniker.

01/17/2025

The owners of the Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks have strengthened their grip on the area around the United Center as they move closer to beginning a $7 billion megaproject that would transform the Near West Side.

A venture controlled by the Reinsdorf and Wirtz families that own the teams and arena paid nearly $36 million late last month for a series of surface lots within blocks of the venue, according to Cook County property records. The entity bought the lots from an affiliate of Red Top Parking, a longtime operator of parking lots near the United Center that has sold other land to the team owners over the past few years.

The purchase gives the families more control over property surrounding the venue as they seek approval from city officials for the 1901 Project, an ambitious megadevelopment with 14 million square feet of proposed new buildings that would transform the United Center into a sprawling campus connecting downtown and the city's West Side.

The Chicago Plan Commission yesterday formally approved a $400 million first phase of the project, which would feature a new 6,000-seat music venue immediately southwest of the United Center, two parking garages, a public park and a 233-room hotel.

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The Reinsdorf and Wirtz families have strengthened their control of the land surrounding the arena, a step toward their $7 billion proposal to transform its environs into a sprawling campus.

12/23/2024

These new spots defined local dining in 2024 and, for better or worse, will shape the scene for years to come.

These new spots defined local dining in 2024 and will shape the scene for years to come.

12/22/2024

Here's a look at some other high-end homes in the Chicago area whose owners have had to be patient — regardless of whether they wanted to be.

Here's a look at some homes that have been on the market for a decade or more, as Jordan's Highland Park home was until last week.

12/21/2024

A message from the Crain’s Chicago Business Editorial Board: When it comes to dirty politics, Chicago wrote the book. Anyone old enough to remember awful chapters of our collective history — the shameful Council Wars period of the 1980s, the abuses brought to light by the notorious Operation Silver Shovel investigation of the 1990s, or the details that recently have emerged from the trials of former Ald. Ed Burke and former House Speaker and ward boss Mike Madigan — should perhaps guard against sounding too shocked by news that a Chicago elected official has stooped to a new low.

But there’s little reason to doubt what happened last night — the firing of Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez — will go down in Chicago history as another example of rotten government at work.

If Mayor Brandon Johnson has any interest in resurrecting his reputation — and repairing the damage he’s done to the city’s — he will resign.

12/21/2024

It's only the second house in Bannockburn to sell for over $3 million so far in the 2020s.

Built in the early 2000s and first put up for sale in 2016, it's only the second Bannockburn home to cross the $3 million mark in the 2020s.

12/20/2024

The mayor is considering installing the newly named Board of Education president as co-CEO of Chicago Public Schools in order to get a CTU contract settled before Christmas, sources tell Crain's.

The move would allow the mayor and his Chicago Teachers Union allies to get a new contract settled quickly but is expected to trigger a lawsuit from Martinez.

12/20/2024

From taco joints to Michelin-starred spots, we're looking back on some notable restaurants Chicago lost this past year.

12/12/2024

In September 2016, all signs were favorable as Magellan Development Group and a Chinese partner broke ground on a 101-story hotel and condo tower on a premier Chicago River site. Chinese investment in U.S. real estate was rising, affluent buyers — many of them empty-nesters — were flocking to downtown condos and Magellan had tapped a star architect for the design.

Eight years and a lot of problems later, Magellan sold an investor 84 condos it still had on its hands. The $117 million sale of nearly one-quarter of the building’s condos is the latest turn in the 10-year saga of Magellan’s high hopes repeatedly getting dashed — often by circumstances completely beyond its control.

Among the setbacks: The Chinese investment boom ended abruptly, hitting Magellan on two fronts, because it lost both its investment partner and a major condo buyer base it was targeting. The developer had to re-engineer the upper portion of the tower, leaving a very visible void at the 83rd floor of a focal point in the city’s skyline by world-renowned Chicago architect Jeanne Gang. There were long delays in lining up a restaurant partner to fill the gap the Chinese partner’s departure created.

And the 2020s beat up the downtown condo market. There’s no understating how hard the COVID-19 pandemic, a crime wave and the slow return to offices have been on the condo market. The developer of One Bennett Park, a tower across the river from the St. Regis, has its penthouse prices discounted by millions of dollars, the converted Tribune Tower has recently sold units at big mark-downs and numerous resale condos have sold at prices well below what they were valued at years earlier.

Even so, the struggles at the St. Regis stand out in part because of the scale, not to mention the prominence of the building.

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The recent bulk sale of dozens of condos is the latest turn in the decade-long saga of the St. Regis, a focal point of Chicago's skyline.

12/12/2024

The Bulls legend ultimately settled for less than one-third of his original asking price nearly 13 years after putting the home on the market.

The Bulls great, who first put the property on the market in February 2012, ultimately settled for less than one-third of his original $29 million asking price.

12/07/2024

Theft is wreaking havoc on Chicago businesses, but some see signs of hope. https://www.chicagobusiness.com/retail/retail-theft-chicago-shoplifting-robberies-increase-2024?utm_content=fed%3Aread&utm_medium=soc-own&utm_campaign=aware%3Aupr%3Apgv%3Aall%3Aalways&utm_source=Facebook =1733509247

12/06/2024

The four homes will go on a row of six long-empty lots near the Division Street nightlife hub.

12/04/2024

The owners and employees of Northwest Meat Company had a daily task that they dreaded for years: taking orders from their restaurant clients.

The orders would come in from dining spots throughout the city: Lonesome Rose in Logan Square and The Bellevue in the Gold Coast, as well as catering companies, pizza joints and taverns. An employee at one of those restaurants would place an order for their chicken breast or sirloin steak for the next day. Then someone — usually co-owner Andrew Neva (pictured), his father or one of their office employees — would plug those orders into their own system, one by one, to be filled by their West Loop warehouse.

It was tedious. It took hours. It required intimate knowledge of the meat company’s 1,300 different products. And it usually happened in the evening, when few employees are keen to sit back down at their computer.

Recently, however, Northwest Meat started using artificial intelligence to streamline that process. The technology, Choco AI, reads the restaurants’ orders — placed via email, voicemail or through an app — and spits out a concise sales order that Neva hands over to his warehouse workers. Neva still has to check each order to make sure the AI didn’t misinterpret anything. But it cut a task that took three hours down to less than 60 minutes.

“This is a no-brainer,” Neva said. “This is going to make (our) jobs easier.”

It's been two years since consumers became acquainted with generative artificial intelligence through the introduction of ChatGPT. Many laud its potential to boost productivity, and talk abounds about science-fiction solutions like AI-powered, burger-flipping robots.

But where theory is becoming practice — particularly among small, family-owned hospitality businesses — is right where Northwest Meat is deploying its AI tool: in the mundane, daily tasks that eat up increasingly expensive employees’ time.

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Northwest Meat is using an AI tool to help it take orders from its restaurant customers, ultimately cutting down on labor costs.

12/03/2024

Meet 81 business leaders who lend their professional skills and connections to champion nonprofit missions and enrich our communities.

12/01/2024

Here's a look at seven restaurant patios fit for a Chicago winter.

11/30/2024

A rare waterfront spec home is testing the luxury market on Lake Macatawa.