McHugh Construction announces the topping off of two rental towers this summer that will add 693 apartments next year to Chicago’s Fulton Market and Fulton River Districts, two of the fastest-growing submarkets in the city. The 28-story 225 N. Elizabeth for Chicago-based Sterling Bay topped out July 6, and the 33-story Cassidy on Canal at 350 N. Canal St. for Chicago-based The Habitat Company is scheduled to top out at the end of July.

“The Fulton Market area is bursting with new multifamily construction as so many young professionals seek to live near the top-tier restaurants, retail stores and corporations that have relocated recently in this vibrant neighborhood,” said Michael Meagher, president of McHugh Construction. “We’re proud to bring the vision of the city’s top developers and architects to fruition and to meet the desires of today’s renters. Both apartment buildings reflect the trend we’re seeing of lavish indoor and outdoor entertaining common areas, high-end relaxation rooms for destressing and coworking areas for days when residents work from home.”

225 N. Elizabeth – 225 N. Elizabeth St., Chicago

Located at the corner of Elizabeth and Fulton streets, the 28-story mixed-use tower in Fulton Market is being developed by Sterling Bay and Denver-based Ascentris. Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture designed the building to complement the industrial character of the neighborhood, calling for a glass façade accented with black metal panels. McHugh Construction is serving as general contractor, and McHugh Concrete is the concrete subcontractor.

“Some of the time and cost savings we employed at 225 N. Elizabeth included forming staircases with precast molds on site and lifting them into place,” said Terez Sturrup, McHugh project manager. “We also hired trusted subcontractors and suppliers that we’ve built relationships with over our decades of building multifamily projects in Chicago to help complete a successful project despite the lingering pandemic construction challenges facing our industry.”

The 304-foot-tall building will feature 350 residential units and approximately 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. The unit mix will include 67 studios, 207 one- and 76 two- and three-bedroom apartments. To meet Chicago’s 20% ARO requirement, 70 units will be designated as affordable up to 60% AMI.

Third-floor amenities will include a resident lounge and fitness center, a nearly 27,000-square-foot terrace with four exterior kitchens, fire pits, outdoor dining areas, a large pool and a dog run. The building’s parking garage will accommodate 95 vehicles and approximately 200 bicycles. Construction is scheduled to be completed in summer 2024.

225 N. Elizabeth isn’t the first project McHugh built for Sterling Bay. In 2018, McHugh and ECI Executive Construction Inc. completed the $250 million, nine-story McDonald’s Global Headquarters in Chicago’s West Loop for the developer.

“Repeat clients are crucial to the success of our business,” Meagher said. “We’re proud of our track record of building and maintaining a loyal base of developer clients, and it’s a direct testament to how hard our teams work.”

Cassidy on Canal – 350 N. Canal Street, Chicago

Located at 350 N. Canal St. in Chicago’s Fulton River District, Cassidy on Canal will be a 33-story, mixed-use 343-unit rental tower with first-floor retail space. It is being developed by Chicago-based The Habitat Company and Diversified Real Estate Capital, LLC, and was designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz.

In mid-July, construction of the floor-to-ceiling glass tower had nearly reached the top floor, with the facade being installed shortly after each concrete floor was poured by McHugh Concrete. In a nod to the site’s rich history, bricks from the former Cassidy Tire building were used as a baseline for selecting bricks for the new structure.

“As the project borders both Metra and Union Pacific train lines in a densely populated area, material delivery and storage has been timed down to the second so as not to interrupt any traffic or train operations,” said Kevin Herkert, McHugh project manager. “But tight site conditions like that are nothing new for us, so we simply drew on our extensive experience of building high-rises in busy downtown Chicago locations to keep the project moving forward efficiently.”

The 355-foot-tall tower will offer studios and one- and two-bedroom units, with private balconies in select residences. The fifth-floor amenity space will include a fitness center, game room, various club rooms, coworking center, spa with sauna, steam and whirlpool rooms, swimming pool with cabanas, a north and south sun deck, grilling areas, fire pits, cool weather heaters, and dining areas on each deck surrounded by richly landscaped grounds. The building’s garage will offer 123 parking spaces, a bike room and 185 additional bike parking spaces on the ground floor. First resident move-ins are anticipated for spring of 2024.

“We have a long history of working for Habitat that dates back to 1980, when we built the East Bank Club, the city’s premier health club at 500 N. Kingsbury St.,” Meagher said. “It’s an honor to still be working with Habitat more than 30 years later, and a bit nostalgic to have this project just around the corner from our very first building with them.”

In addition to Cassidy on Canal, Habitat selected McHugh and Bowa Construction to be its general contractors for several other major developments currently underway, including mixed-use projects 43 Green in Bronzeville and Ogden Commons in North Lawndale.

About McHugh Construction:

Specializing in multi-family residential, hotel and hospitality, and recreational facilities, McHugh Construction is a fourth-generation, privately owned company and one of the largest full-service construction firms in the United States. McHugh provides a platform for collaboration, transparency, and efficiency. Within that seamless approach, the firm offers a full range of core competencies and capabilities including general contracting, construction management, design-build, preconstruction services, program management, concrete construction and structural engineering services on behalf of every client on every project. McHugh’s unwavering commitment to its clients, its ability to deliver exceptional results on time and within budget, and its dedication to growing and developing its partnerships with subcontractors is the reputation the firm has built are the reasons behind its 80% repeat business. McHugh has transformed some of the most luxurious five-star hotels, including the Peninsula, Ritz-Carlton Chicago and Four Seasons; constructed record-setting high-rise buildings with NEMA Chicago, St. Regis Chicago and Aqua Tower; built recreational facilities at United Center and Indoor Track & Field Facility at Gately Park; and led the transformation of Navy Pier through its Centennial Vision renovation program. McHugh has also completed several projects around the country in locations including Nashville, St. Louis, Minneapolis, and South Florida. For more information on the company, visit www.mchughconstruction.com.