The Chicago Post Office

 There had been so much talk about the renovation that I had to go look for myself. But before we peek, for those of you who are not familiar with this enormous building, let me give you some background.

"The old Chicago post office was originally completed in 1921, but underwent a monumental expansion in 1932 to meet Chicago's unprecedented postal needs. The meteoric rise of the mail-order industry, spearheaded by the Chicago-based Montgomery Ward and Sears catalogs, transformed the city into the distribution center of the nation nearly overnight. In its postal heyday, the property was the largest of its kind in the world, capable of shuttling an astonishing 19 million pieces of mail daily." 

The building is nine stories tall located in the heart of downtwon Chicago. It covers  more than 60 acres (24 ha), or 2.5 million square feet (230,000 m²), of floorspace.

 

     (Photo Source) 

"In 1966 the Main Chicago Post Office came to a halt when a logjam of 10 million pieces of mail clogged the system for nearly a week. With Chicago rated worst in postal deliveries, a new Main Post Office to be located right across Harrison Street was proposed. In 1997, the old building was vacated in favor of the new, modernized facility. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

(Photo Source)

"A February 2006 report by the General Accounting Office stated that it cost the government $2 million a year to maintain the retired building.On June 9, 2009, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that the postal service was placing the post office on the auction block. Held on August 27 and conducted by Rick Levin & Associates Inc., the auction raised $40 million, which was well over the opening bid of $300,000. The buyer was reported to be English real estate developer Bill Davies. While Davies missed an October 10, 2009 deadline to close the deal, he finally acquired the building on October 21, 2009, paying about $17 million."

Once the building was bought there were steps being taken to renovate. I am not going to go into the steps and the process but just so you know the process was long and costly.

"The Old Post Office just completed an $800 million renovation, the largest historic redevelopment in the country. The property boasts over 2.5 M square feet of stunning multi use office and event space, and is poised to be once again become the central hub of Chicago's business community."

There are plans to bring in more tenants into the building (right now there are tons of empty space) and create a 3.5-acre urban rooftop oasis—the largest of its kind in the city—and a food hall.

For now here is a peek at the first floor/entrance renovated area.

(source)

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