Mayor Rahm Emanuel Breaks Ground on Vista Tower Wednesday

The Vista Tower will stand 95 stories tall as Chicago's third-tallest building

Mayor Rahm Emanuel helped break ground on the Vista Tower Wednesday, kicking off construction on what will be the city’s third-tallest building.

The Vista Tower at 345 E. Wacker Dr. plans to house a 5-star hotel with approximately 200 hotel rooms, more than 400 luxury condominiums and 9,000-square feet of retail space, according to the mayor's office.

Many of the residences start at about $1 million, according to the sales office.

The three-pronged skyscraper will stretch up nearly 1,200 feet with 95 stories towering near Lake Michigan in the city's Lakeshore East neighborhood. The Willis Tower will still stand as the city's tallest, reaching 1,729 feet, followed by Trump International Hotel and Tower at 1,362 feet.

It will also be the tallest building in the world designed by a woman, the award-winning architect Jeanne Gang of Chicago's Studio Gang Architects. 

Renderings Show Plans for Vista Tower

The nearly billion-dollar project creates more than 2,000 construction jobs and 500 permanent jobs, city officials said.

At a cost of $900 million, the financing comes from Chicago-based Magellan Development Group and China's Wanda Group. It is China's largest-ever real estate investment in Chicago and one of the largest in the United States.

Planning for the tower began around 2000, city officials said, and construction is scheduled to be finished in 2020.

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