The 80-year-old, prominent office tower was formerly known as the Steuben Club Building, named after a former tenant club of post-World-War-I German businessmen. Village Green bought the property out of bankruptcy in 2005, and plans to convert the tower into 310 apartment units.

Village Green was recommended for the TIF extension, the development selection and the funds because it promises to include 62 affordable-housing units, and also because the city is running out of time to save the structure, a city spokeswoman tells GlobeSt.com. "It's literally crumbling right in front of our eyes," she says.

Ken Barnes, an SVP with Village Green, says the project was ready to close in 2008, right before the capital markets collapsed. "It was always going to include a tax-exempt bond issue, but the bonds were enhanced by commercial banks. The lender stepped away," he says. "I spent the entire length of last year reassembling the capital, including this TIF extension." Part of the project is now funded from lending from the Illinois Department of Housing and Urban Development, which includes the requirement for the affordable housing.

The company is no stranger to Chicago, with about 8,000 rental units on the Near North Side. "We're running very high occupancy. What's great about the Randolph project is that the pipeline for rental housing has been shut off. There couldn't be a better time to build. There's five other projects that are going to be going this year, but they only include about 2,450 units total," Barnes tells GlobeSt.com. His company will start the renovation process in the summer if approval is given in May, and the building would be ready by summer 2012, he says.