CHICAGO—Three years after it began the design process and about two years after the start of construction, Ryan Cos. US, Inc., along with its development partner Lincoln Property Co., has completed Aurélien a $100 million luxury apartment tower in the Gold Coast and the company's first major development in the City of Chicago.

The opening is a part of the city's luxury apartment boom, which will result in thousands of new units opening between now and the end of 2018, mainly in and near downtown. But the performance so far of this 31-story, 368-unit tower located at the southeast corner of Clark and Chestnut streets shows that demand exists to absorb the new supply. The first residents have started moving in and the property is already nearly 50 % leased.

“We had worried about a possible slowdown in the spring,” Tim Hennelly, president of Ryan's Great Lakes region, tells GlobeSt.com, considering how many units were hitting the market this year. But the pre-leasing period was quite busy for the Aurélien. “Fifty percent leased right out of the box is better than we had planned for,” and right now, new tenants are taking roughly 20 to 25 units per month. “That says a lot about the excitement over the building in the neighborhood.”

Hennelly says the location is one of the building's top attractions. “We're close enough to Old Town and the Gold Coast, but we're not on a street that is crazily busy like State St.,” he says.

Another factor has been the tower's “old school” design.

“What we didn't want to do is go with an all-glass tower,” Hennelly says. The neighborhood is anchored by the historic Newberry Library, he points out, and the developers felt it was important to complement that turn-of-the century structure. The Aurélien, therefore, has a traditional look at street level, with buff-colored granite cladding and large storefront window bays that wrap most of the building's east, west, and south facades.

But Ryan also made sure to incorporate Chicago's Miesian tradition into the north end of the building through an all-glass massing. The glass wraps horizontally over the top of the building where it meets an outdoor amenity terrace, 300 feet above the street. “It's quite dramatic and commands a great view of the lake and the Gold Coast,” Hennelly says.

“What was once a surface parking lot with a bank drive-thru is now a thriving extension of the city,” adds Mike Ryan, president of Ryan A+E, the design architect. “At the same time, the project is bookended by a historic bank building and row house so the variety of architecture and sense of fitting in is very apparent.”

The company has turned the operation of Aurélien over to Lincoln Property which now handles the leasing and management of the property.

In addition to Ryan and Lincoln Property, other prominent development team members include Daiwa House of Texas, primary equity investor; US Bank, construction financing; Antunovich Associates, architect of record; Studio K, interior designer; and TGRWA, structural engineer.

Aurélien includes 78 studios and convertibles, 209 one-bedroom units, 75 two-bedroom units and 6 penthouse apartments. Unit sizes, except for the penthouses, range from 564 square feet to 1,245 square feet. Penthouse units range from 1,165 square feet to 3,3,39 square feet.

Hennelly says the location is one of the building's top attractions. “We're close enough to Old Town and the Gold Coast, but we're not on a street that is crazily busy like State St.,” he says.

Another factor has been the tower's “old school” design.

The company has turned the operation of Aurélien over to Lincoln Property which now handles the leasing and management of the property.

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Demand for Luxury Apartments Still Strong

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