LaSalle Street Conversions Pick Up Speed: First Apartments Near Completion in 2026

What is happening on LaSalle Street

The LaSalle Street initiative, often called LaSalle Reimagined, is the city's effort to convert vacant and underused office buildings in the heart of the Loop into apartments, with a portion set aside as affordable housing. The financial corridor around LaSalle Street had some of downtown's highest office vacancy, and the program pairs city assistance with private developers to refill those buildings with residents instead of tenants who are not coming back.

As of 2026, the program has moved from announcements into actual construction. Reporting from Bisnow, Chicago YIMBY, and Urbanize Chicago shows multiple buildings either under construction, breaking ground, or approaching their first deliveries this year.

The numbers behind the program

According to coverage of the initiative, the selected projects represent more than 900 million dollars in total investment, roughly 1,765 residential units, and about 2 million square feet of space. As of January 2026, more than 315 million dollars in Tax Increment Financing had been approved by City Council to support the conversions, with a requirement that a significant share of units be affordable to households earning around 60 percent of area median income.

These figures come from secondary reporting rather than a single official page, so treat the totals as the best available public estimates rather than final audited numbers. The direction, however, is clear: hundreds of millions in public assistance are now committed, and the unit counts are firming up as individual buildings advance.

Which buildings are actually moving

Several specific conversions are now underway or near completion. At 79 West Monroe, the Rector Building, developers broke ground on a 117-unit conversion that reporting says is set to wrap up in the spring or early summer of 2026, making it one of the first to deliver. At 30 North LaSalle Street, partial funding was approved to convert floors three through 18, roughly 432,000 square feet, into about 349 units, with around 105 set aside as affordable.

More are in the pipeline. Construction was expected to begin in spring 2026 on the conversion of 19 South LaSalle, and the historic Field Building at 135 South LaSalle was reported heading for conversion with construction starting in early 2026 and first units delivering in 2027.

• 79 W. Monroe (Rector Building): 117 units, targeted to complete in spring or early summer 2026.
• 30 N. LaSalle: about 349 units across floors 3 through 18, with roughly 105 affordable, partial funding approved.
• 19 S. LaSalle: construction expected to begin spring 2026.
• 135 S. LaSalle (Field Building): conversion underway with first units reported for 2027.

Why this is harder than it looks

Office-to-residential conversion is expensive and technically difficult. Older office floor plates can be too deep for apartments that need light and air, plumbing and elevators have to be reworked, and the math often does not pencil without public assistance. That is why the TIF support matters, and why the early projects moved slowly before reaching construction.

The significance of 2026 is that the program crossed from theory into delivery. Once the first converted apartments lease up and the next buildings break ground, the corridor has a chance to shift from a daytime-only office district into a neighborhood with residents, foot traffic, and ground-floor demand in the evenings and on weekends.

What it means for downtown owners

Here is the practical read for owners of condos, apartments, and small commercial property in and around the Loop. More residents downtown is generally good for residential value. A LaSalle corridor that adds roughly 1,765 homes over time supports demand for nearby restaurants, retail, and services, and it chips away at the office-vacancy overhang that has weighed on the central business district's image.

The honest caution is timing and supply. These conversions also add hundreds of rental units to the downtown market in a short window, which can soften rents in specific submarkets as buildings deliver. Owners of nearby rentals should watch lease-up at the first conversions as a signal for where downtown pricing is heading.

If you own a downtown condo or a Loop-area building and want a grounded read on what the LaSalle conversions mean for your value and timing, our investor-led team helps owners think that through, with no pressure to act.