Walk down LaSalle Street on a Tuesday morning and you’ll see the ghosts of old-school finance everywhere. It's quiet. Maybe too quiet for a stretch of road once called the "Wall Street of the West." Right in the thick of it sits 115 S LaSalle Chicago, a massive, limestone-clad giant that basically tells the entire story of how American cities are breaking and rebuilding themselves in real-time. It’s not just a building. It is a 37-story litmus test for whether downtown Chicago can actually survive the 2020s.
If you haven't been keeping tabs on the deed, things got weird fast. For decades, this was the Harris Bank building. It was the definition of "prestige." Then, the pandemic hit, interest rates spiked, and the previous owners basically handed the keys back to the lender. Now? It’s the centerpiece of one of the most ambitious—and some say riskiest—urban experiments in the country. The city is trying to turn these hollowed-out office vaults into apartments.
The BMO Exit And The Great LaSalle Vacuum
The drama really started when BMO Harris decided they’d rather be in a shiny new glass tower next to Union Station. When they moved out of 115 S LaSalle Chicago, they left behind roughly 600,000 square feet of empty space. Imagine six Manhattan blocks worth of office desks just... sitting there.
It’s eerie.
When a "Class A" tenant leaves a "Class B" building in this economy, the value doesn't just dip. It craters. This property, along with its neighbor at 111 W Monroe, became the poster child for the "office apocalypse." You had millions of square feet of vacancy on a single block. Honestly, the math for a traditional office landlord just didn't work anymore. You can’t lower the rent enough to attract tech startups when your plumbing and HVAC were designed for 1970s bankers.
The LaSalle Street Reimagined Project
So, what do you do with a giant stone box that nobody wants to work in? You try to make them sleep there.
The city of Chicago, under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and continuing into the current administration, launched the "LaSalle Street Reimagined" initiative. The goal is to pour millions in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) dollars into these buildings to convert them into mixed-income housing. 115 S LaSalle Chicago is a titan in this plan. The proposal involves turning those upper floors into over 300 apartments.
But here is the catch.
Converting an office building isn't as simple as putting up some drywall and calling it a bedroom. These buildings have massive "floor plates." That means the distance from the windows to the elevator core is huge. If you carve it into apartments, you end up with "bowling alley" units—long, skinny rooms where the kitchen is in total darkness. Architects like the team at Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB) have to get creative, sometimes literally cutting holes in the middle of the building to create light wells. It is expensive. It is complicated. And frankly, it’s the only way to save the Loop from becoming a museum of the 20th century.
Why The State Of Illinois Jumped In
While the apartment talk was heating up, something else happened. The State of Illinois stepped in. Governor JB Pritzker announced that the state would purchase a massive chunk of 115 S LaSalle Chicago to consolidate state agencies.
They bought it for a fraction of what it would have cost to build new.
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Basically, the state realized they could save a fortune by moving workers out of the crumbling James R. Thompson Center (which is being turned into a Google headquarters) and into this LaSalle Street spot. It was a win-win, sorta. It guaranteed foot traffic for the local lunch spots—which have been dying since 2020—and it gave the building a "floor" in terms of valuation. You've now got this weird, fascinating hybrid: government bureaucrats on the lower floors and (eventually) luxury and affordable housing tenants up top.
The Reality Of Living In A Former Bank Vault
Let's talk about the vibe. If you move into 115 S LaSalle Chicago, you aren't living in a trendy West Loop loft with exposed brick and timber. You are living in a fortress.
The architecture is Neoclassical and Mid-Century Modern fusion. You’ve got the original 1910s structure blended with the 1970s expansion. It’s heavy. It’s serious. The amenities being pitched aren't just "a gym." We are talking about rooftop decks that look out over the canyon of LaSalle, nestled between the Federal Reserve and the Board of Trade.
It’s a different kind of urbanism. You’re trading a quiet residential street for the heart of the machine.
The Financial Risk Nobody Wants To Admit
Is this actually going to work? Some real estate experts, like those at Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) or Cushman & Wakefield, have pointed out that the "work-from-home" trend is sticky. Even if you build the apartments, do people want to live on a street that feels like a ghost town after 6:00 PM?
LaSalle Street currently lacks grocery stores. It lacks "third spaces" like casual parks or late-night bars. The city is betting that if they build the density at 115 S LaSalle Chicago, the retail will follow. It’s a classic "chicken and egg" problem. If the retail doesn't show up, the apartments won't stay full. If the apartments aren't full, the retail won't stay open.
What This Means For Your Wallet (And The City)
If you're a taxpayer in Chicago, you have skin in this game. The TIF funding for these projects is in the hundreds of millions. If 115 S LaSalle Chicago succeeds, it stabilizes the tax base for the whole city. These downtown buildings pay a massive portion of the property taxes that fund schools and parks. When their value drops 50%, your residential taxes usually go up to fill the gap.
So, even if you never plan on stepping foot inside the lobby, you should probably be rooting for this conversion to kill it.
The Architecture Of A Pivot
The building itself is a maze. The 115 South LaSalle portion is technically part of a complex that includes 111 West Monroe. When you walk through the lobby, you can feel the layers of history. There are marble finishes that you simply couldn't afford to install today. The craftsmanship is staggering.
One of the coolest parts of the conversion plan is how they handle the historic "Banking Hall." These are grand, soaring spaces that were meant to make you feel small so you’d trust the bank with your money. Converting these into communal spaces or high-end retail is the dream. Imagine grabbing a coffee in a room that looks like it belongs in a Batman movie.
A Look At The Numbers
- Total Square Footage: Over 1 million across the connected complex.
- Proposed Units: Roughly 330 for the 115 S LaSalle side.
- Affordability: The city requires 20% of the units to be "affordable" under the LaSalle Street Reimagined guidelines.
- Purchase Price: The state bought its portion for about $75 million—a steal compared to its previous peak value.
The Verdict On LaSalle's Future
The "Wall Street of the West" isn't coming back. Not the way it was. The days of thousands of bankers in Brooks Brothers suits swarming these sidewalks are over. But 115 S LaSalle Chicago represents the second act. It’s a pivot toward a 24/7 neighborhood rather than a 9-to-5 cubicle farm.
It’s messy, it’s expensive, and it’s being subsidized by your tax dollars. But honestly? The alternative—leaving these massive stone giants to rot in the middle of the Loop—is way worse. Chicago is betting that people will want to live where the money used to be made.
Actionable Next Steps
If you are a resident, an investor, or just someone who loves the city, here is how you can actually engage with the transformation of 115 S LaSalle Chicago:
- Monitor the TIF Portal: Check the City of Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development (DPD) website. They post the specific "term sheets" for these buildings. It’ll tell you exactly how many affordable units are being built and what the construction timeline looks like.
- Visit the Loop at Night: If you’re considering moving to the area, don't visit at noon. Go at 8:00 PM on a Thursday. See if the "vibe" is something you can handle. The LaSalle corridor is still very much in transition.
- Watch the Retail Openings: Keep an eye on the ground-floor permits. The success of this building won't be measured by the people living on the 30th floor, but by the businesses that open on the 1st floor. If a major grocer or a flagship restaurant signs a lease, that is your "buy" signal for the neighborhood.
- Track the Thompson Center: Because the state moved workers to 115 S LaSalle, the old Thompson Center is now a Google project. The synergy between Google’s new office and these new apartments will determine the property values for the next decade.
The transformation of the Loop is happening in blocks, not years. 115 S LaSalle is the first major domino. Whether it falls toward a vibrant new district or a cautionary tale of over-subsidized real estate remains to be seen, but the work has already begun.