Chicago's First Geothermal High-Rise Lands $102M Construction Loan

Construction is underway in Fulton Market on a 33-story apartment tower that will be Chicago’s first high-rise to run entirely on electricity, heated and cooled by a field of geothermal wells drilled beneath the site. Tree Street Group, Magellan Development Group and Mark Goodman & Associates closed a $102 million construction loan for the project at 410 N. Elizabeth Street, with Bank OZK as senior lender and Beach Point Capital and Circle Property Partners supplying junior capital.

Why it matters

For developers in the Chicago market, this is a live test of whether geothermal heating and cooling can pencil out at high-rise scale, not just in low-rise or suburban product. The capital stack, a bank construction loan layered with two distinct junior capital sources, shows lenders will underwrite the technology once a sponsor brings a track record and a credible mechanical design. For builders, a 65-well geothermal field is a different scope and schedule than a conventional mechanical room: drilling happens before and alongside the structural work, not after it.

The numbers

Phase 1 totals 383 units, 77 of them designated affordable. The full build-out, a second tower on the same site, is planned at 724 units. Beneath the site, 65 geothermal wells drilled to about 850 feet each will feed the building’s heating, cooling and hot water systems. Tree Street Group principal Ted Weldon said: “We’re also using significantly less electricity to heat and cool our building than we would have otherwise done.” The developers estimate the system will avoid about 390 tons of carbon emissions a year compared with a conventional system.

What’s next

Vertical construction has started, with the developers targeting completion in March 2028. Phase 2, the project’s second tower, is planned to begin roughly a year after Phase 1 tops out.

Also reported by Multifamily Executive, which confirmed the financing close.