Sterling Bay to sell Fulton Market site for 109-unit mid-rise
The developer that made Fulton Market an office hub is now selling land to a residential builder.
Sterling Bay, the developer that turned Chicago’s Fulton Market from a meatpacking district into an office and headquarters magnet, is now selling a parcel there to Range Group, which has filed to build a 109-unit residential mid-rise. The handoff is a small deal with a large signal: the neighborhood’s next chapter is housing, and the firm that built its office era is taking chips off the table.
Why it matters
Fulton Market rode a decade of office and life-science demand that has since cooled. A land sale from the district’s defining office developer to a residential builder is a read on where value is migrating. For developers, it marks the point in a submarket’s cycle when the entitlement pattern flips from workplace to living space, and when early movers on residential zoning capture the ground floor. That Sterling Bay is a seller here, rather than a builder, is itself the market intelligence.
The numbers
The site at 1133 West Kinzie Street spans 27,714 square feet. Range Group’s proposed five-story building carries 109 units, with 15 percent set aside as affordable on site and a fee in lieu proposed for the remaining 5 percent to satisfy Chicago’s 20 percent affordability requirement. A zoning application is in; terms of the land sale were not disclosed, and no completion timeline has been set.
What’s next
The zoning request is the milestone to watch, since it will test how the city treats a residential conversion of prime commercial land. If it clears, expect more Fulton Market parcels to trade toward housing, extending the Chicago repricing we have followed from The 78’s $287M TIF to the downtown office and multifamily workouts. For developers, an undisclosed price on a Sterling Bay exit is a data point worth pressing on when the next Fulton Market listing lands.