Multifamily High-Rise Boom Draws Crowd

Magnificent MILA: Developer John Buck speaks at the Oct 2014 topping-out event for the new bKL-designed tower on Michigan Ave. Pepper Construction and McHugh are the builders. (Photo: REjournals.com) — **Magnificent MILA**: Developer John Buck speaks at the Oct 2014 topping-out event for the new **bKL**-designed tower on Michigan Ave. *Pepper Construction and McHugh are the builders. (Photo: REjournals.com)*

by JOHN GREGERSON | March 26, 2016

Downtown Chicago added 3,000 multifamily residential units last year, with another 5,000 due to come on line in 2016, alone. In all, no fewer than 29 multifamily high rises currently are under construction across the city. There are the 843-ft-tall One Bennett Park, a mix of rental and condominiums designed by NYC-based Robert A.M. Stern Architects, and the swanky, 41-story MILA apartment tower, the work of Chicago-based bKL Architecture, to name but two.

The towering pair will be among the many past, present, and future projects discussed this week at the Institutional Property Advisors' third annual Multifamily Forum Chicago. Sponsored by commercial real estate broker Marcus & Millichap, the all-day, April 6 event will feature some 40 speakers and draw more than 400 investors, owners, and developers, to the Mid-America Club, high atop the 80-story Aon Center.

In addition to networking, attendees will have the opportunity to tap into the latest trends, challenges and innovations shaping Chicago's unprecedented multifamily boom. They also will discover how leading Chicago developers are negotiating new regulations for affordable housing, and transit-oriented development. (For the agenda, click here.)

The event additionally will address larger issues that loom, with some of the city's leading developers debating whether current activity in Chicago will lead to a glut or whether — and where — there is room for additional growth. Also up for discussion: how the Midwest multifamily market stacks up against other multifamily markets nationwide.

Keynote Greenburger — **Keynote** Greenburger

In all, there will be 10 separate sessions that address a range of issues, from The Next Big Thing: Emerging Neighborhoods, which will identify opportunities in Chicago's South Loop, Motor Row and Milwaukee Row neighborhoods, to a panel discussion on Senior Housing and how aging demographics are reshaping market opportunities across the U.S. Of course, since many of today's urban Millennials will become tomorrow's middle-age suburbanites — completing the same circle their parents and earlier generations started — suburban multifamily strategies are also needed.

Keynotes include Christopher Kennedy, chair of Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises, which oversees the family's real estate interests in Chicago — including the mammoth Merchandise Mart — and Francis Greenburger, founder and chair of Time Equities Inc., which specializes in real estate investment, development, asset and property management. For all the speakers, click here.