Construction stopped on 74-story South Michigan tower

The developers of the 1000 M skyscraper, a 74-story Michigan Ave. condominium has stopped the construction of the Helmut Jahn-designed structure. The developers say that construction is halted to prevent spread of the COVID-19. The developers said in a statement quoted by Crain’s Chicago Business and The Chicago Tribune say, “When the COVID-19 situation arose, we had workers underground, working shoulder to shoulder, making it effectively impossible to maintain proper social distancing.”

They added, “We consulted with our experts and we all felt the safest route was to temporarily halt construction on-site to ensure worker safety.” The developers are Time Equities, JK Equities, and Oak Capitals. They said on June 4 that the work on the $470 million project is stopped since the first phase of foundation work was completed.

It’s unclear when the work had stopped or when work will resume on the project. Skyscraper Forum website commentators have suggested that COVID-19 may have halted the work, but the main reason for the halting is the pandemic’s economic impact, rather than worker safety.

Other projects kept on going in Chicago. However, civil disturbances caused temporary stoppages, but overall contractors managed to keep the work going. They observed the safe distancing, staggered work shifts, temperature checks, and other measures.

According to the developers, off-site work continues, such as “signing subcontracts, procuring and testing the curtain wall, processing our building permits and finalizing construction documents, among other items — which allow the project to generally stay on track.” They added, “We will resume work on-site when we feel the situation has fully stabilized.”