McHugh Construction’s take on building NEMA Chicago

Multi-Housing News – To streamline financing, marketing and construction, most apartment developers establish their amenity spaces well before ground is broken. But some are challenging this norm by refusing to define those spaces in advance, preferring instead to wait until the last possible moment to determine uses that coincide with current demands.

Take the James McHugh Construction Co., which started work in December 2016 on the 76-story NEMA Chicago, the city’s tallest rental tower. It “white boxed” a portion of the building’s 48th floor amenity space, leaving it raw without interior walls or finishes. The space was tentatively earmarked for a yoga studio, but just in time for residents who were forced to work from home, it was built out as six executive boardrooms as McHugh finished the building last year.

“Tastes and trends can change dramatically between groundbreaking and first move-ins,” warns David Steffenhagen, senior project manager for McHugh Construction. “For super tall projects, which can take three to four years to complete, it makes sense that more developers are pushing the envelope on just how long they can wait before making a decision.”

Read the full article about McHugh Construction completing NEMA Chicago.