The Chicago Spire is an uncompleted, now-defunct skyscraper project in Chicago, Illinois. After several years of on-going financing challenges, including the recession that began in 2008, construction was halted. Anglo Irish Bank Corp., filing a $77 million foreclosure lawsuit against The Spire's Irish developer Garrett Kelleher, claims that loans made to Kelleher’s development company, have been in default for a year. The bank was expected to take possession of the site where the Spire was to be built.
The building was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and was being developed by St Patrick's Athletic owner Garrett Kelleher of Shelbourne Development Group, Inc. At 2,000 feet (610 m) and with 150 floors, it would be among the world's tallest buildings and freestanding structures, and the tallest building in the United States and the Western Hemisphere. Originally proposed by Christopher T. Carley of the Fordham Company in 2005, the project was supported by many Chicagoans and city officials.
After several months of development in 2005, Carley failed to acquire necessary financing and the project was taken over by Garrett Kelleher of the Shelbourne Development Group in 2006. Since that time, three revisions were made to the design and the renamed project gained city approval. But following the start of the late-2000s recession, and its impact on the primary lender for the project, construction was suspended at the site. Amid several unsuccessful attempts with labor union investment funds to bail out the project, Shelbourne Development continued its attempt to secure additional financing and restart construction and insisted that the project is not dead.
By the end of 2010 legal actions by Anglo Irish Bank caused the courts to hand control of the site to a receiver, leaving the project dead.
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