Chicago permits — week of 2026-05-18

Northwestern Memorial is spending $40 million to convert two floors of the Galter Pavilion into an ICU — the single largest permit filed in Chicago this week and a signal that the city's medical corridor is still in aggressive expansion mode. Bally's Casino is meanwhile dropping nearly $22 million just on elevator equipment at its Chicago Avenue site, a small but telling indicator of how far along that long-delayed project has come. With 701 permits filed and $187.9 million in declared value, the week skews heavily toward institutional and healthcare capital rather than the residential pipeline.