Weekly digestChicagoWeek of May 18, 2026

Chicago building permits — week of May 18, 2026

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.

701

PERMITS FILED

$187.9M

DECLARED VALUE

+6%

VS PRIOR WEEK

431

PERMIT – EXPRESS PERMIT PROGRAM

Top permits this week

251 E HURON ST

$40,000,000

PERMIT - RENOVATION/ALTERATION

Northwestern Memorial is converting two floors of the Galter Pavilion into an ICU, a $40M buildout that ranks as the week's biggest permit by a wide margin.

Contractor: BARIN, ARTURO ·

705 W CHICAGO AVE

$21,879,000

PERMIT - ELEVATOR EQUIPMENT

Bally's Chicago casino is installing two eight-floor passenger elevators for $21.9M — a sign the long-stalled riverfront casino is moving toward operational readiness.

Contractor: BALLYS CHICAGO OPERATING CO, LLC ·

111 S MICHIGAN AVE

$21,000,000

PERMIT - RENOVATION/ALTERATION

The Art Institute's Rice Building gets a $21M gut renovation to house the new Grainger Center for Conservation and Science, a major institutional upgrade on Michigan Avenue.

Contractor: YOUNG, CHARLES G ·