380 Units Up, Skender Digs In on Chicago's West Loop

Fengate Asset Management and Mavrek Development broke ground September 9, 2026 on Julep West Loop, a 25-story mixed-use residential tower in Chicago's West Loop neighborhood. Skender is serving as general contractor.

The tower will bring 380 residential units to the neighborhood, including 76 affordable units. It will also add more than 21,500 square feet of commercial space anchored by an international grocery store.

Nobody puts up 25 stories and forgets the milk run. The ground floor commercial space is built around a full grocery anchor, not a coffee kiosk with a marketing budget.

Amenities lean toward the "never leave the building" playbook. Residents get a rooftop pool with cabanas, a fitness center, a pickleball court, a half-court basketball court, dog run and grooming facilities, resident lounges, 24-hour concierge service, bike storage, and EV charging stations.

The project is expected to generate approximately 740,000 union construction labor hours. That works out to $69 million in income for Chicago's union construction workforce between 2026 and 2028.

Construction is expected to take approximately 21 months, with first occupancy anticipated in early 2028.

The financing carries a notable first. Joseph Mancinelli, chair of the LiUNA Pension Fund of Central and Eastern Canada (LPFCEC), called this the fund's first investment in a U.S. real estate development. That commitment is anchoring Fengate's broader Social Opportunities strategy, which is funding the project.

"This project is about more than building homes, it is about investing in people and community, creating meaningful work for our members and building the foundation for where they live and work," Mancinelli said.

Anthony Hrusovsky, Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Mavrek Development, said the West Loop has become one of Chicago's most in-demand neighborhoods. He also credited Affinius Capital alongside Fengate as a partner on the deal, saying the team is "honored to support the continued growth of the area by delivering much-needed housing anchored by one of the world's most reputable grocers."

The project will also target National Green Building Standard (NGBS) certification. Green roofs, stormwater reuse systems, and EV-ready infrastructure are built into the scope.

A 21-month schedule on a 25-story tower is a tight but fairly standard window for a project of this scale. That pace usually means the GC is already moving fast on structure and enclosure trades, though the release doesn't confirm current buyout status either way.

The LPFCEC piece is the more interesting signal. This marks the fund's first investment in a U.S. real estate development, and it's arriving through a labor partnership on a union-built project rather than a straight capital play. If that pairing performs the way Fengate and LPFCEC are betting it will, it's a model other labor-aligned pension capital will likely study for their own U.S. entries.

The grocery anchor also says something about how this deal was underwritten. Grocery-anchored ground floors tend to de-risk mixed-use projects in dense urban markets by locking in daily foot traffic before a single unit leases up. Pairing that anchor with 76 affordable units, in a supply-starved neighborhood like this one, is the kind of mix that tends to move faster through city approvals.

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